Saddleback's first football coach dies

The Saddleback athletics department is saddened to announce that former coach and administrator George Hartman passed away over the weekend.  Hartman was an original faculty member of the college and is credited with starting athletics at the school in 1968.

Hartman was selected as the school's first football coach, athletics director and division chairman in 1968.  In his first season as football coach, Hartman fielded a team of freshman and went 4-5 against local universities.  From that point forward he had arguably the best seven-year run in the school history, going 57-11-4 and winning five Mission Conference titles.  His efforts were so impactful that Hartman's teams still hold 24 offensive school records and nine defensive records.  He was selected coach-of-the-year five times in his eight years before turning the program over to Ken Swearingen.

Hartman opened the doors by working out of a model home across from Mission Viejo High School.  He started with four sports (football, baseball, basketball and track & field) but had no practice fields.  The Gaucho football program would practice at what was then Capistrano Unified High School in San Juan Capistrano.  The players would dress on campus and then drive back and forth from practice before returning back on campus to shower. 

"George made us men," former Gaucho Hall-of-Fame football player Jim Poettgen said.  "We were boys coming in and men going out."

Hartman was also credited with selecting the school nickname and colors.  As a selection process, he took a ballot of five different color combinations and nickname options to local high schools and gave a ballot to the senior student body.  After the nickname and colors were selected, he then chose the distinguished "G" that is still prevalent on the helmet because of his affinity for the Green Bay Packers. His wife is credited with sketching the Gaucho logo which was used by the athletic program for 44 years.

Hartman retired from the Saddleback athletics department in 1999 at the age of 67 and was later inducted into both the Saddleback College Athletics Hall of Fame and the California Community College Football Hall of Fame. He passed away on Saturday night at the age of 83.

Services will be held this Friday in the Plaza Room at Saddleback Church in Lake Forest at 10:00 am.  A reception is scheduled to follow at the Terrace Café at the church.  Hartman is scheduled to be buried with military honors at Pacific Memorial Park in Corona del Mar at 2:15 pm.