Harry Lancaster (February 14, 1911 - February 5, 1985) was an American college sports coach and administrator. He was an assistant men's basketball coach at

Kentucky Kentucky ( , ), officially the Commonwealth of Kentucky, is a state in the Southeastern region of the United States and one of the states of the Upper South. It borders Illinois, Indiana, and Ohio to the north; West Virginia and Virginia to ...

for more than 20 seasons under

Adolph Rupp Adolph Frederick Rupp (September 2, 1901 – December 10, 1977) was an American college basketball coach. He is ranked seventh in total victories by a men's NCAA Division I college coach, winning 876 games in 41 years of coaching at the Univ ...

. He was also

's head baseball coach in 1947 and from 1951 to 1965. Lancaster attended Georgetown College in Kentucky, where he played basketball and baseball. In addition to coaching, Lancaster worked as an instructor and administrator. He was a physical education professor at Kentucky from 1941 to 1975 and Kentucky's

athletic director An athletic director (commonly "athletics director" or "AD") is an administrator at many American clubs or institutions, such as colleges and universities, as well as in larger high schools and middle schools, who oversees the work of coaches and ...

from 1969 to 1975. Lancaster died on February 5, 1985, at age 73. He had

liver cancer Liver cancer (also known as hepatic cancer, primary hepatic cancer, or primary hepatic malignancy) is cancer that starts in the liver. Liver cancer can be primary (starts in liver) or secondary (meaning cancer which has spread from elsewhere to th ...

and

diabetes Diabetes, also known as diabetes mellitus, is a group of metabolic disorders characterized by a high blood sugar level ( hyperglycemia) over a prolonged period of time. Symptoms often include frequent urination, increased thirst and increased ap ...

Coaching career

Basketball

Lancaster was an assistant to Adolph Rupp for 22 years, hired to replace

Paul McBrayer Paul S. McBrayer (October 12, 1909 – January 1, 1999) was an American college men's basketball coach and player. He was a player from 1927 to 1930 at the University of Kentucky and the head coach at Eastern Kentucky University from 1946 to 196 ...

when McBrayer took the head coaching job at

Eastern Kentucky Eastern may refer to: Transportation *China Eastern Airlines, a current Chinese airline based in Shanghai * Eastern Air, former name of Zambia Skyways * Eastern Air Lines, a defunct American airline that operated from 1926 to 1991 * Eastern Air ...

. He was at Rupp's side for UK's first four NCAA Championships (1948, 1949, 1951, 1958) and "Rupp's Runts" of 1966, that finished NCAA Runner-Up.

Baseball

Lancaster served as

's head baseball coach for 16 seasons over two stints (1947, 1951–1965). He had an overall record of 163-164-1. Through 1958, the Wildcats had only one winning season under Lancaster, when they went 8-7 in 1952. From 1959 to 1965, however, the team did not finish below .500 and won more than 15 games four times. It finished as high as second in the SEC East, in 1961. From 1962 to 1964, future

Major League Baseball Major League Baseball (MLB) is a professional baseball organization and the oldest major professional sports league in the world. MLB is composed of 30 total teams, divided equally between the National League (NL) and the American League (AL), ...

player

Cotton Nash Charles Francis "Cotton" Nash (born July 24, 1942) is an American former Major League Baseball (MLB) outfielder and National Basketball Association (NBA) forward. Basketball career Born in Jersey City, New Jersey, Nash played collegiately for A ...

played at Kentucky under Lancaster. Lancaster's final season, 1965, was the first year of the Major League Baseball Draft. The

Houston Astros The Houston Astros are an American professional baseball team based in Houston, Texas. The Astros compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the American League (AL) West division, having moved to the division in 2013 after ...

selected Kentucky's James Monin in the 3rd round.

Legacy

The Lancaster Aquatic Center at the University of Kentucky, the home of the Wildcat's swimming and diving teams, is named for Lancaster.

Head coaching record

Below is a table of Lancaster's yearly records as a collegiate head baseball coach.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Lancaster, Harry 1911 births 1985 deaths American men's basketball players Basketball coaches from Kentucky Basketball players from Kentucky Georgetown Tigers baseball players Georgetown Tigers men's basketball players Kentucky Wildcats athletic directors Kentucky Wildcats baseball coaches Kentucky Wildcats men's basketball coaches