Mark Mangino
Born: New Castle, Pa.

Graduated: New Castle (Pa.) H.S., 1974 / Youngstown State Univ., 1987

When it comes to his accomplishments, Mark Mangino takes great pride in helping turn a college
football program in the right direction.

As an assistant coach at Kansas State and head coach at Kansas, Mangino played a role in the
resurgence of both programs. “We got kids to buy into it, work hard and make sacrifices,” Mangino said. “Assistant coaches made sacrifices, and we just kept at it. We were persistent, and we were able to do some good things.”

Best known for leading the Kansas Jayhawks to an Orange Bowl victory in 2008, Mangino was a
successful coach for nearly three decades. He is on a short list of coaches to receive national
honors as an assistant and as a head coach.

Mangino was born Aug. 26, 1956, in New Castle, Pa. After high school, he attended Youngstown
State in Ohio on a football scholarship. In his late 20s, he returned to Youngstown State to serve as
a student assistant and finish his degree. After working as an assistant at Youngstown for two
seasons, he became a high school football coach in Pennsylvania.

In 1991, Kansas State coach Bill Snyder brought Mangino to the staff as a volunteer assistant. He
climbed the ladder on the K-State staff from 1991-98, helping K-State to six bowl games during
that span.

He became an assistant for the Oklahoma Sooners in 1999 and received the Frank Broyles Award for the nation’s top assistant following OU’s national championship season in 2000.

In 2002, he took over as head coach for a KU program that had not enjoyed a winning season or
appeared in a bowl game since 1995. As head coach from 2002-09, Mangino directed the
Jayhawks to a 50-48 overall record and a 3-1 mark in bowl games.

“During the 2005 season, we really started to see the real fruits of our labor,” Mangino said. “We knew we would get better. The kids were committed to winning. They were committed to working. We recruited kids who were mentally and physically tough. Was there a turning point? No, but there was consistent progress.”

That progress culminated with a 12-1 record by the 2007 Jayhawks. KU capped the season with a 24-21 win over Virginia Tech in the Orange Bowl. Mangino received multiple national coach of the year honors that season, including from the American Football Coaches Association and The Associated Press.

Following his time at Kansas, Mangino worked as an assistant at Youngstown
State and Iowa State.

He is a member of the Pittsburgh chapter of the National Italian American Sports
and the KU Booth Athletics halls of fame.