Hall of Fame
A native of Wood River, Ill., Roger Counsil of Indiana State enters the Missouri Valley Conference Hall of Fame as an Institutional Great selection, and is also the fi rst men’s gymnastics coach to be selected for the league’s Hall of Fame.
The Institutional Great distinction recognizes coaches, student-athletes and administrators who represented a current league school, when their institution was not a member of the Missouri Valley Conference.
Counsil was one of the most successful men’s gymnastics coaches in the United States and headed the United States Gymnastics Federation, now known as USA Gymnastics.
In his 17 years of coaching at Indiana State, his teams produced 46 All-Americans and a national championship in 1977, when he was also named the National Coach of the Year.
Counsil coached the likes of Kurt Thomas, a four time All-American who twice earned berths on the U.S. Olympic team, and Dave Seal, another Indiana State Athletics Hall of Fame inductee.
He was named the U.S. Olympic Team coach for the 1980 Olympic Games at Moscow, which were boycotted by the United States, and also held several other prestigious positions during his coaching tenure.
Counsil was also the chairman of the NCAA Gymnastics Committee, the men’s coach for the United States team at 1978 World Games, the host coach for the 1975 NCAA National Championships in Terre Haute and the executive director of the U.S. Gymnastics Federation. He was also inducted into the third class of the Indiana Gymnastics Hall of Fame in July of 2014.
A stand-out athlete at Southern Illinois University, he excelled in track, swimming and gymnastics. Counsil was the NAIA one-meter diving champion in 1957 – the same year he was named the “Most Valuable Athlete” at SIU.