| Mike Wacker was a standout player at Texas-Austin and the Longhorns' leader in several categories his senior season. |
Mike Wacker watched his father win two national championships in football at Texas Lutheran and now he’ll try to repeat the feat with the Bulldogs’ men’s basketball program. The University named him as the new head coach a week after Jimmy Smith moved to D1.
On Thursday, June 30, Texas Lutheran President Dr. Stuart Dorsey announced Mike Wacker as the Bulldogs’ new head coach. His father Jim won two NAIA national championships with the Bulldogs football team in 1974 and 1975.
Mike has his own history of success in Texas basketball as a coach and player. He went 703-196 in 26 seasons at Judson (Texas) High School with 13 district titles.
In the early 1980s Wacker played at Texas-Austin where he was the Longhorns’ captain and led the team in scoring, rebounding, minutes played, and field goal percentage as a senior. As a freshman Wacker helped Texas reach the No. 5 ranking in the country and scored 32 points in a road game against Houston’s Phi Slama Jama team with Hakeen Olajuwon and Clyde Drexler. The Utah Jazz selected Wacker in the seventh round of the 1985 NBA Draft -- the same year they drafted Karl Malone -- though Wacker was released during training camp.
He was inducted into the Texas High School Basketball Hall of fame as a player and coach in 2011.
"For our Wacker family, Texas Lutheran is where it all began," said Mike Wacker in a release. "Forty-five years ago, our family arrived in Seguin on the campus of Texas Lutheran. My dad was able to find a place where his energy and excitement could truly help Texas Lutheran Football go to the highest of heights. I was around eight years old, and I have nothing but the fondest of memories of the overall enthusiasm and the commitment to excellence that the entire Bulldog athletic program experienced over those wonderful years.”
Wacker succeeds Jimmy Smith who led Texas Lutheran to two SCAC titles and two NCAA tournament appearances in his only two seasons with the Bulldogs. Smith accepted an assistant head coaching position at Division I Sam Houston State.
The Bulldogs went 21-7, 11-3 in the SCAC last season. They won the SCAC tournament and fell to Hardin-Simmons in the first round of the NCAA tournament.