University of Colorado Athletics
Prentup Known For Fundamentals During Storied Coaching Career
November 02, 2015 | General
BOULDER - Frank Prentup, a coach renowned for his knowledge of the game and his emphasis on fundamentals, coached the Colorado baseball team for 24 years, the longest tenure by a coach in CU baseball history.
Prentup was not only the head baseball coach, he also served as an assistant football coach for the Buffs for 15 years under three different head coaches, and was a physical education professor at CU from 1941 to 1976.
"He knew more about the fundamentals than anybody I have ever been around," said longtime Colorado sports personality Irv Brown, who followed Prentup as CU's head baseball coach. "He really understood how the body worked better than anyone."
Prentup coached the baseball team from 1946-69, racking up 514 total games, and he finished with a career record of 257-255-2. While his teams won just one championship during his tenure (a tie for the Mountain States title in 1946), 13 of his squads had winning records and another finished .500 as the Buffs made the transition from the Mountain States to the powerful Big Seven.
"CU was always competitive with the other conference teams," said his son, Duke Prentup. "A goodly portion of the losses was by either one or two runs. He accomplished this with virtually no budget. I attribute his success by being one of the best inside baseball minds in the collegiate ranks. We won most of our games simply by being smarter."
A native of Leavenworth, Kansas, Prentup played baseball at Kansas State University from 1930-32. During the three seasons, the Wildcats lost just 11 games in 45 starts. Prentup lettered in football, baseball, swimming and boxing before graduating in 1932. He served as the quarterback for the Wildcats under the legendary Bo McMillin. His son said Prentup had a chance to play professional baseball upon graduation, but turned the offer down.
Nicknamed "Chief" because of his Native American ancestry, Prentup served three years in the U.S. Navy during World War II. He returned to CU and became an assistant football coach in 1946 through 1958, and a number of football players also became quality baseball players under his tutelage. Frank Bernardi, who had never played baseball before, became a .383 hitter and conference RBI leader by his senior season under Prentup.
Prentup made sure his players were going to be ready to compete against their opponents. He used rope skipping and bag punching in boxing as conditioning tools. He realized the importance of rope skipping as a high school basketball coach in Kansas. Prentup was honored prior to the 1986 season by the NCAA baseball coaches for his contributions to CU baseball.
The last season CU had a baseball team was 1980, but Prentup's name still lives on at the CU campus. A group of student-athletes who played for Prentup led a campaign to have the baseball field renamed "Prentup Field" in 1977, and when the field was converted to a soccer facility years later, CU officials decided to keep the name in honor of the longtime coach.
"My initial thought when I was informed that my dad was to be inducted into the CU Athletic Hall of Fame was one of gratitude, both for him because he is deserving of the honor, and gratitude for my family," said Duke Prentup. "Chief had a lot of faults, but ingratitude was not one of them and I try to be the same way."
Prentup is remembered as a man of steadfast principles.
"He was competitive and opinionated and had to go his way," said Brown. "He could take a bad ball player and make him an average player. He was that kind of coach."
Prentup also had a reputation for developing good relationships with his players and teaching them life lessons they would embrace long past their college careers.
"Over the years, there were numerous former players that continually came back to Boulder to specifically visit the Chief while he was alive to thank him for the lessons on life that he instilled in them," Duke Prentup said. "Many of the same former players have kept in contact with me and tell the same story about the Chief drilling stories into them about all aspects of life after college."
Prentup passed away in 1992 at the age of 85.
