Wartburg College’s head men’s basketball coach Dick Peth, announced Tuesday that he will retire from his coaching position. He is the second longest tenured coach in program history and longest serving current head coach in the Wartburg Athletics Department with 27 seasons.
Peth owns a career record of 622-425, which includes a record of 401-302 since coming to Wartburg in 1997. During his time in Waverly, Wartburg won three Iowa Conference championships in 2000-01, 2004-05 and 2005-06 and one American Rivers Conference tournament championship in 2017 and earned two NCAA Division III national tournament berths in 2001 and 2017. The Knights advanced to the Sweet Sixteen round in 2017.
Before coming to Wartburg, Peth was head men’s basketball coach at the University of Denver, a Division II school, where he was the winningest coach in program history with a 221-123 record in 12 years.
Peth played for former University of Iowa men’s basketball coach Lute Olson from 1975 to 1979, and was team captain for the 1979 team that won the Big 10 title and advanced to the second round of the NCAA Tournament. He also played baseball for the Hawkeyes and was a four-time letter winner.
A national search for his replacement will begin immediately.