From the fields of Noxapater, Miss., to the shores of Athens, Greece, Van Chancellor has become a giant in the game of basketball.

On April 1, at the Vicksburg Convention Center, Chancellor will be inducted into the Mississippi Sports Hall of Fame. The banquet is scheduled to begin at 6:30 p.m.

And one person who Chancellor will readily thank for his enshrinement, is fellow Hall of Fame coach Bert Jenkins of Gulfport.

“Bert Jenkins probably had the most influence on my coaching career,” Chancellor said Wednesday from his home in Houston, where he is the head coach and general manager of the Houston Comets of the WNBA.

“Back a few years ago. I went down to see my son, Johnny, who was coaching at Pascagoula. I saw where they were finally going to induct Bert Jenkins into the Mississippi Sports Hall of Fame. I told Johnny, ‘Lordy, Bert’s 69, and he’s finally going in.’ And Johnny looks at me, ‘Well dad, if they wait until you’re 69, I guess I’m going to have to make the presentation speech, because you’ll be dead and gone.'”

Not quite.

At age 61, Chancellor joins the elite group of Mississippi sporting greats. It also caps quite a year for Chancellor, who in August directed the U.S. Women’s national team to the gold medal at the Olympic Games in Athens.

“It’s about time,” said Peggy Gillom, one of Chancellor’s all-time great players at Ole Miss. “I’m so excited that he is getting this chance to go into the Mississippi Hall of Fame.

“He knows basketball for sure. But even while he was making his ascent, he kept being himself,” Gillom said.