Hall of Fame
A native of Naperville, IL, Ehrhart was a high school and college track and field coach for 34 years, including 31 seasons in the collegiate ranks. The 1954 graduate of Northwestern University guided the track program at his alma mater for nine seasons, before coming to Drake in 1969.
Under Ehrhart’s direction, Drake track and cross-country teams won nine Missouri Valley Conference championships, including six in indoor track, two in cross country and one in outdoor track.
Ehrhart coached 23 All-Americans, 12 at Northwestern and 11 at Drake, including 1970 NCAA decathlon champion Rick Wanamaker and standout sprinter Kevin Little, a two-time All-American at both the NCAA Indoor and Outdoor Championships in 1989 and 1990.
In addition to his head coaching duties, he also served as the director of the Drake Relays for 31 years. During his leadership, the number of events at the Drake Relays expanded from 49 in his first year to the current 98 events. In addition, the number of college teams and participants also more than tripled from 2,763 athletes in 1970 to a record 9,185 entries in 2000.
In addition to countless meet records, 14 national collegiate marks, 13 American records and one world record were set during Ehrhart’s tenure as Drake Relays director.
He served as a coach for the U.S. track team which competed in the 1989 World Cup track championships in Barcelona, Spain, and on the U.S. track team staff which competed against England in a dual at Birmingham, England, in 1985.
Ehrhart, who was president of the United State Track Coaches Association from 1983-85, served as head manager of the U.S. track team in the 1993 World Outdoor Championships in Stuttgart, Germany.
He was inducted into the Iowa Association of Track Coaches Hall of Fame in 1992, and was honored in 1993 by the Iowa Association of Track Coaches for his state, national, and international achievements in track.
A pole vaulter as a collegian, Ehrhart was honored by his alma mater in 1954 as Athlete of the Year. He was a four-time Big Ten champion at Northwestern, and he shared the Drake Relays title in that event with three other vaulters in 1954.
He began his career in the collegiate coaching profession in 1960, leading Northwestern to the 1965 Big Ten cross country title and later saw his team place second in the national meet.