Bio

Head Coach Rich Glas
Phone: 218-299-4231
E-Mail: glas@cord.edu

Rich Glas was hired in the spring of 2008 and became the 10th head coach in the history of Concordia men's basketball.

Glas has steadily improved the Cobbers in his first five seasons - culminating in a second-place finish in the final 2012-13 MIAC standings and a trip to the semifinals of the conference tournament. Concordia went 18-8 in 2012-13 which was the highest win total since 1995-96. The second-place finish in the league standings was also the best since ’95-’96.   

Glas’ first five campaigns have seen an upward spiral in wins and conference playoff berths. He has 63 wins in his first five years and has posted a .500 or better overall record on three different occasions.  

Before coming to Concordia Glas was one of the winningest coaches in Division II basketball after he guided the University of North Dakota to over 300 wins in 18 seasons at the helm of the Sioux.

He was the head coach for the University of North Dakota from 1988 to 2005. He is the all-time winningest coach in the history of Sioux basketball after amassing a 335-194 record in his tenure. He posted eight 20-win seasons at North Dakota and guided the Sioux to eight NCAA Division II tournament appearances. He has been a college head coach for 31 years, compiling a 514-318 record.

During his 18 seasons at the University of North Dakota, Glas coached six North Central Conference Most Valuable Players, 10 All-Americans, 27 All-NCC selections, two NCC Newcomers of the Year, one NCC Freshman of the Year and 10 Academic All-NCC Selections.

Glas started his coaching career at UM-Morris. He coached the Cougars from 1974 to 1979 and took the team to a pair of NCAA Division III tournament appearances as well as two trips to the NAIA national playoffs. After his stint at UM-Morris, he went on to coach at Willamette (Ore.) from 1979 to 1984. He was also the athletic director at Willamette from 1981 to 1984. From Willamette he went on to spend one year as a volunteer assistant coach on Lute Olson’s staff at the University of Arizona and then traveled to Hawaii to become the assistant coach at the University of Hawaii from 1985 to 1987. He then moved to UND in 1988, replacing legendary head coach Dave Gunther.

“A coach of Rich’s caliber comes along once in a lifetime,” added Dr. Larry Papenfuss at the time of his hiring. “He has shown me and the rest of the administration at Concordia that he is ready to continue the success the team had this past season and push the program onto the national scene. I am very excited about the future of the program.”

A native of Bemidji, Minn., Glas received his bachelor’s degree in physical education from Bemidji State in 1970. He earned his master’s degree in education from Western Illinois in 1971.

Glas, and his wife Sandy, have two grown children, Randi and Jeff.