NIU has lost another member of the Athletics Hall of Fame as four-time inductee Jack Pheanis died at the age of 87 Friday.

Pheanis spent more than four decades as a coach for NIU from 1950 to 1953 and again from 1957 to 2002 — much of that time was also spent as head coach for men’s golf and assistant coach for football, men’s basketball and men’s swimming.

Pheanis played NIU football and golf from 1950 to 1952, earning three varsity letters as a member of the football team and one for golf. He played both offense and defense for football and was a part of the 1951 team that went a perfect 9-0-0 and won an IIAC title.

Pheanis was an assistant coach for the 1963 football team that went 10-0 and won the NCAA College Division National Championship.

Pheanis’ first stint as head coach for men’s golf came in an interim role for three years from 1957 to 1960, highlighted by an NCAA College Division Midwest Regional title in 1959. He took over the team again eight years later, producing two All-Americans and four NCAA qualifiers over the next 34 years and winning conference coach of the year six times.

His four inductions into the NIU Athletics Hall of Fame are the most of all time. He was inducted as an individual in 1988, an aide on the 1963 football team in 1986, a player on the 1951 football team in 1991 and as head coach of the 1976 golf team in 1997.

Pheanis also spent 10 years as an assistant professor, three as a Varsity Club coordinator and one as a director of intramurals. His official retirement came in 2002 after spending 46 years at NIU.