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)."](_blank)
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
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 ...
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
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 ...
(1949–51), Owens honed his coaching skills as head coach at
Cameron State Junior College in
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 ...
. 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.](_blank)
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
See also
*
List of NCAA Division I Men's Final Four appearances by coach
This is a list of the NCAA Division I men's basketball tournament regional championships by coach. The current names of the NCAA tournament regions are the East, Midwest, South, and West. The winners of the four regions are awarded an NCAA Regiona ...
References
External links
Kansas Basketball CoachesVoices of Oklahoma interview.First person interview conducted on May 12, 2016, with Ted Owens.
{{DEFAULTSORT:Owens, Ted
1929 births
Living people
American expatriate basketball people in Israel
American men's basketball coaches
American men's basketball players
Basketball coaches from Oklahoma
Basketball players from Oklahoma
Cameron Aggies men's basketball coaches
College men's basketball head coaches in the United States
Kansas Jayhawks men's basketball coaches
Maccabi Tel Aviv B.C. coaches
Oklahoma Sooners men's basketball players
Oral Roberts Golden Eagles men's basketball coaches
People from Hollis, Oklahoma
People from Lawrence, Kansas
People from Tulsa, Oklahoma