Rodney Douglas Martin (March 11, 1936 – December 14, 2014) was an American college basketball coach. He coached at three South Dakota schools: the

University of South Dakota The University of South Dakota (USD) is a public research university in Vermillion, South Dakota. Established by the Dakota Territory legislature in 1862, 27 years before the establishment of the state of South Dakota, USD is the flagship univ ...

Mount Marty College Mount Marty University is a private Benedictine university in Yankton, South Dakota. Athletics The Mount Marty athletic teams are called the Lancers. The university is a member of the National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics (NAIA), pr ...

and

Dakota Wesleyan University Dakota Wesleyan University (DWU) is a private Methodist university in Mitchell, South Dakota. It was founded in 1885 and is affiliated with the United Methodist Church. The student body averages slightly fewer than 800 students. The campus of the ...

and is a member of the South Dakota Sports Hall of Fame. Martin was born in

Sparta, Wisconsin Sparta is a city in and the county seat of Monroe County, Wisconsin, United States, along the La Crosse River. The population was 10,025 at the 2020 census. History Sparta is located on former Ho-Chunk territory acquired by the United States i ...

, and grew up in nearby La Crosse where he played basketball at Logan High School and at the

University of Wisconsin-La Crosse A university () is an institution of higher (or tertiary) education and research which awards academic degrees in several academic disciplines. Universities typically offer both undergraduate and postgraduate programs. In the United States, the ...

. After spending several years as a high school coach in Wisconsin, he became an assistant at

South Dakota South Dakota (; Sioux language, Sioux: , ) is a U.S. state in the West North Central states, North Central region of the United States. It is also part of the Great Plains. South Dakota is named after the Lakota people, Lakota and Dakota peo ...

(USD) in 1974. This job prepared him to become the head coach at Mount Marty College for four seasons, before returning to USD as head coach in 1982. His record was 52–115 over six seasons. He left USD to begin a long affiliation with Dakota Wesleyan University (DWU). He was head coach from 1988 to 2005, compiling a record of 251–257 and winning four conference titles. He also served as athletic director at DWU from 1990 to 1999. Martin died on December 14, 2014, in La Crosse.

References

External links

South Dakota Sports Hall of Fame profile
1936 births 2014 deaths People from Sparta, Wisconsin American men's basketball coaches Basketball players from La Crosse, Wisconsin College men's basketball head coaches in the United States Dakota Wesleyan Tigers athletic directors Dakota Wesleyan Tigers men's basketball coaches High school basketball coaches in the United States Logan High School (La Crosse, Wisconsin) alumni South Dakota Coyotes men's basketball coaches Wisconsin–La Crosse Eagles men's basketball players American men's basketball players Basketball coaches from Wisconsin {{1930s-US-basketball-bio-stub