Jeff Schemmel - Inducted 2022

Jeff Schemmel was the first South Dakota native to run a sub four-minute mile (3:59.4), running for Kansas State on June 1, 1974. He was a four-time track NCAA DI All-American who anchored K-State’s distance medley relay team to the 1975 NCAA championship. He won five Big 8 Conference individual track titles and helped KSU win two team Big 8 championships (1975 and 1976 when he was team captain). Schemmel set several school records and still holds the KSU outdoor mile set in 1976 at 3:58.2. He was a 1975 cross country All-American and won the Big 8 title that year, leading the Wildcats to the team title. Injuries got in the way of his Olympic aspirations.

Schemmel was a 1972 graduate of Madison High School and graduated from Kansas State University in 1976. In high school he was an all-state basketball and football player. He won the mile run twice at the Howard Wood Dakota Relays. He was the state champion miler (4:13) in 1972 and set the all-time South Dakota record for two miles. He was the catcher and lead-off batter Madison’s 1971 state runner-up American Legion baseball team.

Schemmel had a decorated career in college athletic administration at Kansas State, University of Minnesota, Arizona State, Conference USA, and finally, as athletic director at San Diego State. He was instrumental in K-State hiring 1989 football coach, Bill Snyder, the architect of one of the greatest turnarounds in college football history. Before working in college sports, Schemmel practiced law in Kansas for 10 years. In 2013 he founded and is President/CEO of College Sports Solutions, a full-service provider of collegiate athletic consulting, strategies and solutions to universities, conferences, and collegiate organizations.

Schemmel and wife, Lori, (Wenk, a Madison native) have two adult sons also in the college athletics business: Justin (Northern Iowa deputy athletic director) and Jon (Dakota State Foundation CEO/VicePresident).