Upper Iowa University Athletics Hall of Fame
Brent Prange, class of 1964, is being inducted into the Upper Iowa University Athletic Hall of Fame in the officials category. A graduate of Allison-Bristow High School, Prange was an outstanding athlete in all sports, excelling in baseball and football.
Prange was a four-year letterman in baseball at Upper Iowa in 1961, 1962, 1963 and 1964, doing double duty as a pitcher and third baseman. After graduation, he had an extended baseball career at the semi-professional level, appearing in the ABC and NBC National Tournaments.
Prange graduated UIU with a Bachelor of Arts in English and Physical Education. In 1964, he started a 36-year teaching and coaching career. From 1964 to 1968, he taught and coached at Harris-Lake Park High School in Lake Park, Iowa before spending the next nine years at Schaller High School in Schaller, Iowa. Beginning in 1977 and ending in 1980, Prange worked at Eldora High School. For the final twenty years of his career, he served the Saydel School District as a Counselor and Coordinator of Students at Risk before retiring in the spring of 2000. His head coaching career of 16 years included 205 victories in girls’ basketball, four district titles in girls’ track and six baseball championships.
On top of teaching and coaching, Prange has had an illustrious officiating career in baseball and football, including induction into the Iowa High School Baseball Coaches Hall of Fame in 1999. An Iowa High School Official for 25 years, Prange has worked state baseball tournaments and has been the crew chief in the state football playoffs. He was named Umpire of the Year in 1994 and was District Umpire six times. On the collegiate level, Prange has been a baseball umpire for 18 years and a women’s basketball referee for 12 years, on the NCAA Division III Iowa Conference and NAIA levels. Prange umpired three National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics (NAIA) Baseball Championships as well.
Brent and his wife, Jane, are the parents of a son, Bill, daughter Kris and stepchildren, Brian, Robin and Christy.
