Bob Ehrhart earned all-state honors as a quarterback in football and in track as a pole vaulter while a student at Naperville High School, Naperville, Illinois. As a collegian, he was a four-time Big Ten Pole Vault Champion at Northwestern University and he shared the Drake Relays title in that event with three other vaulters in 1954.
Bob entered the collegiate coaching profession in 1960 and led his 1965 Northwestern cross country team to the Big Ten title and second in the National Meet. The year 1969 was a blessing for Drake University as Bob Ehrhart became the Track and Cross Country coach at this University. Under Ehrhart’s direction Drake Track & Field and Cross Country teams have won nine Missouri Valley Conference championships, which include 6 in indoor track, 2 in Cross Country, and 1 in Outdoor Track. Bob has coached 23 All-Americans, 12 at Northwestern and 11 at Drake, including 1970 NCAA decathlon c hampion Rick Wanamaker and standout sprinter Kevin Little , a 2 time All-American. Ehrhart has served as a coach for the United States Track Team which competed in the 1989 World Cup Track championships in Barcelona, Spain, and the U.S. Track Team which competed against England in a dual at Birmingham, England in 1985.
In 1981, Ehrhart was elected first vice-president of the United States Track Coaches Association and concluded a two-year term as president of that organization in 1985. This individual has served as referee at a number of major track and field meets across the nation, including the Big Ten Conference Indoor and Outdoor Track and Field championships, the Big Ten Conference Cross Country meets, as well as the 1988 NCAA National Cross Country championships. Prior to July of 1992, Bob Ehrhart was head Men’s and Women’s Track & Field and Cross Country coach as well as the Relays’ Director at Drake University.
After coaching 31 years in college, Bob Ehrhart became the first director to serve solely on a full time basis for the operation of the Drake Relays while Gary Osborn became the Head track and field coach for both men’s and women’s track and field programs. Bob is in his 24th year at Drake, the longest tenure of any head coach or relays director in Drake history and he has fulfilled his duties with distinction. Serving as meet director for the Drake Relays operation is a full time, year around jog that requires travel, diplomacy, and a first name friendship with almost every collegiate track coach in the country. The annual success of the relays is often dependent upon this director’s ability to attract the current top stars from around the country to make this a state and national event. Bob and his wife, Marlene, are the parents of four children.