Jack Hartman (October 7, 1925 – November 6, 1998) was an

American football American football, referred to simply as football in the United States and Canada and also known as gridiron football, is a team sport played by two teams of eleven players on a rectangular American football field, field with goalposts at e ...

player and

college basketball College basketball is basketball that is played by teams of Student athlete, student-athletes at universities and colleges. In the Higher education in the United States, United States, colleges and universities are governed by collegiate athle ...

coach.

Early life and education

Hartman played

and

football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kick (football), kicking a football (ball), ball to score a goal (sports), goal. Unqualified, football (word), the word ''football'' generally means the form of football t ...

Oklahoma State University Oklahoma State University (informally Oklahoma State or OSU) is a public land-grant research university in Stillwater, Oklahoma, United States. The university was established in 1890 under the legislation of the Morrill Act. Originally known ...

with his basketball tutelage under famed coach Henry Iba.

Career

After college, he played

quarterback The quarterback (QB) is a position in gridiron football who are members of the offensive side of the ball and mostly line up directly behind the Lineman (football), offensive line. In modern American football, the quarterback is usually consider ...

in the CFL before becoming a basketball coach. After leading the Coffeyville Junior College basketball team to the NJCAA National Championship with a 32–0 season in 1962, he took his high-octane offense to

Southern Illinois University Southern Illinois University is a system of public universities in the southern region of the U.S. state of Illinois. Its headquarters is in Carbondale, Illinois. Board of trustees The university is governed by the nine member SIU Board of T ...

, replacing Harry Gallatin, who left to take the head coaching job with the

St. Louis Hawks The Atlanta Hawks are an American professional basketball team based in Atlanta. The Hawks compete in the National Basketball Association (NBA) as a member of the Southeast Division of the Eastern Conference. The team plays its home games at S ...

. In 1967, missing out on the NCAA Division II tournament after two successive second-place finishes, Hartman's Salukis won the NIT Championship, which was much more highly regarded then than it is today. He led Southern Illinois University into Division I before taking over as head coach at

Kansas State University Kansas State University (KSU, Kansas State, or K-State) is a public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university with its main campus in Manhattan, Kansas, United States. It was opened as the state's land-grant coll ...

when Cotton Fitzsimmons left to coach in the

NBA The National Basketball Association (NBA) is a professional basketball league in North America composed of 30 teams (29 in the United States and 1 in Canada). The NBA is one of the major professional sports leagues in the United States and Ca ...

. Hartman spent 16 seasons as head coach at Kansas State, where he won 294 games and finished in first or second place in the

Big Eight Conference The Big Eight Conference was a National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA)-affiliated Division I-A college athletic association that sponsored American football, football. It was formed in January 1907 as the Missouri Valley Intercollegiate ...

in 10 of those 16 seasons. After his retirement, he worked local television color commentary for Kansas State games, and his former player and assistant coach

Lon Kruger Lonnie Duane Kruger (born August 19, 1952) is an American former college and professional basketball coach (sport), coach who was most recently the men's basketball head coach of the University of Oklahoma. Kruger played college basketball for K ...

took over as head coach at Kansas State. Hartman is credited with introducing a different two-tone uniform, including lavender tops and purple shorts, for Kansas State to wear during its away games, which the Wildcats used from 1973 to 1982. During that stretch, Kansas State posted a record of 186–81 (.697), appeared in five NCAA Tournaments, and won the 1977 and 1980 Big Eight postseason tournaments. Lavender jerseys have since been associated with success at Kansas State, and the school has brought back lavender jerseys on certain occasions as a throwback uniform. In 1983, he led the United States men's national team, which included

Michael Jordan Michael Jeffrey Jordan (born February 17, 1963), also known by his initials MJ, is an American businessman and former professional basketball player, who is currently a minority owner of the Charlotte Hornets of the National Basketball Ass ...

and

Chris Mullin Christopher Paul Mullin (born July 30, 1963) is an American former professional basketball player, executive and coach. He is a five time NBA All-Star and four time All-NBA Team member. He is also two-time Olympic Gold medalist and a two-time ...

, to gold medal at the 1983 Pan American Games in Caracas, Venezuela. In 1996, when Kansas State fired its women's coach for

NCAA The National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) is a nonprofit organization that regulates College athletics in the United States, student athletics among about 1,100 schools in the United States, and Simon Fraser University, 1 in Canada. ...

violations, Hartman came out of retirement to coach the team for its last seven games, winning three. Hartman was inducted into the Southern Illinois University Hall of Fame in 1986, the Kansas State University Hall of Fame in 1990, the Kansas State Sports Hall of Fame in 1990, and the National Junior College Hall of Fame in 1991. Hartman died in 1998. A street near Bramlage Coliseum, Jack Hartman Drive, was named in his honor. His wife, Pat, lived in

Manhattan, Kansas Manhattan is a city in and the county seat of Riley County, Kansas, United States, although the city extends into Pottawatomie County, Kansas, Pottawatomie County. It is located in northeastern Kansas at the junction of the Kansas River and Big ...

, until her death in 2020. His daughter, Jackie, lives in Manhattan and served as the chief of staff for the president of

.Jackie Hartman Bio
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Head coaching record

Men's college basketball

*1976–77 record reflects one win by forfeit over Minnesota.

Women's college basketball

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Hartman, Jack 1925 births 1998 deaths American men's basketball players American women's basketball coaches American football quarterbacks Players of Canadian football from Oklahoma Basketball coaches from Oklahoma Basketball players from Oklahoma Canadian football quarterbacks College men's basketball head coaches in the United States Junior college men's basketball coaches in the United States Kansas State Wildcats men's basketball coaches Kansas State Wildcats women's basketball coaches Oklahoma State Cowboys basketball players Oklahoma State Cowboys football players People from Dewey, Oklahoma Players of American football from Oklahoma Saskatchewan Roughriders players Southern Illinois Salukis men's basketball coaches United States men's national basketball team coaches 20th-century American sportsmen