Greensboro, NC (3/19/99) -- After 29 years and 386 career coaching victories, Guilford College head men's basketball coach Jack Jensen announced his resignation at a press conference Friday afternoon on Guilford's campus. Jensen remains on Guilford's staff as the Quakers' head men's golf coach and as an Assistant Professor of Sport Studies.

"I wish to thank Guilford for allowing me the fantastic opportunity to be involved in its basketball program for 34 years. Guilford has been a great place for me," Jensen said. "I would like to thank President Don McNemar and Director of Athletics Mike Ketchum '78 for their support during the past year. They have given me freedom to make my own decisions."

"I am extremely proud of this year’s team which continued to fight after losing six of their teammates to season-ending injuries," Jensen said. "Hopefully most of the players I've coached have learned many things in addition to basketball that will serve them well during their lives after college."

Jensen led Guilford to a 386-392 overall record in his 29 seasons. He led the 1972-73 squad to the National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics (NAIA) national championship - Guilford's first national title of any kind. The 1972-73 unit included future National Basketball Association (NBA) players M.L. Carr '73, World B. Free, and Greg Jackson '74.

"Jack has led Guilford to outstanding accomplishments in basketball, including the national championship in 1973," McNemar said. "He has also been a wonderful coach and mentor to Guilford student-athletes over the past three decades. I appreciate all he has done for the players and the college and am pleased that he will continue to coach our nationally ranked golf team."

Ketchum said a national search to fill Jensen's vacated men's basketball post would begin immediately.

A 1961 Wake Forest graduate, Jensen joined Guilford’s coaching staff in 1965 after two years as the head boys’ basketball coach at Elkin (NC) High School. He assisted Jerry Steele’s Guilford teams before assuming head coaching duties in 1970 when Steele left to direct the Carolina Cougars of the American Basketball Association.

Steele and Jensen molded Guilford’s basketball program into an NAIA power. The Quakers went 114-36 with four NAIA Tournament trips in Jensen’s tenure as an assistant and set the tone for the 1973 national championship season. After a posting 21-7 record in his first year as head coach, and a 19-8 campaign in 1971-72, Jensen guided the unseeded Quakers to the 1973 NAIA Tournament Final where Guilford completed its run with a 99-96 triumph over Maryland-Eastern Shore.

The national championship highlighted an impressive first decade for Jensen and the Quakers as Guilford posted a 207-71 record with six 20-win seasons. The Quakers made NAIA Tournament appearances in 1976 and 1989 and advanced to the District 26 finals on three occasions.

A member of the NAIA and Guilford College Halls of Fame, Jensen won two District 26 Coach of the Year Awards. Along with Carr, Free and Jackson, he coached Guilford All-Americans Jerry Crocker '72, David Smith, Gary Devlin '79 and Sam Kennedy '79. Jensen served as an assistant coach for the gold medal-winning South Team at the 1979 National Sports Festival.

Jensen and the Quakers made the transition from NAIA competition to the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Division III ranks in 1990-91. He coached six All-Old Dominion Athletic Conference (ODAC) performers and two conference Rookies of the Year, including Guilford sophomore Jon Evans, the league's top rookie in 1998 and a second team All-ODAC pick in 1999.

The second person to coach two different teams to NAIA national titles, Jensen will continue to direct the Quakers’ successful men’s golf program. He started coaching the golf squad in 1977 and his teams have missed only two national tournaments in his 21-year tenure. The 1989 squad won the NAIA crown. The Quakers have qualified for the Division III National Tournament in seven straight seasons and have won three ODAC golf championships.

A native of Bloomfield, NJ, Jensen graduated from Wake Forest University in 1961 where he worked his way onto the basketball team as a senior. Under coach Horace "Bones" McKinney, Jensen played alongside the likes of Len Chappell and Billy Packer. He graduated from Wake Forest and received a master’s degree in education from UNC Greensboro in 1966.

Jensen and his wife, Marsha, live in Greensboro with their two children. Laura graduated from Guilford in 1997, while Dennis is a sophomore baseball player at Guilford.

2 - Number of NAIA National Championship teams - Basketball (1973), Golf (1989)

3 - Number of NAIA national basketball tournament berths as head coach (1973, 1976, 1989)

4 - Number of NBA players coached (Bob Kauffman '68, M.L. Carr '73, World B. Free, Greg Jackson '74)

6 - Number of Guilford All-Old Dominion Athletic Conference basketball players coached by Jensen

8 - Number of Guilford All-American basketball players coached by Jensen (Carr, Free, Jackson, Bob Kauffman '68, Jerry Crocker '72, David Smith, Gary Devlin '79, Sam Kennedy '79

18 - Number of Guilford 1,000-point scorers coached by Jensen

22 - Number of All-American golfers coached by Jensen

29 - Number of seasons as Guilford's head men's basketball coach (school record)

386 - Number of career men’s basketball coaching victories (school record)

1990 - Year of Jensen's induction into NAIA Hall of Fame