Marty Simmons New EIU Men's Basketball Coach

Eastern Illinois Athletic Director Tom Michael has announced that Marty Simmons has been hired as the Panthers men’s basketball coach. 

(MARTY SIMMONS)

A press conference to formally introduce Simmons will be held on Thursday afternoon at First Mid Court at Lantz Arena and will be streamed on Facebook Live. Due to COVID-19 protocols, the press conference is not open to the public, but fans are invited to watch the Facebook Live Stream.

Simmons has previously served as the head coach at his alma mater Evansville, SIUE and Wartburg (Iowa). At Evansville he won 184 games leading the Purple Aces to five postseason appearances including the 2015 CIT Championship. He won 20 or more games three times including 25 during the 2015-16 season when Evansville finished tied for second in the Missouri Valley Conference. At SIUE he won 88 games in five seasons twice guiding SIUE to the NCAA Division II Tournament. He coached one season at Wartburg.

Simmons is currently on the coaching staff at Clemson where the Tigers played in this year’s NCAA Tournament. He becomes the fourth head coach in the Panthers NCAA Division I history and the 15th overall head coach since EIU began playing basketball in 1908. 

Simmons is a native of Lawrenceville, Illinois, where as a prep player he helped lead his team to two straight Illinois State Basketball Championships and was named one of the 100 Legends of IHSA Basketball in 2006. He was Illinois Mr. Basketball in 1983. 

Simmons' Lawrenceville teams took on the Effingham Hearts in some of the most memorable battles at the old Charleston Holiday Tournament. Lantz Arena (then Lantz Gym) was packed for the battles involving Simmons, the Novseks and the Leightys for the Indians and Mitch Arnold, Uwe Blab and the Hearts.