Coaches

Neil Alexander

Year Inducted: 2004

Category: Coaches

Schools / Organizations:

(Joy) Westmer High School, (Monmouth) Yorkwood High School, Bushnell-Prairie City High School, Lincoln (IL) High School, Monmouth College, Nokomis High School

Biography:

Neil Alexander was still going strong in 2026 in a 49-year coaching career where his1,000+ career victories ranked first among active boys’ coaches and third all-time in Illinois. He is best known for his success at Lincoln (IL) High School, where the floor in Roy S. Anderson Gymnasium is named “Coach Neil Alexander Court.” He became the head coach at Lincoln in 1990 and has a record of 844-273 with five 30-win seasons, twenty-on 20-win seasons, nineteen IHSA  Regional titles, 5 IHSA Sectional titles, a second-place finish in IHSA Class 3A in 2014 and IHSA Class AA Elite Eight appearances in 1999, 2005 and 2007. The 2014 team won a school-record 34 games and the 2020 team was 32-2 and headed to a sectional final when the season was canceled because of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Neil was honored with the prestigious IBCA Chuck Rolinski Lifetime Achievement Award in 2020. He served as IBCA president from 2017-19 and also served on many committees for several years. He received IBCA District 18 Coach of the Year honors 21 times, received the A-E-O Meyer-Hartke Award in 2017 and was a finalist for National Coach of the Year in 2017. He also taught science and coached football, baseball and girls’ track at Lincoln before he retired from teaching in 2017.

Neil played four sports during his entire high school career at Nokomis and played four years of basketball and one year of baseball and football at Monmouth College, where he was inducted into its Hall of Fame in 1998. He started his coaching and teaching career with one year at Joy-Westmer, where he ran the football and basketball programs, before going to Monmouth Yorkwood for two years as head basketball coach and assistant football coach. From there he went to Bushnell-Prairie City as a basketball, baseball and football assistant. After one year at B-PC he was promoted to head basketball coach and compiled a record of 139-125 with 2 regional titles in 11 seasons.