physician, basketball coach, b. Leeds, England. He migrated to the U.S. with his parents in 1887, settling in Rochester, N.Y. He was active in sports while attending high school in Rochester, and graduated from the Univ. of Maryland (M.D., 1909) and the Univ. of Wisconsin (D.P.H., 1915). In 1911 Meanwell came to the Univ. of Wisconsin as director of the gymnasium and wrestling coach, and in the same year also took over the duties of the basketball coach. Although he never played college basketball himself, Meanwell utilized a fermi of the game while working with slum children in Baltimore. At Wisconsin he developed and improved this system, stressing ball control, defense, short passes, blocks, and short two-handed shots taken only when the team was not in danger of losing ball control. Although Meanwell's type of basketball was far from the high-scoring, fast-breaking style of play, it was a radical innovation at the time and under his tutelage yielded excellent results. Meanwell was basketball coach at the university (1911-1917), served as a captain in the Army Medical Corps during World War I, and after leaving the army coached basketball at Missouri Univ. (1919-1920). Returning to the Univ. of Wisconsin in 1920, Meanwell was again basketball coach from 1920 until his retirement in 1934. During his years at Wisconsin his teams won 4 undisputed Big Ten titles, 4 title ties, and compiled an overall record of 256 wins against 99 losses. From 1934 to 1936 Meanwell was athletic director of the university, and after 1936 practiced medicine in Madison. Known to his players and friends as "the Little Doctor," Meanwell was the second Univ. of Wisconsin coach to be elected to the Wisconsin Athletic Hall of Fame. He wrote or collaborated on several books dealing with medicine and basketball. Madison Capital Times, Dec. 2, 1953; Information supplied by Dept. of Phys. Educ., Univ. of Wis.Learn More
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[Source: Dictionary of Wisconsin biography]
