COACH LONN REISMAN

Originally from Cuba, New York, Reisman was an all-around athlete in high school at Florida Air Academy in Melbourne. He lettered in baseball, tennis, football and basketball and was High School All-America in football and basketball. After playing basketball and tennis at Coffeyville (Kan.) Community College, Reisman earned a bachelor’s degree in physical education from Pittsburg State (Kan.) University in 1977. He was a graduate assistant at NCAA Division I Arkansas State University in 1978-79. Reisman landed his first head-coaching job at Trumann High School in Arkansas from 1979-81. He earned a master’s degree in educational administration from Arkansas State in 1981.

 

Reisman moved into the collegiate scene in 1981 when he was named an assistant coach at Southeastern Oklahoma State, where he stayed until 1987. During his stint there, the team, which featured Rodman, made consecutive trips to the NAIA national tournament, finishing third in 1986. After Southeastern Oklahoma State, Reisman accepted his first collegiate head-coaching position at Connors Junior College where he revitalized the program in just one season. In his only season at Connors, he took a 10-win team from the previous season to the semifinals of the state junior college tournament with 21 wins in the

1987-88 season.

 

Reisman's journey at Tarleton State began in 1988 as a basketball coach to a struggling NAIA program. Reisman ended his coaching career with 691 career wins — 654 of them at Tarleton — which is the most wins by anyone in Tarleton history and the most wins of any active head coach in the state of Texas at any NCAA level. He's one of 14 coaches at the Division I and II levels combined with more than 650 career wins and ranks within the top 15 in the country in winning percentage by a Division II head coach. His other 37 wins came in three seasons as the head coach of Connors Junior College and Trumann High School (Arkansas).

 

In 2018, Reisman received one of the highest honors a coach can receive from the NABC. He was named the recipient of the Guardians of the Game Award for Leadership and was recognized at the 2018 NCAA Division I Final Four in San Antonio. He is a 13-time Coach of the Year recipient too. He won back-to-back TIAA District 8 Coach of the Year awards in his first two years at Tarleton. Reisman has won five LSC Coach of the Year honors, including three awards in 2004 with the TABC Small College Coach of the Year and NABC Regional Coach of the Year to go with the LSC award. In 2014, Reisman received the NCAA Regional Coach of the Year award and was a finalist for the Clarence "Big House" Gaines National Coach of the Year. He's a three-time National Coach of the Week winner. He has coached four Lone Star Conference Players of the Year, seven LSC Defensive Players of the Year, four LSC Freshmen of the Year and three LSC Newcomers of the Year.

 

Lonn Reisman spent 36 years as a basketball coach and athletic director elevating Tarleton State University serving a dual role and taking the university to the highest level of NCAA Division I competition. He was the longest tenured AD in school history, topping W.J. Wisdom's 20-year career at the helm.

 

Under Reisman's direction as athletic director, Tarleton State has flourished in nearly every sport, driving full speed into NCAA Division I. During the reclassification process, the institution added three athletic programs and garnered tremendous exposure with games played on some of the nation's biggest stages. During the reclassification period when programs traditionally are slow to find success, Reisman and Texans didn't miss a beat. The football team recorded winning seasons every year, there were three postseason appearances by the softball and men's basketball programs, and a regular season title and near WAC Tournament title by the women's tennis team.

 

Academically, the Texans recorded the highest NCAA Academic Progress Rate (APR) scores by a reclassifying school since 2011. Under Reisman's leadership, Tarleton set an elite academic standard in its first year of reclassification with a single-year APR score of 987 which is the highest among any first-year reclassifying school in the history of the NCAA and continued those academic standards each of the last four years.

 

Across Reisman's 30 years as the athletic director, plus his five additional years at Tarleton preceding his AD tutelage, Reisman has seen 41 NCAA playoff appearances, 14 NCAA tournament regional championships, 20 conference tournament championships, 14 regular season conference championships, and 19 division championships.