day, Hutcherson Air Service continues to provide travel for the women's road games. Ironically, the strong support of Claude Hutcherson created problems for the school. Wayland considered dropping the team because the scholarships threatened their accreditation. In 1961, the Wayland board of trustees voted unanimously to eliminate women's basketball. The school had difficulty funding the academic programs. The accrediting organization, the Southern Association of Colleges, was not interested in AAU championships. No plans were made to eliminate the men's scholarships, only the women's scholarships. The local citizens did not accept the decision. Local businessmen, under the leadership of Claude Hutcherson, raised money to privately fund scholarships for a year. The trustees voted to reverse their position. The team was coached from 1955 to 1956 through 1972–1973 by Harley Redin. Redin served in the Marine Air Corp in WWII, logging 50 combat missions over the South Pacific. After the war, he became the athletic director of Wayland Baptist, and the coach of the men's basketball team. The men's teams were very successful, making the NAIA postseason tournament three separate years. However, he became the coach of the women's team in 1955, and was even more successful—in 1954, under Coach Caddo Matthews, they began a winning streak that would stretch to 131 games, including four consecutive AAU national championships. The winning streak would eclipse a prior winning streak of 102 games, held by Hanes Hosiery, which ended in 1954. For 18 years under the coaching leadership of Redin, the team won 431 games against only 66 losses. The team won six national AAU championships, and finished second six other times. Redin went on to coach the USA Women's Pan American Team in 1959 and 1971. He was inducted into the inaugural class of the Women's Basketball Hall of Fame in 1999. In 2018, the Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame presented Coach Redin the Bunn Lifetime Achievement award. Outside of enshrinement, this award is the most prestigious presented by the Hall of Fame. Wayland Baptist teams from 1946 to 1982 were later announced to receive enshrinement on April 6, 2019. Notable alumni Matt Brown, a football and track and field coach at Idalou High School, who is a gold and bronze winner in the Parapan American Games. He lost his left leg was amputated above the knee in an industrial accident in 2005. Michael E. Fortney, U.S. Air Force Major General Barry Loudermilk,