Jack Maughan
Jack Maughan begins his first year as the director of
development for the athletic department at Northern Colorado and
will continue his duties as the wrestling coach as well.
Entering his 22nd year at Northern Colorado in 2008-09, head
coach Jack Maughan is returning the Bears to the prominence they
enjoyed in their first stint at Division I. Northern Colorado has a
storied Division I history dating back to the early 1970s before
the Bears turned to Division II grappling.
Maughan, the current longest tenured coach at UNC, was been
instrumental in forming a new wrestling conference, the Western
Wrestling Conference, with neighboring rivals Wyoming and Air Force
along with former North Central Conference rivals North Dakota
State and South Dakota State as well as Northern Iowa and Utah
Valley State.
During Maughan's tenure, the Bears have produced three NCAA
champions, five runners-up and 46 All-America performers. As a
team, UNC has finished among the nation's top-10 eight times,
including third- and fourth-place finishes in 1991 and 1992,
respectively, and an eighth-place finish in 1997 and 1998. The
Bears notched a fifth place finish in 1996 and a seventh place
finish in 2002. Maughan's dual-meet record is 106-131-1 entering
the 2005-06 campaign.
When Maughan arrived at Northern Colorado in 1987, he inherited
a tradition-rich program which had fallen on hard times. The Bears
hadn't had a winning dual-meet season since 1980 and they had
finished at or near the bottom of the rugged North Central
Conference five of the past six years.
Maughan began to rebuild the program by recruiting some of the
best high school wrestlers that Colorado and the west region had to
offer. Within five years, UNC boasted a pair of two-time national
champions in Mike Pantoya of Thornton, Mike Leberknight of Rapids
City, S.D. and the school's first-ever four-time All-America
performer in Scott Gates of Englewood, as well as the best
back-to-back national finishes (third and fourth) in school
history.
To give his athletes and the UNC fans a firsthand look at the
nation's finest wrestlers, Maughan brought the 1992 NCAA Division
II Championships to Greeley, and when the Bears placed fourth and
produced a national champion, Maughan's peers selected him the
Division II National Coach of the Year.
Maughan was instrumental in the NCAA bringing its Division II
Wrestling Championships back to Greeley in 1996, and UNC responded
by breaking the tournament paid attendance record. UNC hosted the
NCAA Championships again in 2001.
In the Bears' final year as a Division II school in 2002,
Maughan and the Bears finished third in the North Central
Conference championships and seventh in the nation at the NCAA
Division II National Championships, held in Wheeling, W.Va. In
2003-04, he earned his 100th dual victory as head coach with a
26-11 victory over Utah Valley State (Feb. 26) at home.
Success is no stranger to Maughan, who grew up in a wrestling
family. Competing for his father and head coach, Arthur "Bucky"
Maughan, Jack was a two-time All-America performer at North Dakota
State, finishing sixth at 126 pounds as a sophomore and sixth at
134 pounds as a junior. He was a three-time conference runner-up
and twice an NDSU team captain. His brother, Bret, was also a
two-time All-American for the Bison and is currently an assistant
coach there.
During the 2004-05 season pupil was finally able to topple the
teacher as Maughan finally earned a victory over his father, Bucky,
in dual competition. The Bears tallied a 19-15 victory over North
Dakota State on Feb. 19 at Butler-Hancock Sports Pavilion in
Greeley. Jack had been 0-17-1 against his father prior to the
match.
After one season as an assistant coach for his father at NDSU,
Jack, at the age of 24, became the youngest head coach in UNC
wrestling history.
Maughan is active in the governance of collegiate wrestling is a
past president of the National Wrestling Coaches Association and
the Division II Wrestling Coaches Association.
Maughan received his bachelor's degree from NDSU in 1986 and his
master's in physical education and athletic administration from
Northern Colorado in 1989.
Maughan also serves as the Northern Colorado women's golf coach
and led the team to a 3rd-place finish at the 2003 NCAA Division II
Women's Golf Championships. On the links, he coached teams to three
conference championships and earned two conference Coach of the
Year honors.
Maughan and his wife, Brenda, are the parents of three boys.