Steve Fritz (born November 1, 1967) is an American retired decathlete.
Fritz, who was born in Salina, Kansas, played basketball and competed in track and field for Kansas State University. He was an All-American and Big 12 champion decathlete in 1989 and 1990. [1] Fritz set the Kansas State school record for points in the decathlon. [1] Fritz represented the United States on 10 national teams for decathlon, [1] including a first-place finish at the 1991 Summer Universiade in Sheffield, England, and a fourth-place finish at the 1996 Olympic Games in Atlanta, Georgia.
Fritz was named to the K-State Athletics Hall of Fame in 2000 and enshrined to the Kansas Sports Hall of Fame on October 4, 2020. [1]
Fritz was an assistant coach for the Kansas State track and field team for 21 years, and is currently the assistant basketball coach at Wamego High School. He is also the track coach at Wamego High School.
His wife, Suzie Fritz, is the former head coach of the Kansas State Wildcats women's volleyball team.
His son, T.J. Fritz, played basketball for Wamego High School, where he averaged 22.4 points per game in 2018 as a senior, which led Kansas Class 4A. Fritz then reclassified from the class of 2019 to the class of 2020 and enrolled at Sunrise Christian Academy in Bel Aire, KS, [2] considered one of the best basketball high schools in the world, [3] to play for their postgraduate team. After his season at Sunrise, Fritz committed to the University of Nebraska-Kearney on April 15, 2020. [4]
Year | Competition | Venue | Position | Notes |
---|---|---|---|---|
Representing the United States | ||||
1991 | Universiade | Sheffield, England | 1st | Decathlon |
1993 | World Championships | Stuttgart, Germany | 7th | Decathlon |
1994 | Goodwill Games | St. Petersburg, Russia | 2nd | Decathlon |
1996 | Olympic Games | Atlanta, United States | 4th | Decathlon |
1997 | World Indoor Championships | Paris, France | 6th | Heptathlon |
World Championships | Athens, Greece | 4th | Decathlon |
Milton Gray Campbell was an American decathlete of the 1950s. In 1956, he became the first African American to win the gold medal in the decathlon of the Summer Olympic Games.
The Kansas State Wildcats are the intercollegiate athletic teams that represent Kansas State University. The official color of the teams is Royal Purple; white and silver are generally used as complementary colors.
Morice Fredrick "Tex" Winter was an American basketball coach and innovator of the triangle offense, an offensive system that became the dominant force in the NBA and resulted in 11 NBA Championships with the Chicago Bulls in the 1990s and the Los Angeles Lakers in the 2000s. He was a head coach in college basketball for 30 years before becoming an assistant coach in the National Basketball Association (NBA). He was an assistant to Phil Jackson on nine NBA championship teams with the Chicago Bulls and the Los Angeles Lakers. Winter was inducted into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame in 2011.
David Allen Johnson is a former Olympic decathlete from the United States. A native of Montana, he grew up in Missoula and Corvallis, Oregon. He was part of Reebok's "Dan & Dave" advertising campaign, with fellow decathlete Dan O'Brien, leading up to the 1992 Summer Olympics in Barcelona, Spain, where he won a bronze medal in the decathlon. After retiring from competitive athletics he became a school teacher and administrator, serving as athletic director of Corban University in Salem, Oregon starting in 2009. Johnson accepted a position as Director with the Fellowship of Christian Athletes Oregon in June 2012. On November 14, 2012, Johnson resigned from Corban to devote more time to the Fellowship of Christian Athletes. He now coaches pole vault & hurdles at South Salem High School.
Brutus Kerr Hamilton was an American track and field athlete, coach and athletics administrator.
Joseph L. Kearney was an American coach and sports administrator in university athletics. He served as athletic director at three major universities: the University of Washington (1969–1976), Michigan State University (1976–1980), and Arizona State University (1980). He was commissioner of the Western Athletic Conference (WAC) from 1980 until his retirement in 1994.
