Birthdate: May 1, 1941
Birthplace: Marysville, Ohio
High School: Marysville High School
College: Muskingum University (1963)
Year Inducted: 2007

Jim Burson attended Muskingum College and graduated in 1963 to become the school’s head basketball coach for 38 years. Burson is known in Muskingum basketball history as all-time winningest coach with a total of 542 victories. In addition to his coaching position at Muskingum, Burson coached at the Olympic Sports Festival in Los Angeles in 1988 and helped select the 1984 gold-medal Olympic Basketball Team.

Burson was awarded the Outstanding Service Award by the National Association of Basketball Coaches in 2006. It is an award given annually to coaches whose actions of coaching have distinguished them as valuable members of their communities. Also, Burson was named the Ohio Athletic Conference Coach of the Year five times throughout his career and named the NCAA District IV Coach of the Year in 1977.

Burson’s teams have won three OAC regular season titles and three OAC Tournament championships. Muskingum College also went to the NCAA tournament five times. Burson was ranked seventh among all active coaches in the NCAA Division III during his time at Muskingum. Jim Burson is a past president of the NABC and has served on its Board of Directors since 1995. He is the author of The Golden Whistle, Going Beyond: The Journey to Coaching Success and The Daily Nugget: Motivations for Basketball Coaches and Everyone Who Loves the Game. He is the founder of Solutions-Based Basketball.