Ted Owens (basketball)

Ted Owens is an American college basketball coach. He was the coach of the University of Kansas men's basketball team from 1964 to 1983. He is the fourth-winningest coach in Jayhawks basketball history.

Owens' overall Kansas record was 348–182 (.657), and his Big Eight Conference record was 170–96 (.639). In Owens' tenure at KU, he won six Big Eight Conference 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 in the finals of the National Invitation Tournament. 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, Darnell Valentine, Dave Robisch, Bud Stallworth and Walt Wesley. He was fired following the 1982–83 season after the Jayhawks posted back-to-back losing seasons. 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 at the University of Oklahoma (1949–51), Owens honed his coaching skills as head coach at Cameron State Junior College in Lawton, Oklahoma. In four seasons his teams never won fewer than 20 games and three times advanced to the NJCAA Men's Division I Basketball Championship 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 in 1960, and was promoted to head coach when Harp resigned following the 1963–64 season.

Owens had a brief stint of coaching in Israel with Maccabi Tel Aviv at the 1989–90 season, in which he was sacked in February 1990.

Owens was inducted into the Oklahoma Sports Hall of Fame on August 3, 2009.

Head coaching record

Season	Team	Overall	Conference	Standing	Postseason
Kansas Jayhawks (Big Eight) (1964–1983)
1964–65	Kansas	17–8	9–5	2nd
1965–66	Kansas	23–4	13–1	1st	NCAA Elite Eight
1966–67	Kansas	23–4	13–1	1st	NCAA 2nd Round/Midwest 3rd Place
1967–68	Kansas	22–8	10–4	2nd	NIT Final
1968–69	Kansas	20–7	9–5	T-2nd	NIT First Round
1969–70	Kansas	17–9	8–6	2nd
1970–71	Kansas	27–3	14–0	1st	NCAA Final Four
1971–72	Kansas	11–15	7–7	T-4th
1972–73	Kansas	8–18	4–10	T-6th
1973–74	Kansas	23–7	13–1	1st	NCAA Final Four
1974–75	Kansas	19–8	11–3	1st	NCAA First Round
1975–76	Kansas	13–13	6–8	T-4th
1976–77	Kansas	18–10	8–6	4th
1977–78	Kansas	24–5	13–1	1st	NCAA First Round
1978–79	Kansas	18–11	8–6	T-2nd
1979–80	Kansas	15–14	7–7	T-4th
1980–81	Kansas	24–8	9–5	T-2nd	NCAA Sweet Sixteen
1981–82	Kansas	13–14	4–10	7th
1982–83	Kansas	13–16	4–10	T-6th
Kansas:		348–182	170–96
Oral Roberts Golden Eagles (Midwestern City) (1985–1987)
1985–86	Oral Roberts	10–19	5–7	5th
1986–87	Oral Roberts	11–17	5–7	T-5th
Oral Roberts:		21–36	10–14
Total:		369–218
National champion         Postseason invitational champion         Conference regular season champion         Conference regular season and conference tournament champion       Division regular season champion       Division regular season and conference tournament champion       Conference tournament champion

Coaching tree

Ted Owens' coaching tree.

• John Calipari, University of Kentucky
• Bob Hill, Seattle SuperSonics

See also

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

External links

• Kansas Basketball Coaches