Ted Owens (born July 16, 1929) is an American former

college basketball In United States colleges, top-tier basketball is governed by collegiate athletic bodies including National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA), the National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics (NAIA), the United States Collegiate Athleti ...

coach, who was born in Hollis, Oklahoma.Coaches Database. "Ted Owens (born July 16, 1929)."
Accessed June 26, 2019. He is best-known as the

coach Coach may refer to: Guidance/instruction * Coach (sport), a director of athletes' training and activities * Coaching, the practice of guiding an individual through a process ** Acting coach, a teacher who trains performers Transportation * Co ...

of the

University of Kansas The University of Kansas (KU) is a public research university with its main campus in Lawrence, Kansas, United States, and several satellite campuses, research and educational centers, medical centers, and classes across the state of Kansas. Tw ...

men's basketball team from 1964 to 1983. He is the fourth-winningest coach in Jayhawks basketball history.

Player and early coaching experience

Owens attended college at the

University of Oklahoma The University of Oklahoma (OU) is a Public university, public research university in Norman, Oklahoma. Founded in 1890, it had existed in Oklahoma Territory near Indian Territory for 17 years before the two Territories became the state of Oklahom ...

(OU), where he was a three-year letterman under head coach Bruce Drake. He graduated with a BA degree in 1951. In 1956, he was hired to coach both baseball and basketball at

Cameron Junior College Cameron University is a public university in Lawton, Oklahoma. It offers more than 50 degrees through both undergraduate and graduate programs. The degree programs emphasize the liberal arts, science and technology, and graduate and professional ...

(

Lawton, Oklahoma Lawton is a city in and the county seat of Comanche County, in the U.S. state of Oklahoma Oklahoma (; Choctaw language, Choctaw: ; chr, ᎣᎧᎳᎰᎹ, ''Okalahoma'' ) is a U.S. state, state in the South Central United States, South Ce ...

), where he remained until 1960. His baseball team won the National JC Championship in 1958. The basketball team had a 93–24 record during his four years and appeared in three NJCAA Tournaments. Owens' overall Kansas record was 348–182 (.657), and his

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 ...

record was 170–96 (.639). In Owens' tenure at KU, he won six

titles and advanced to the NCAA tournament seven times. His 1971 and 1974 teams made it to the Final Four, and in 1968 the Jayhawks lost to

Dayton Dayton () is the sixth-largest city in the U.S. state of Ohio and the county seat of Montgomery County. A small part of the city extends into Greene County. The 2020 U.S. census estimate put the city population at 137,644, while Greater Da ...

in the finals of the

National Invitation Tournament The National Invitational Tournament (NIT) is a men's college basketball tournament operated by the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA). Played at regional sites and traditionally at Madison Square Garden (Final Four) in New York City ...

. Owens was named Big Eight Conference Coach of the Year five times and was Named National Coach of the Year in 1978 by ''Basketball Weekly''. He coached five All-Americans:

Jo Jo White Joseph Henry White (November 16, 1946 – January 16, 2018) was an American professional basketball player. As an amateur, he played basketball at the University of Kansas, where he was named a second-team All-American twice. White was part o ...

Darnell Valentine Darnell Terrell Valentine (born February 3, 1959) is an American former professional basketball player who played ten seasons in the National Basketball Association (NBA). Early life Valentine was born in Chicago, Illinois and graduated from Wic ...

Dave Robisch David George Robisch (born December 22, 1949) is a retired American professional basketball player in the ABA and NBA. Robisch played at the University of Kansas, where he was initiated into the Sigma Nu fraternity. He was positioned at center ...

Bud Stallworth Isaac "Bud" Stallworth (born January 18, 1950) is a retired American basketball player. He was a 6'5" (1.96 m) and 190 lb (86 kg) shooting guard and played college basketball at the University of Kansas (KU) where he was named 1972 All- ...

and

Walt Wesley Walter Wesley (born January 25, 1945) is an American former professional basketball player. Early life Wesley grew up in Fort Myers, Florida, the son of Leroy and Josie Wesley. He attended Dunbar High School in Fort Myers. College career The to ...

