Mike Dau
-
- Title:
- Head Coach
-
- Phone:
- 847-735-5297
-
- Email:
- dau@lakeforest.edu
|
||
The 2023-24 season will be the 56th (1968-present) as head coach of the Forester handball program for Mike Dau '58.
Dau, a 2017 inductee into the Illinois Handball Association Hall of Fame and a member of both the Lake Forest College Athletic and U.S. Handball Association (USHA) Halls of Fame, has led the Foresters to 51 total national championships. The Foresters' title run began in 1971 and included a streak of seven straight national championships from 1978 to 1984. Lake Forest has claimed 13 men's, 11 women's, and 14 combined championships in the last 25 years and has placed no worse than fourth in the combined team standings since 1996. The Foresters have finished first in all three categories seven times in program history (2001, 2005, 2009-12, 2015).
Under Dau's direction, 74 players have been named All-America a total of 195 times with a combined 51 Open Singles and Open Doubles collegiate national championships.
While an undergraduate at Lake Forest, Dau earned varsity letters in track and football, was selected team Most Valuable Player of the 1957 College Conference of Illinois Championship squad, and received First Team Collegiate All-State (Peoria Journal Star) recognition and All-America honors. After graduating from Lake Forest in 1958, Dau entered the Marine Corps Officer Candidate program, played football again in 1959, earning All-Marine honors and served as an assistant coach for the 1960 and '61 seasons. He returned to Lake Forest College as an assistant football coach in 1962, coached at Carmel High School (IL) in 1963 and returned to Lake Forest in 1964, assisting in football and basketball. Dau was named head football coach in 1966 and served in that capacity until 1991. He is still an assistant coach on the football team and has also served as baseball coach and athletic director.
With the completion of the Sports Center in 1968, handball was added to the athletic program and Dau was appointed the team's first head coach. A tournament player himself, Dau has won numerous local singles championships, advanced to the national Masters Doubles finals in 1980 and, at the age of 56, won the United States Marine Corps Open Doubles championship with his son, Perry. He currently serves as chairman of the USHA Hall of Fame committee.
A social area in Halas Hall called the Dau Room was dedicated in his honor in 2001, shortly after the building's renovation. He and his late wife Paula have made countless contributions to Lake Forest College and the Athletic Department over the years.
Coach Dau resides in Lake Forest.
