MANHATTAN, Kan. – Kansas State men’s basketball coach Bruce Weber has been selected to receive the 2019 Lifetime Achievement Award from the Milwaukee Public Schools Foundation at their annual alumni awards dinner, which is set for Oct. 2 at Discovery World in Milwaukee.
The cocktail and appetizer hour starts at 5 p.m., CT with dinner and the program starting at 6 p.m., and 6:30 p.m., respectively at Discovery World at 500 North Harbor Drive. Tickets start at $125 and can be purchased at the MPS Foundation website at https://e.givesmart.com/events/e8C/. Those interested in attending the dinner should R.S.V.P. by Sept. 18.
Weber is a 1974 graduate of John Marshall High School in Milwaukee as well as a 1978 graduate of the University of Wisconsin in Milwaukee. He is the fourth recipient of the MPS Lifetime Achievement Award, following former Major League Baseball Commissioner Allan “Bud” Selig (2017), Grammy Award winner Al Jarreau (2018) and Civil Rights activist and former Wisconsin Secretary of State Vel Phillips (2018).
One of the winningest active Division I coaches with over 450 career wins and 13 NCAA Tournament appearances to his credit, Weber is set to begin his eighth season at K-State after being named the school’s 24th head men’s basketball coach on March 31, 2012. He had guided the Wildcats to 20-win seasons and NCAA Tournament appearances five times during his seven-year tenure, including consecutive 25-win campaigns the past two seasons for the first time in school history. He has also helped steer the program to a pair of Big 12 regular-season titles (2012-13, 2018-19) during his tenure, including the school’s first in 36 seasons in 2012-13.
Weber’s 150 wins are the third-most by a head coach in school history and the most since Jack Hartman retired as the school’s winningest coach with 295 victories in 1986. He is the fourth coach (Hartman, Tex Winter and Frank Martin) to take the school to at least five NCAA Tournaments in a tenure, while only Hartman (with seven) with more 20-win seasons.
Weber, 62, has a compiled a 463-244 (.655) record in his 21 seasons as a head coach, which includes stints at Southern Illinois (1998-2003) and Illinois (2003-11). His .655 winning percentage ranks 28th among active Division I head coaches, while he is one of just 21 active coaches to take three different schools to the NCAA Tournament.
Weber has won numerous Coach of the Year accolades in his career, including consensus National Coach of the Year honors in 2005. He has also been named conference Coach of the Year three times.
This past summer, Weber received the honor of serving as head coach for Team USA at the 2019 U19 World Cup in Heraklion, Greece, where he guided the Americans to their seventh gold medal, including the first since 2015.
This is the third time Weber has been honored for his philanthropic endeavors after earning the 2007 Champions Award from Coaches vs. Cancer and the 2016 Graven Award from Wartburg College in Waverly, Iowa.