Joe Kretschmar

The late Joe Kretschmar was born in Jefferson City, Missouri and graduated from Jefferson City High School in 1952. He attended Jefferson City Junior College where he was a two-year letterman in basketball. He then attended the University of Arkansas on a basketball scholarship and graduated from Arkansas in 1956.  While at Arkansas, Kretschmar was a two-year letterman in basketball and baseball.  Kretschmar played professional baseball in Liverpool, Nova Scotia, Canada, for the Boston Red Sox.  In 1955, he played baseball in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan and played shortstop in the first baseball Global World Series, representing Canada in Milwaukee, Wisconsin.  After graduation from the U of A., Kretschmar signed a professional baseball contract with the Kansas City Royals. 

Coach Kretschmar returned to Fayetteville in September of 1962 as the junior high baseball, football, and track coach at Hillcrest Junior High, now known as Ramay Junior High. From 1965-66, he was the assistant basketball and football coach at FHS.  From 1966 until his retirement in 1992, he was the head men’s basketball coach and athletic director. 

Over a brilliant thirty year career with Fayetteville Schools, first as coach and later as coach and athletic director, Joe Kretschmar set the standard for excellence in Arkansas high school basketball.  His teams won ten conference titles, three state championships and the “Tournament of Champions” in 1987. He was a master of strategy for he final minutes or seconds of play. While amassing 535 victories (over 20 wins per season), Coach Kretschmar sent thirty eight athletes on to college athletic scholarships, six of whom were all-Americans.  He was voted AAAA West “Coach of the Year” ten times, head coach for the Arkansas High School All-Star game in 1975, and was the Consensus Arkansas “Coach of the Year” in 1987. His teams played in 24 of 26 state tournaments. He was selected to the Arkansas High School Coaches Hall of Fame in 2007. 

Among Coach Kretschmar’s ground breaking accomplishments was the first high school basketball game to be aired on prime time television.  He was the first Arkansas coach to take his teams to the “next level” of National High School Tournaments.  He was the first active basketball coach in Arkansas to become athletic director of an AAAA high school. In 1975, Coach Kretschmar was the assistant to Arkansas assistant coach Pat Foster in the Arkansas College Senior All-Star Game.

Kretschmar is survived by his wife, Mary Frances Kretschmar and his children Mike Kretschmar and daughter-in-law, Pam; Kelly Smith, Christi McKnight and son-in-law T.J., Jason Daugherty and daughter-in-law, Mary Kate, and grandchildren Lauren Smith, Ryder McKnight, Finley McKnight, Halle Daugherty, and Hendrix Daugherty.