IUP Athletic Hall of Fame
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No head coach in IUP history can match Fred Joseph for longevity, and few were as successful. Joseph not only made IUP a force regionally; he elevated the golf program to national prominence during a 26-year reign. And he did it as an unpaid volunteer.
His teams captured 13 PSAC titles, including an unprecedented six in succession from 2007 to 2012. Joseph also led IUP to five regional championships, 14 NCAA Division II tournament appearances and 22 consecutive regional tournament berths. Incredibly, many of those accomplishments came while Joseph held a full-time job as IUP’s director of financial aid. He retired in 2001 after 29 years in that position.
Joseph was selected as the PSAC Coach of the Year 12 times and earned regional coach of the year honors on nine occasions. He coached one national champion, 15 All-Americans, 21 All-America Scholars and 13 PSAC Golfers of the Year. In addition, his golfers won 15 individual PSAC tournament championships.
He was instrumental in making IUP a mainstay on the national stage, highlighted by a seventh-place finish at the NCAA tournament in 2014. Joseph also had cause to celebrate in 2009 when fellow 2021 Hall of Fame inductee Gavin Smith became the first IUP golfer to win an individual NCAA title and the first in 41 years to claim a national golf championship of any kind.
Joseph served for three years as an assistant under Don White before taking over as head coach in the fall of 1992. He still volunteers as an assistant under his successor, Dan Braun, extending his association with IUP golf to 32 years.
Joseph graduated in 1962 with a degree in physics and mathematics from Mount Union (Ohio) College, where he played four years on the tennis team, then earned a master’s in higher education from Kent State in 1968.
He resides in Indiana with his wife, Candace. They have one daughter, Jennifer Joseph, and a grandson, Kyran.
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