March 15, 2011

LAWRENCE, Kan. -

Former Kansas tennis coach Jim Seaver passed away Monday night at the age of 92.

A professor at the University of Kansas beginning in the late 1940’s, Seaver served as the head coach of the men’s tennis team for the 1948 season. At the helm, Seaver led the Jayhawks to a 9-5-1 dual record in the regular season before taking his team to the Big Seven Conference Championship in Lincoln, Neb., where the Jayhawks came from behind to defeat the Oklahoma Sooners and capture the conference title.

Seaver remained a professor at KU until his retirement in the late 1980’s, teaching western civilization and ancient history for many of those years. Considered an expert on opera and Greek and Roman history, Seaver also hosted one of the longest-running radio shows in history, “Opera is My Hobby,” on Kansas Public Radio (KPR). Seaver began the program in September of 1952, just four days after KPR, then known as KANU, signed on the air. He continued to produce the show as a volunteer until he was hospitalized last Friday.

Seaver was also a Fulbright scholar, a world traveler and the uncle of Hall of Fame pitcher Tom Seaver. Funeral arrangements have not been announced yet.