DALLAS, TX Harold W. (Hal) Lahar, who made history by twice serving as head football coach at Colgate University, died Monday night after a long illness. The 84-year-old retired coach and athletic administrator died in a suburban Dallas hospital after a long illness. Funeral services will be held 9:30 a.m. Friday at First Baptist Church of Plano (1300 15th Street) with interment at 1 p.m. at the Dallas National Cemetery.
Lahar made national athletic news in 1962 when Colgate hired him back as athletic director-head football coach five years after he left to lead the University of Houston football program. He became Colgates head coach in 1952 and stayed there for five seasons before accepting the Houston job. When he went back to Colgate in 62, he was the first man to return to a Division I head coaching job after leaving for another school.
The first opportunity to become Colgates head coach came after Lahar had accepted a coaching job with Red Dawson, his former professional football coach at Buffalo. Dawson had moved on to the University of Pittsburgh and wanted Lahar as his line coach. He released Lahar from his commitment, and that was the beginning of a 21-year career as a major college head coach for Lahar.
The press box at Colgates football stadium is named for him, as is a hole at the schools golf course. The enlarged press box was rededicated at ceremonies last weekend. While he was athletic director, he supervised the enlargement of the golf course from nine to 18 holes.
He ended his career as assistant commissioner of the now-defunct Southwest Conference from 1973 until his retirement in 1983.
Survivors include his wife of 59 years, Dottie; son, daughter-in-law and granddaughter, Mr. & Mrs. Gary Wade Lahar and Jessica of Indianapolis, IN; daughter Karla Jenkins and her three children, Natalie Dawn, Samantha Lee and Carter Green of Richardson, TX; and one sister, Mrs. Dawn Stith of Springfield, Mo.
