Hall of Fame
Samuels served as EIU’s head men’s basketball coach for 25 years (1981-2005), the last nine as a member of the OVC. He helped the team make the transition from Division II to Division I and later from the Mid-Continent Conference to the OVC. At the end of his career he was the second-longest tenured active coach nationally. He finished his career with 360 victories, which is the most in program history.
Samuels led the program to a pair of NCAA Tournament appearances (1992, 2001). The 2001 appearance followed a dramatic ending to the OVC Tournament Championship, as the Panthers topped Austin Peay 84-83 to its only OVC Tournament crown to date.
During his OVC tenure, he coached 12 All-OVC selections including 2002 OVC Player of the Year Henry Domercant. Domercant finished his career with 2,602 points, the most in OVC history. The 2000-01 EIU team featured Domercant and Kyle Hill, who each ranked in the top five nationally in scoring. Hill would late become one of three NBA Draft Picks that Samuels coached (along with Kevin Duckworth and Jon Collins).
Samuels teams consistently ranked among the top in academic performance in the league and also performed countless hours of community service in the Charleston/Mattoon community. Samuels, who was inducted into the EIU Hall of Fame in 2014, is currently an active part of the EIU 6th Man Group that helps raise funds for EIU men’s basketball. Samuels, a native of Laramie, Wyoming, attended Mid-Plains Community College and later Chadron State College (he was inducted into the CSC Hall of Fame in 2005).