Hall of Fame

jack hazen

Jack Hazen

  • Class
  • Induction
    2013
  • Sport(s)
Jack Hazen has served as head coach of men’s cross country at Malone University for 45 years and as women’s cross country head coach for 21 years. His men’s program still ranks as the all-time winningest program as ranked by the NAIA. In NCCAA national competition, Jack’s men’s and women’s teams have captured numerous team national titles and a “top-five” finish in nearly every NCCAA national meet in which the Pioneers’ teams competed. The men earned 21 NCCAA national titles while the women tallied 12 NCCAA national championships. In addition, numerous Pioneer student-athletes earned a first-place individual national finish at NCCAA national competitions. The Pioneers have captured a total of four NAIA men’s cross country titles and one women’s cross country title during Hazen’s tenure.Jack has also coached men’s track & field for 28 years and women’s track and field for 3 years. He has coached over 325 NAIA All-Americans in cross country and track & field, which represents over 80% of the All-Americans in all of Malone athletics history.

Jack recently served as an assistant coach for the USA Track & Field Team during the 2012 Olympic Games. In addition to working with the men’s distance runners for Team USA at the London Olympics, he has had several international coaching opportunities. He was named Head Manager for the 1999 Junior Pan American Track & Field Team and was twice named as U.S. Coach for men’s cross country at the World Championships in Boston and Capetown, South Africa. He was also selected the Assistant Coach for the U.S. World Championship meet in Helsinki, Finland in 2005. Jack has coached 2 Olympians and served on the Track & Field Competition Management Team at the 1996 Olympics in Atlanta, GA.

Jack has a long, successful career in coaching, but, most importantly, he has impacted many lives for Christ at Malone University and outside of its borders. “His student-athletes certainly respect his coaching ability, but they also greatly appreciate his sincerity with each of them as he helps them grow to become the individual that God wants them to be. Jack makes it a priority to let everyone on his teams know that the Lord must come first in their lives and that everything else will fall into place,” said Mark Bankert, Associate Athletic Director/Sports Information Director at Malone University. Malone University Director of Athletics Charles R. Grimes added about Jack, “He truly embodies the ‘transformational’ model of sport coaching. Thousands of lives have been directly and indirectly touched by his mentoring and teaching.”