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

gridiron football Gridiron football,"Gridiron football"
''Encyclopædia Britannica''. Ret ...

player and basketball coach. Hartman played basketball and

football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kicking a ball to score a goal. Unqualified, the word ''football'' normally means the form of football that is the most popular where the word is used. Sports commonly c ...

collegiately at Oklahoma State University with his basketball tutelage under famed coach Henry Iba. After college, he played quarterback in the CFL before becoming a basketball coach. After leading the Coffeyville (Kansas) 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, replacing the successful Harry Gallatin, who had taken the head coaching job with the St. Louis Hawks. In 1967, passing up 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 at Kansas State when Cotton Fitzsimmons left to coach in the

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

. Hartman spent 16 seasons as head coach at

Kansas State University Kansas State University (KSU, Kansas State, or K-State) is a public land-grant research university with its main campus in Manhattan, Kansas, United States. It was opened as the state's land-grant college in 1863 and was the first public instit ...

, 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 football. It was formed in January 1907 as the Missouri Valley Intercollegiate Athletic Associatio ...

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 took over as head coach at Kansas State. Hartman is credited for introducing a unique two-tone uniform for Kansas State to wear during away games – lavender tops and purple shorts, which the Wildcats used from 1973–1982. During that stretch, KSU 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 1996, when Kansas State fired its women's coach for NCAA violations, Hartman came out of retirement to coach the team for its last seven games, winning three. Coach Hartman was inducted into the Southern Illinois University Hall of Fame in 1986, Kansas State University Hall of Fame in 1990, State of Kansas Sports Hall of Fame in 1990, and National Junior College Hall of Fame in 1991. Hartman died in 1998. He has a street near Bramlage Coliseum named "Jack Hartman Drive" after him. His wife, Pat, lived in Manhattan, Kansas until her death in 2020. His daughter, Jackie, also lives in Manhattan and served as the Chief of Staff for the President of Kansas State University.Jackie Hartman Bio
/ref> Kruger Hartman

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 American players of Canadian football 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