Ted Owens (basketball) facts for kids

Ted Owens, born on July 16, 1929, is a famous American former college basketball coach. He was born in Hollis, Oklahoma. He is most known for coaching the University of Kansas men's basketball team from 1964 to 1983. He is the fourth coach with the most wins in the history of Jayhawks basketball.

Ted Owens' Early Career

Owens went to college at the University of Oklahoma (OU). He played basketball there for three years under coach Bruce Drake. He earned his bachelor's degree in 1951.

In 1956, he started coaching both baseball and basketball at Cameron Junior College in Lawton, Oklahoma. He stayed there until 1960. His baseball team won a national championship for junior colleges in 1958. His basketball team had a great record of 93 wins and only 24 losses. They also played in three national tournaments for junior colleges.

After his success at Cameron, Owens became an assistant coach at the University of Kansas in 1960. He worked under coach Dick Harp. When Harp left in 1964, Ted Owens became the head coach of the Kansas Jayhawks.

Coaching the Kansas Jayhawks

Ted Owens coached the Kansas Jayhawks for many years, from 1964 to 1983. During his time, the team won 348 games and lost 182. This means they won about 65.7% of their games. In the Big Eight Conference, they won 170 games and lost 96.

Owens led the Jayhawks to win six Big Eight Conference titles. His teams also made it to the NCAA tournament seven times. Two of his teams, in 1971 and 1974, reached the Final Four. In 1968, his team played in the finals of the National Invitation Tournament but lost to Dayton.

Ted Owens was recognized for his great coaching. He was named the Big Eight Conference Coach of the Year five times. In 1978, Basketball Weekly named him the National Coach of the Year. He coached five players who became All-Americans. These famous players were Jo Jo White, Darnell Valentine, Dave Robisch, Bud Stallworth, and Walt Wesley.

Owens was the only coach in the program's history to be fired. This happened after the 1982–83 season because the team had two losing seasons in a row. Since then, Kansas has not had a losing season. They have only missed the NCAA tournament once, which was in 1988–89.

Other Coaching Adventures

After leaving Kansas, Ted Owens coached at Oral Roberts University from 1985 to 1987. He then coached in Israel for Maccabi Tel Aviv B.C. during the 1989–90 season.

Later, he became the development director and basketball coach at Metro Christian Academy, a high school in Tulsa, Oklahoma. He coached there for five years. His teams won the district championship every year and went to the state tournament three times. After that, he worked as an athletic director at St. Leo University in Florida for four years.

Ted Owens has been honored for his contributions to sports. He was inducted into the Oklahoma Sports Hall of Fame on August 3, 2009. He was also inducted into the Kansas Hall of Fame in the same year.

Life After Coaching

After leaving St. Leo University, Ted Owens worked as an investment adviser for ten years. He then retired but decided to keep living in Tulsa.

Even in retirement, he still loves basketball. On September 24, 2011, he returned to Lawrence, Kansas, to coach in a special game called "Legends of the Phog." He coached against Larry Brown, and various former Kansas players played in the exhibition game. This event happened during the 2011 NBA lockout.

See also

• List of NCAA Division I Men's Final Four appearances by coach