Dienzel Dennis - 1998 Athlete

While on the Anderson University campus as an outstanding athlete, Dienzel Dennis was like a fast-moving train in all of his activities. Interestingly, today he is one of America's most respected leaders in the unique area of model train collecting as an officer of Lionel Collectors Club of America.

But, foremost, Dennis is respected as an educator, churchman, civic leader, athletic force, coach, traveler and energetic proponent of varied programs for young people.

At Anderson University, Dennis was All-Conference three times in both football and basketball, where he earned four letters each. In football, he started every game of his career and was an All-American nominee and most recently named to the All-Decade team from the 1960s.

Dennis lost only five football games in four years and punctuated his career by scoring three touchdowns and two extra points in his final game. He was an officer of the "A" Club and represented Anderson University at a Colorado meeting of the National Fellowship of Christian Athletes.

He was also captain of the basketball team and winner of the Hustle Award. When he graduated, Dennis was listed as the seventh career leading scorer with 1,094 points and is still No. 27 on the list.

Dennis took his skills as one of Anderson University's all-around athletes to the secondary field to coach basketball for 32 years (474-266 in 28 years on the high school level and 96-31 in college) and football for five years (33-17). He was named Eastern Kentucky Conference and Foothills Conference Coach of the Year while his teams won 13 conference basketball titles in Kentucky and six more in Florida.

He also coached gymnastics for 15 years at Morehead State University and served as Athletic Director and coach for eight years at Warner Christian Academy before moving to Daytona Beach Community College.

Winner of many awards and other honors, a national leader in drivers education programming, participant in intramural sports, Dennis is a leader in his church as Sunday School teacher, choir member and Promise Keepers.

Anderson University is proud to name Dienzel Dennis among its second class of inductees to the Athletic Hall of Fame.