Description
At the Hang-Up is the inspirational story of Ted Owens, the coach with the most wins in the history of Allen Fieldhouse, from growing up as a boy on a cotton farm in Oklahoma during the Great Depression to coaching at the highest levels of the college basketball world. At the age of 5, Owens made his first basketball goal. It was at that moment that basketball became his first love. He went on to play at the University of Oklahoma for Naismith Hall of Fame Coach Bruce Drake, and he witnessed the rise of national championship programs led by football coach Bud Wilkinson, wrestling coach Port Robertson and baseball coach Jack Baer. The book shares the ups and downs of building a coaching career and the tale of coaching basketball at the University of Kansas for 19 seasons. Owens teams won 206 games in Allen Fieldhouse and he coached some of the eras greatest players. Playing now in the fourth quarter of his life, Owens shares what he has learned, passing on his lessons for life and never-before-told stories of his time as the Kansas Jayhawks head basketball coach, as high-pressure a job as there is in American sports, one that only eight men have ever held.
About the Author
Basketball Coach Ted Owens, enshrined in multiple halls of fame, is the Jayhawks coach who has won the most basketball games in Allen Fieldhouse (206). Coach Owens leads readers on a wonderful journey from his days growing up on a cotton farm during the depression, playing high school football and basketball, playing basketball at Oklahoma, serving in the Army in Korea and building a resume to qualify him to be an assistant and then head coach at the University of Kansas for 19 years. He talks about the highs of the experience of winning multiple Big 8 Championships and earning two NCAA Final Four appearances. He also shares the lows of losing that job and life after KU basketball. He talks family and faith and provides 25 life lessons as he completes his life story. Dr. Jim Krause, author of “Guardians of the Game-A Legacy of Leadership” and contributing author for “Hoops Heaven, in which he discusses the 50th class to be inducted into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame, a group that that included Michael Jordon and David Robinson, joins Coach Owens in writing the Owens Memoir “At The Hang-Up.” Krause is a 40-year veteran of the sports industry, coaching basketball at every level from middle school to NCAA Division I at the University of Oregon. Jesse Tuel is an editor at Virginia Tech, where he leads a creative team of editors, graphic designers, photographers, and others in the planning and production of Virginia Tech Magazine. He also oversees the universitys monthly email newsletter and supervises the editorial services team for the marketing and publications unit. Before moving to Virginia, Jesse was the communications director and magazine editor for Emporia State University’s alumni and foundation. A native of Lawrence, Kansas, he began his career as a reporter for the Chanute Tribune and then the Emporia Gazette. He holds bachelors and masters degrees from Emporia State, where he was a basketball walk-on.
