Longtime college basketball coach Jack Gardner died April 9 of complications from pneumonia at the age of 90.

Gardner took two different schools to two Men's Final Fours during a coaching career that spanned 28 years and 486 victories.

He coached teams at Kansas State University for 10 years and at the University of Utah for 18 years before becoming a consultant for the National Basketball Association's Utah Jazz in 1979. He took Kansas State to the Final Four in 1948, losing to Baylor University in the semifinals, then again in 1951 where his Wildcats team lost to the University of Kentucky in the championship game. Gardner's Utah teams reached the Final Four in 1961 and 1966, losing in the semifinals both times.

Gardner also put together a remarkable string of years in attendance at the Final Four, having been at every event until recently since the first one in 1939.

Gardner's coaching tenure at Kansas State began in 1939, but he missed four seasons from 1942-45 while serving in World War II. When he

started his second term at Kansas State in 1946, he revamped a school that had gone 15 straight seasons without a winning record into a team that won the Big Seven title three times and finished second twice. His overall record at Kansas State was 147-81.

Gardner left Kansas State after the 1953 season and went to Utah, where he had a 339-154 record while winning seven Western Athletic Conference titles. His Utah teams were 51-5 during 1959-62. His overall college coaching record was 486-235.

He is the only coach to lead two schools to the Final Four two times each. He also played integral leadership roles in the building of Kansas State's old Ahearn Field House and a campus arena at Utah. He is a member of nine honorary halls, including the Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame. He is scheduled to be inducted into the Kansas Sports Hall of Fame later this year.

A total of 22 former players or assistants under Gardner later became head coaches, including three professional coaches.