Ted Owens to be Inducted into the College Basketball Hall of Fame

LAWRENCE, Kan. – Former Kansas males’s basketball coach Ted Owens will probably be inducted into the National Collegiate Basketball Hall of Fame on October 22, 2026, in a ceremony on the College Basketball Experience in Kansas City, Missouri, the National Association of Basketball Coaches (NABC) introduced at the moment.

Owens roamed the KU sidelines as head coach for 19 seasons from 1964-65 by 1982-83, the place he compiled a 348-182 (65.7%) report. Owens’ 348 wins rank him because the fourth-winningest coach in Kansas basketball historical past behind Bill Self, Phog Allen, and Roy Williams.

Under Owens, Kansas received six Big Eight Conference regular-season titles, eight Big Eight Holiday Tournaments and one Big Eight postseason match. Under Owens, KU superior to NCAA postseason play seven instances. His 1971 and 1974 groups made it to the Final Four, and in 1968 the Jayhawks made the finals of the National Invitation Tournament.

 

“We’re all so happy for Coach to receive this honor,” Self stated. “In my opinion, it’s been overdue. Considering not only what he did for his respective employers, what he has done for the game overall has been terrific. I have become very close friends with Coach and he’s one of the most unselfish leaders I’ve ever been around. I don’t know that I’ve ever met a coach who is as proud of his past players as Coach is. I am so happy for him, and I can’t wait to celebrate with him and his family.”

 

Joining Owens within the Class of 2026 is Jay Wright, former head coach at Villanova and Hofstra; Tubby Smith, former head coach at Tulsa, Georgia, Kentucky, Minnesota, Texas Tech, Memphis and High Point; Glen Rice, former participant at Michigan; Danny Ainge, former participant at BYU; and Walt Hazzard, former participant and coach at UCLA.

 

The NABC established the Blue Ribbon Selection Committee, which has been in existence because the inception of the National Collegiate Basketball Hall of Fame. It is comprised of faculty basketball executives, former coaches, former gamers, media and revered leaders across the nation. The committee meets yearly to pick the induction corridor of fame class for the upcoming yr.

 

Owens was a three-year basketball letterman on the University of Oklahoma (1949-51). The 96-year-old, who turns 97 on July 16, honed his teaching abilities as head coach at Cameron State Junior College, now Cameron University, in Lawton, Oklahoma. In 4 seasons, his groups by no means received fewer than 20 video games, and Cameron superior to the nationwide junior faculty match semifinals thrice. At Cameron, Owens amassed a 93-24 report and boasted 4 junior faculty All-Americans. In 1958, he coached the Cameron baseball crew to the NJCAA nationwide championship.

Owens then accepted an assistant coach place underneath Kansas head coach Dick Harp in 1960 and was promoted to go coach when Harp resigned following the 1963-64 season.

Owens was named Big Eight Coach of the Year 5 instances and was National Coach of the Year in 1978 by Basketball Weekly. He coached 5 All-Americans: Jo Jo White, Darnell Valentine, Dave Robisch, Bud Stallworth and Walter Wesley, all of whom have had their jerseys retired at Kansas. 

 

The National Collegiate Basketball Hall of Fame opened in 2006 with 11 KU-related gamers and coaches being a part of the founding class. Owens joins Danny Manning (2008), Clyde Lovellette (2012), and Paul Pierce (2014) as formally being inducted from Kansas. Other KU-related gamers and coaches embody: F.C. “Phog” Allen, Larry Brown, Paul Endacott, William Johnson, Arthur “Dutch” Lonborg, John McLendon, Ralph Miller, Adolph Rupp, Dean Smith, and Williams.