. He was fired following the 1982–83 season after the Jayhawks posted back-to-back losing seasons. He is the only coach in the program's history to be fired. Kansas has not suffered a losing season since, and has only missed the NCAA tournament once since then, in 1988–89 when the program was on probation for recruiting violations committed by Owens' successor, Larry Brown. A three-year

letterman Letterman may refer to: * Letterman (sports), a classification of high school or college athlete in the United States People * David Letterman (born 1947), American television talk show host ** ''Late Night with David Letterman'', talk show that ...

at the

(1949–51), Owens honed his coaching skills as head coach at Cameron State Junior College in

. In four seasons his teams never won fewer than 20 games and three times advanced to the

NJCAA Men's Division I Basketball Championship NJCAA Men's Division I Basketball Championships is held annually in March at the Hutchinson Sports Arena in Hutchinson, KS. The first official NJCAA National Championship was in 1948 in Springfield, MO at the Southwest State College Fieldhouse. The ...

semifinals. At Cameron, he amassed a 93–24 record and boasted four junior college All-Americans. Owens then accepted an assistant's position under

Dick Harp Richard F. Harp (March 28, 1918 – March 18, 2000) was an American college basketball coach who spent the majority of his career at the University of Kansas. He became the Kansas Jayhawks' fourth men's basketball coach in 1956. He coached for e ...

in 1960, and was promoted to head coach when Harp resigned following the 1963–64 season.

Other coaching activities

Owens had a brief stint of coaching at

Oral Roberts University Oral Roberts University (ORU) is a private evangelical university in Tulsa, Oklahoma. Founded in 1963, the university is named after its founder, evangelist Oral Roberts. Sitting on a campus, ORU offers over 70 undergraduate degree programs ...

(1985–87), and then in

Israel Israel (; he, יִשְׂרָאֵל, ; ar, إِسْرَائِيل, ), officially the State of Israel ( he, מְדִינַת יִשְׂרָאֵל, label=none, translit=Medīnat Yīsrāʾēl; ), is a country in Western Asia. It is situated ...

with Maccabi Tel Aviv during the 1989–90 season, before being fired in February 1990. He then went on to be the development director and basketball coach at Metro Christian Academy (high school) in

Tulsa, Oklahoma Tulsa () is the second-largest city in the state of Oklahoma and 47th-most populous city in the United States. The population was 413,066 as of the 2020 census. It is the principal municipality of the Tulsa Metropolitan Area, a region with ...

for five years where his teams won the district championship five times, and went to the state tournament three times. Subsequently, he moved on to be athletic director at

St. Leo University Saint Leo University is a private Roman Catholic liberal arts university in St. Leo, Florida. It was established in 1889. The university is associated with the Holy Name Monastery, a Benedictine convent, and Saint Leo Abbey, a Benedictine monaste ...

in Florida for four years. Owens was inducted into the

Oklahoma Sports Hall of Fame The Jim Thorpe Association is a civic and charity organization based in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma. Its parent corporation is the Jim Thorpe Athletic Club. It is named in memory of multi-sport legend Jim Thorpe. Jim Thorpe Award The organization has ...

on August 3, 2009. He was inducted into the Kansas Hall of Fame in the same year.

Retirement

After leaving St. Leo, a friend invited him to return to Tulsa and work as an investment adviser for First Capital Management, where he spent the next ten years. After retiring from this position, he decided to continue living in Tulsa in retirement.Cherry, Don. "All roads kept coach Ted Owens coming back to Tulsa." ''Tulsa World''. March 16, 2017.
Accessed June 26, 2019. He returned to Lawrence to coach on September 24, 2011, for the "Legends of the Phog" exhibition match, opposite Larry Brown, in which various Kansas alumni played an exhibition game during the 2011 NBA lockout.

Head coaching record

References

External links