Hal Lahar

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Hal Lahar
Sport	Football
Born	July 14, 1919(1919-07-14)
Place of birth	Durant, OK
Died	October 20, 2003 (aged 84)
Place of death	Dallas, Texas
Career highlights
Overall	77–63–10
Coaching stats
College Football DataWarehouse
Playing career
1938-1940 1941 1946-1948	Oklahoma Chicago Bears Buffalo Bills
Position	Guard
Coaching career (HC unless noted)
1952-1956 1957-1961 1962-1967	Colgate Houston Colgate

Harold W. "Hal" Lahar (July 14, 1919(1919-07-14) — October 20, 2003) was an American football coach. He was the head football coach at Colgate University (1952 to 1956; 1962 to 1967) and the University of Houston (1957 to 1961).

Lahar was born in Durant, Oklahoma and attended Central High School in Oklahoma City. He later was an All-Southwest Conference guard for the Oklahoma Sooners under coach Tom Stidham. Lahar was selected 79th overall in the 1941 NFL Draft by the Chicago Bears, where he spent the 1941 NFL season before serving with the United States Navy in the South Pacific during World War II.

After leaving the service in 1945, Lahar played for the Buffalo Bills of the All-America Football Conference from 1946-1948 before beginning his college coaching career as an assistant under Otis Douglas at the University of Arkansas in 1950. In 1952 he became head coach at Colgate University in Hamilton, New York. In 1957 he succeeded Bill Meek at the University of Houston, where he spent five years, before returning to Colgate in 1962, making him the first man to return to a Division I head-coaching job after leaving for another school. Following the 1967 season, Lahar retired from coaching and served as athletic director at Colgate.

Lahar was also assistant commissioner of the Southwest Conference. He worked at the now-defunct SWC from 1973 until his retirement in 1983.

[edit] Head coaching record

Year	Team	Overall	Conference	Standing
Colgate Raiders (Independent) (1952 – 1956)
1952	Colgate	6–3
1953	Colgate	3–4–2
1954	Colgate	5–2–2
1955	Colgate	6–3
1956	Colgate	4–5
Colgate:		24–17–4
Houston Cougars (Missouri Valley Conference) (1957 – 1959)
1957	Houston	5–4–1	3–0–1	1st
1958	Houston	5–4	2–2	3rd
1959	Houston	3–7	3–1	1st
Houston:		13–15–1	8–3–1
Houston Cougars (Independent) (1960 – 1961)
1960	Houston	6–4
1961	Houston	5–4–1
Houston:		11–8–1
Colgate Raiders (Independent) (1962 – 1967)
1962	Colgate	3–5–1
1963	Colgate	3–4–1
1964	Colgate	7–2
1965	Colgate	6–3–1
1966	Colgate	8–1–1
1967	Colgate	2–8
Colgate:		29–23–4
Total:		77–63–10
National Championship Conference Title Conference Division Title