Warren Wayne Whitlinger (April 4, 1914 – April 30, 2012) was an American professional basketball player.^[1][2] He played in the National Basketball League for the Akron Firestone Non-Skids during the 1937–38 season and averaged 4.5 points per game.^[1][3] As a senior at Ohio State in 1935–36, Whitlinger led the Big Ten Conference in scoring and was named to the All-Big Ten team.^[2] He also earned his Master of Business Administration (MBA) from Ohio State, graduating in 1940, and then accepted a job to work for Kimberly-Clark Corporation.^[4]

In the early 1960s Whitlinger became involved with tennis.^[4] It became his new passion and he got into coaching, where he ended up training three different national champions within his own family – his son John and his twin granddaughters Tami and Teri.^[4] All three went on to have professional tennis careers, and John served as Stanford's men's tennis head coach from 2005 to 2014.^[4]

The Whitlingers were recognized as the Wisconsin and Midwest Tennis Family of the Year in 1986 and the USTA National Tennis Family of the Year in 1987.^[4] Warren was inducted into the Fox Valley Tennis Association Hall of Fame in 1999.^[4]