ABILENE -- ACU director of athletics Shanon Hays announced Wednesday that men's basketball coach Mike Martin has resigned, effective July 31.
Martin, 59, had served as the head coach since 1999, replacing Hays who left the head coaching position in the summer of 1999 to take a job as an assistant coach at Texas Tech. Hays returned to ACU in the spring as the school's sixth director of athletics.
"Coach Martin has done great things at ACU, and we appreciate his years of commitment to the kids in our program," said Hays, who will not be a candidate for the head coaching position.
"He just simply felt like it was time to give someone else a chance to build the program."
Hays said a search would begin immediately for Martin's replacement. Hays said assistant coach Stephen Hamrick will stay on as the interim head coach until a new coach is hired, and that coach will have the option to keep Hamrick on his staff.
Martin, who was previously the head coach at ACU from 1980-88, is still the only man in Lone Star Conference history to lead a team to three straight conference titles, a feat he accomplished in 1984-85, 1985-86 and 1986-87 at ACU. However, he resigned after the 1987-88 season to seek a head coaching job at an NCAA Division I institution, an opportunity he received when he was hired at Stephen F. Austin.
He stayed at Stephen F. Austin for just two seasons before leaving after compiling a 12-40 record in two seasons. He returned to the high school coaching ranks, last coaching at West Mesa High School in Albuquerque, N.M., before returning to ACU in July 1997 as the assistant basketball coach.
He was elevated to the head coaching position in 1999, but he couldn?t duplicate his previous success.
The Wildcats have gone 25-53 (.321 winning percentage) in the three years since Martin returned, including just 8-30 in Lone Star Conference South Division play. ACU was 7-19 overall and 2-10 in the LSC South last season.
The Wildcats ended the 2001-02 season by losing 10 of their last 11 games, including their last seven straight.
"I see whoever we bring in as somebody dedicated to building the program from the ground up again," Hays said. "We want to get someone to build from Day 1, and hopefully bring some immediate success."
Martin enjoyed unparalleled success during his first tenure as the Wildcats' head coach, directing the Wildcats to a combined 123-98 mark in nine season, including a 76-35 record in his last four seasons. He led the Wildcats to back-to-back NCAA Division II South Central region tournament appearances, and was the assistant coach on the 1999 regional finalist team.
His LSC title teams were 18-10 in 1984-85, 23-7 in 1985-86 and 18-8 in 1986-87. The Wildcats also won the LSC Post-Season Tournament at the conclusion of each of those regular seasons. All three of those teams played a part in the longest home winning streak in team history, a 44-game streak that stretched from Feb. 20, 1984, through Jan. 4, 1988, when Angelo State snapped the streak with a 78-76 victory. His teams were ranked as high as No. 12 in the NCAA Division II poll.
Martin came to ACU before the 1980-81 season after the resignation of Willard Tate. In his first collegiate head coaching position, he was 84-78 in six seasons at his alma mater, Southeastern Oklahoma State University. His team at Southeastern won the Oklahoma Intercollegiate Conference title in 1979-80, and his teams reached the NAIA playoffs three of his six seasons.
A 1961 graduate of Durant, Okla., High School, Martin received bachelor's (1965) and master's (1966) degrees in physical education from Southeastern Oklahoma State. Before coaching at Southeastern Oklahoma State, he coached Manzano High School in Albuquerque, N.M., to two Class 4A state championships in 1973 and 1974.
