Ivan Grove (1894–1984)

Ivan Grove was an outstanding college athlete who had a long career as a coach and athletic director at Hendrix College in Conway (Faulkner County). During his career, he received many honors, including induction into the Arkansas Sports Hall of Fame.

Ivan Hampton Grove was born in Denver, Colorado, on August 18, 1894, to railroad conductor Edmund Grove and Lucy Horton Grove. He was one of three children.

Grove and his family moved to Arkansas City, Kansas, when he was a young boy. In high school, he was a star athlete in all sports, and after graduation from high school he attended Henry Kendall College, present-day University of Tulsa. He was a four-year letterman and all-conference selection in football, basketball, baseball, and track. As quarterback, he led the football team to an undefeated season in 1916. After that first season, his college time was interrupted by World War I. He enlisted in the U.S. Army, serving overseas as a sergeant in the famous Forty-second Rainbow Division. After his discharge, he returned to Kendall and quarterbacked the football team to another undefeated season in 1919. That same year, he also led the nation in scoring, with over 190 points, and was named to the All-Oklahoma and All-Southwest teams.

In 1920, he accepted the head football coaching position at Oklahoma Baptist University in Shawnee, Oklahoma. He coached there for two years, compiling an 8–10–1 record. During his final year at Oklahoma, he received a coaching certificate from the University of Michigan, which certified him to coach the four major sports. He was also approved to serve as an athletic trainer, to conduct physical exams, to conduct playground activities, and to work in athletic administration. Upon completing this certification, he was hired as the first full-time paid assistant football coach at the University of Arkansas (UA) in Fayetteville (Washington County).

After his first winning football season as a coach in 1923, he left UA, accepting a coaching position at Hendrix College. For almost forty years, he coached and served as the athletic director at the college. He coached baseball until 1946 and track and field until 1958. He was the head football coach for more thirty years (the college did not field a team during World War II), compiling a record of 103–116–15, which included ten winning seasons. Grove retired from the college in 1962.

Grove married Zelpha Freeze on June 3, 1927. The couple had a daughter.

Grove received a number of honors for his athletic career. In a poll in the Arkansas Democrat newspaper in 1948, he was named the Arkansas Man of the Year. He was inducted into the Helms Athletic Foundation Hall of Fame, the NAIA Hall of Fame, and the University of Tulsa Athletics Hall of Fame, and he was one of the inaugural inductees into the Arkansas Sports Hall of Fame in 1959.

In 1959, Hendrix began construction of a $750,000 indoor sports and physical education facility, which was dedicated as the Grove Physical Education Building on October 21, 1961. Until its razing in 2007, the building was the center of Hendrix athletics, including basketball and swimming. An additional honor was bestowed upon Grove in 2008 when the college named its new athletic Warrior mascot Ivan.

Grove died on January 2, 1984, and is buried in Conway’s Memorial Park.

For additional information:
Bell, Carl. “Ivan Grove Boasts Record for Coaching; Character Building.” Helena Daily World, September 25, 1951, p. 2.

“Goodbye Grove.” Conway, AR: Hendrix College, 2007. Online at https://www.hendrix.edu/uploadedFiles/Grove/Hendrix-Grove%20Gym-website_Hendrix-Grove%20Gym%20booklet.pdf (accessed April 30, 2024).

“Grove Praised by Coach Francis Schmidt of Ohio.” Helena Daily World, December 9, 1937, pp. 1, 8.

“Hall of Famer Dead.” Baxter Bulletin, January 4, 1984, p. 9.

Mike Polston
CALS Encyclopedia of Arkansas