General | 11/4/2021 1:06:00 PM

ITTA BENA, Miss. – Mississippi Valley State University athletics and the campus community mourns the loss of its most decorated men's basketball coach, Lafayette Stribling who passed away on October 30th at the age of 87.

Stribling is the winningest men's basketball coach in the school's history, with a 315-307 record and three NCAA tournament appearances. One of the most memorable NCAA tournament appearances under Stribling came against the Duke Blue Devils in 1986 when the team led the top-ranked perennial basketball powerhouse by three points at halftime. MVSU ultimately fell to the Blue Devils 85-78 in the first round. The Delta Devils also lost to Ohio State in 1992 and Georgetown in 1996 in their other tournament appearances under Stribling.

Stribling was an inductee of the Mississippi Coaches' Hall of Fame in 1989, 2006 SWAC Hall of Fame inductee, and a 2010 inductee into the MVSU Athletic Hall of Fame. He was named SWAC Coach of the Year in 1992.

The Delta Devils men's basketball team will host the Tougaloo College Bulldogs on Friday evening at 7 p.m. in the fifth annual Lafayette Stribling Classic. After leading MVSU to unrivaled success, he took over the reigns at the NAIA school and turned them into a force, making three National Tournaments in seven seasons while engineering a magical run to the Sweet Sixteen with only seven players (The Super 7) in 2011.

The life of Coach Stribling will be celebrated on Saturday, November 6th at 11:00 am at the Tougaloo College Kroger Gymnasium on the campus of Tougaloo College. The body will be available for public viewing beginning at the Kroger Gym at 9:00 am Saturday morning.

In lieu of flowers and gifts, we ask that memorials be made to the Tougaloo College Athletic Department Fund in Memoriam of Coach Lafayette Stribling at the following link: https://igfn.us/f/31dx/n or to the MS Valley State University Men's Basketball Designated Fund in memory of Coach Lafayette Stribling at the following link: https://bit.ly/3w8b0A0.

The Mississippi Valley State athletics department sends its condolences to the Stribling family in these trying times.