http://www.courierpress.com/news/2009/jul/23/wedeking-remembered-fondly/
Harrison High School teammate Bob Winchell put it simply: Vaughn Wedeking was the best all-around athlete he ever saw.

While Winchell went on to win the Big Ten shot put title four consecutive years for Indiana University's track and field team, Wedeking was the starting point guard on Jacksonville University's men's basketball team that finished second in the 1970 NCAA Tournament.

"There is nothing he couldn't do," Winchell said.

Wedeking, who was inducted into the Indiana Basketball Hall of Fame on March 25 in Indianapolis, died in his sleep on July 10 at age 60.

As a senior at Harrison in 1967, Wedeking led the state of Indiana with a 90.9 free-throw percentage and won the 440-yard dash at the state track meet. He also played for the Evansville team that won the Pony League World Series baseball championship in 1964.

"He led the team in steals," Winchell said. "Nobody could throw him out."

"He was my baby brother," said Wedeking's sister, Colleen Dubber. "I'll miss him terribly."

In 2005, Wedeking had to sell his dental practice in Portland, Ore., because he had contracted fronto-temporal dementia.

Dayle Wedeking, Vaughn's wife, accepted the Indiana Basketball Hall of Fame honor on his behalf. He was unable to make the trip because of his illness.

At Jacksonville, Wedeking gained Little All-America honors (for players under 6 feet) and was enshrined in JU's Athletics Hall of Fame in 1996.

"To me, great athletes are different," Winchell said. "That have a tenacity that is almost obsessive-compulsive."

There will be a Celebration of Life ceremony for Wedeking at 3 p.m. CDT on July 31 in Cheatham Hall at the World Forestry Center in Portland.

Locally, there will be a Celebration of Life ceremony from 1 to 4 p.m. on Oct. 24 at the Wright Administration Building, in Forum No. 2, at the University of Southern Indiana.

"Vaughn was that one person that everyone was drawn to, not only because of his athletic ability, but because of his great personality and intellect," said Harrison classmate Jon Siau, who is currently an art teacher and girls' golf coach at North. "We will all miss him."

Siau heard the story of Seattle resident Mike Rosen, who was visiting his mother in Portland at the same facility where Wedeking was recently being cared for.

"He saw this man, who he later learned was Vaughn, sitting completely helplessly, with an Indiana basketball in his hand," Siau said.

"At the dinner table, he was slowly turning the ball that he clutched."