Michael Francis Ahearn was a British-American athlete and college athletics administrator. Ahearn played and coached American football, basketball, and baseball, and was a college professor and athletic director at Kansas State Agricultural College—now known as Kansas State University. He also helped guide the evolution of the rules of modern football, serving ten years on the college football rules committee (1922–1931), initially under Secretary Walter Camp and alongside Amos Alonzo Stagg.
Ward H. Haylett was an American football, basketball, track and field, and cross country running coach. Haylett served as the head football coach at Doane College—now known as Doane University—in Crete, Nebraska from 1924 to 1927 and Kansas State College of Agriculture and Applied Science—now known as Kansas State University compiling a career college football coaching record of 23–32–6. He was enshrined in the National Track and Field Hall of Fame in 1979.
The Kansas State Wildcats men's basketball team represents Kansas State University in college basketball competition. The program is classified in the NCAA Division I, and is a member of the Big 12 Conference. The head coach is Jerome Tang.
The Kansas State Wildcats football program is the intercollegiate football program of the Kansas State University Wildcats. The program is classified in the NCAA Division I Bowl Subdivision (FBS), and the team competes in the Big 12 Conference.
The Kansas State Wildcats women's basketball program is the intercollegiate basketball program of the Kansas State Wildcats. The program is classified in the NCAA Division I, and the team competes in the Big 12 Conference.
Richard W. Knostman was an American professional basketball player.
The Wayne State Wildcats are the athletic teams that represent Wayne State College, located in Wayne, Nebraska, in intercollegiate sports at the Division II level of the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA), primarily competing in the Northern Sun Intercollegiate Conference (NSIC) in all sports since the 1999–2000 academic year. The Wildcats previously competed in the Central States Intercollegiate Conference (CSIC) of the National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics (NAIA) from 1976–77 to 1988–89; as well as in the Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference (RMAC) as a provisional member during the 1989–90 school year.
Thomas Churchill Sr. was an American star athlete in the 1920s who participated in the 1928 Summer Olympics in Amsterdam, Netherlands as a decathlete, and was a multi-sport standout for the University of Oklahoma between 1927–28 and 1929–30.
Irving "Moon" Mondschein was an American track and field athlete and college football player and coach.
Ray Dreyer Hahn was an American football and basketball player and coach and college athletics administrator. He served as the head football coach at the South Dakota School of Mines—now known as South Dakota School of Mines and Technology—from 1929 to 1934 and Bethany College in Lindsborg, Kansas from 1938 to 1942 and again from 1946 to 1956, compiling a career college football coaching record of 70–104–4.
Henry Oliver "High" Cronkite was an American collegiate athlete. A 6'5" giant of his era, Cronkite was best known as a football player, as which he was regarded as both a strong tackler and adept offensive receiver playing the End position for the Kansas State Aggies football team.
Karen Dahlgren Schonewise is a retired volleyball player, who played collegiately for Nebraska.
The 1957–58 Kansas State Wildcats men's basketball team represented Kansas State University as a member of the Big 7 Conference during the 1957–58 NCAA University Division men's basketball season. The head coach was Tex Winter, innovator of the Triangle offense and future member of the Basketball Hall of Fame, who was in his fifth season at the helm. The Wildcats finished with a record of 22–5 and reached the Final Four.
Joe Luther Hall Jr. is an American football administrator, coach, and former fullback / running back who is currently the director of football student-athlete development for the Kansas State Wildcats. After attending Artesia High School in California, he played college football at Palomar College and Kansas State, leading the former to the national junior college championship as a sophomore. At Kansas State, Hall spent three seasons, redshirting one, being described at over 300 pounds "the largest running back to ever rush for 100 yards in an NCAA game" by Sports Illustrated. Following his time at Kansas State, he spent several seasons in the National Football League (NFL) with the St. Louis Rams, Kansas City Chiefs, and Oakland Raiders as well as in NFL Europe with the Rhein Fire.