Chadron State College Athletics

Young was one of Chadron State’s most successful coaches. He was the Eagles’ head basketball coach for five years, compiling a cumulative record of 84-37. Each of his teams had a winning record, going 18-7 in 1951-52, 17-7 in 1952-53, 14-12 in 1953-54, 19-6 in 1954-55 and 16-5 in 1955-56. His .692 winning percentage is the best in CSC men’s basketball history.
His first team at CSC won the District 11 championship and represented Nebraska at the NAIA National Tournament in Kansas City. Three of his four remaining teams qualified for the district playoffs. A majority of the players were from western Nebraska. During a reunion in 1992 when he was inducted into the Hall of Fame, they contributed about $4,000 for a scholarship to be awarded in his name.
Young was a four-year basketball letterman at what was then known as Mankato State Teachers College. His playing career was interrupted by World War II. He spent four years as a pilot in the Army Transport Command, including 13 months flying a C-47 from India to China. He earned the Distinguished Flying Cross and an Air Medal with an Oak Leaf Cluster.
After graduating from college in 1947, he coached at two Minnesota high schools and was the head football coach at Dickinson State College in North Dakota for one year before coming to Chadron State so he could coach basketball.
He left Chadron State to join the physical education department and serve as an assistant football and basketball coach at his alma mater, now known as Minnesota State-Mankato. He and his wife, Jan, who had up to 125 dance students when the family lived in Chadron, live along Lake Washington near Kasota, Minn., during the summers and spend the winters in Tucson, Ariz.
He attended a reunion of several of his players during the college's homecoming in 2011.