Truman State University Athletics

John Semanek graduated in 1940 from Livingston High School, where he was a basketball All-State, and served three years as a sergeant in the Air Force during World War II. After the war he enrolled at the university, playing on the great Bulldog teams, which compiled a two-year record of 59-4 and made two trips to the NAIA national tournament. Mr. Semanek received All-MIAA accolade twice. He was also the leading hitter on the baseball team. After his graduation in 1949, he started a 34-year career as a teacher, coach, and administrator, starting at Bloomfield (Iowa) High School. He left Bloomfield in 1954 for Mesa, Ariz., where he was a teacher, coach and junior high school principal for 11 years. His teams lost only one game in two years at Mesa. He then went to Chandler, Ariz., where he was a high school principal for 12 years, and to Florence, Ariz., where he was a high school principal for four years. He served on the national level of the National Association of Secondary School Principals, served as president of the Triple A Conference for Arizona large high schools, served on the executive board of the Arizona Interscholastic Association. He retired in 1982 and spends his time playing golf and doing yard work.