Born: Aug. 26, 1956.

Born: Aug. 26, 1956.

Hometown: New Castle. Pa.

High School: New Castle.

Alma mater: Youngstown State University, 1987.

Married: Mary Jane.

Children: Samantha, Tommy.

Coaching career: Graduate assistant, Youngstown State, 1985-86; offensive coordinator, Geneva College (NAIA), 1987-89; head coach, Ellwood City High, 1990; recruiting coordinator and running coordinator, Kansas State, 1991-97; assistant head coach, Kansas State, 1998; offensive coordinator, Oklahoma, 1999-2001; head coach, Kansas, 2002-present.

Accolades: Recipient of the 2000 Frank Broyles Award as the top assistant coach; Kansas State and Oklahoma were a combined 101-30-1 and ranked in the top 25 nationally in eight of 11 seasons during Mangino’s involvement on the coaching staff.

Other views: “Mark Mangino is not your typical success story. It’s a classic example of someone who believed in himself and his abilities and then set out to fulfill his dream. He could have settled for what he already had, but his love for football won out in the end. He wasn’t gifted athletically, but he pursued and persevered and the rest as they say, is history. His yearning for bigger and better things won out in the end. He followed his dream and never gave up. Nothing was going to stop him from achieving that dream.” — Sam Trivilino, friend from New Castle, Pa.

“Bear’s perseverance is second to none, but you can say that about quite a few football coaches. We rode to school together when we attended YSU and he would always talk about football and his yearning to be a head coach. His dream was to be a head coach on the Division I level and he just wouldn’t stop until he achieved that goal.” — Mark Elisco, principal at New Castle’s George Washington Middle School.