Two Sport Star...Jeff Hogan

By Jim Joanos

After a lengthy and successful career as a high school coach, teacher and administrator, Jeff Hogan is retiring. It seems like only yesterday that the versatile athlete was excelling in both basketball and baseball at Florida State University. Actually, it was in the late sixties.

Hogan is among a small number of athletes that have starred in more than one sport at FSU. Charlie Ward and Brad Johnson played football and basketball. Deion Sanders was outstanding in football, baseball and track. Lee Corso was a football and baseball player. Currently D'Vontrey Richardson is playing football and baseball. A number have played football and run track. Michael Ray Garvin is doing that now. Hogan is even more special in that his sports were basketball and baseball. Playing those two sports is extremely difficult because of the close proximity and some overlap of the seasons of those two sports.

After graduating from Ellet High School in Akron, Ohio, Hogan came to FSU in the Fall of 1965 on a basketball scholarship. Bud Kennedy was the head basketball coach then and Hugh Durham was his top assistant. Hogan played on the FSU freshman team his first basketball season. Coach Kennedy died in the summer of 1966 and Durham became the head coach. Consequently, Hogan played on the first three teams of Durham's tenure as head coach. Over the three seasons, Hogan averaged 14.7 points per game and accumulated a total of 1,164 points in his college career. As such, he is an honored member of FSU's 1,000 point club. He was also the captain of the 1968-69 basketball team.

The three years that Hogan played basketball for FSU were transition years as the team went from an all white squad to an integrated one. The team also improved its overall records as the 67-68 team went 19-8 and the 68-69 team, 18-8. The 67-68 team was FSU's first ever to compete in the NCAA post season tournament.

In baseball, Hogan also lettered his last three years at FSU. An infielder, he was a vital member of FSU's baseball teams those years. Fred Hatfield was head coach of the baseball team during Hogan's first years and Jack Stalling was during Hogan's senior season in 1969. Each of those three teams made it to the NCAA regional tournament at the end of the season. Each also finished in the top fifteen teams in the country at the end of the season according to Collegiate Baseball. The 1969 had the highest finish at tenth.

While on campus at FSU, Hogan received a number of other honors. He was his college fraternity's man of the year in 1969 (Pi Kappa Phi). He was also inducted into Gold Key at FSU, a prestigious student leadership organization.

After college, Hogan played professional baseball for several years, mostly in the Detroit Tigers organization. He then turned to coaching and teaching. He got a Master's degree from Troy University in 1974. He has coached high school basketball and baseball through the years. Since 1980, he has been at the Florida State University School teaching, coaching, and serving as the Athletic Director for a period of time. His 1982 and 1986 baseball teams each won the state championship. A couple more were runners-up. Five times he was named the Big Bend Coach of the Year and on two occasions (1982 and 1986) he was honored as the State of Florida High School Coach of the Year in his division. In 1980, Florida State University recognized Hogan as one of its all time great athletes by naming him to the school's Athletics Hall of Fame.

Good luck, Jeff Hogan on your coming retirement. We hope that you and wife, Charlene, will enjoy many well deserved enjoyable years. Thanks for all that you did for FSU and for so many area kids during your many years of coaching.