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GREENSBORO — Most of Jack Jensen's 1973 NAIA championship basketball team had called with condolences for his wife by midday Monday.

Players from three championship golf teams he led at Guilford College also called throughout the day, along with others he met in 45 years of coaching Quakers teams.

Jensen died of a heart attack Sunday. He had just dropped off the men's golf team after a weekend tournament in Camp Lejeune and was on his way back to his north Greensboro home.

"He was on the phone with my mom," said Jensen's daughter, Laura Jensen Thornburg.

As he drove, the phone went silent. When his wife, Marsha Jensen, called back, an EMS worker answered. Jensen was found in his car, which had run onto a curb at the edge of campus.

A family visitation will be held 6-9 p.m. Wednesday at Alumni Gym on the Guilford College campus. A funeral service is 2 p.m. on the Jack Jensen basketball court at Ragan-Brown Field House.

"This is honestly like having a state funeral," Thornburg said through tears Monday. He's survived by his wife, daughter and son, Dennis. She said that he had heart disease and a pacemaker, which belied his tan, fit appearance.

Many former players and colleagues cite Jensen's competitive drive and natural honesty as his defining traits. But then another picture of Jensen emerges — role model, confidant and family man.

"They just lost a father," Thornburg said, "not just me and my brother."

Cannon Morgan echoed her thoughts.

"If my dad was not around, Coach Jensen would be the person that I would call," Morgan said.

Jensen recruited and coached Morgan on Guilford's golf team in 1990.

After he had graduated and left Guilford, Morgan later brought his first bride-to-be to meet Jensen. Morgan also called Jensen when he divorced.

Now remarried, Morgan was glad his second wife met Jensen at a recent Guilford basketball game.

Morgan said that Jensen wasn't a spectacular golfer, even though he coached Quakers teams to national championships in the sport in 1989 (NAIA) and 2002 and 2005 (NCAA Division III).

"He's made the world better by all the people he's come in contact with," said Robert Linville, who played golf for Jensen at Guilford in the late 1970s and now coaches at Greensboro College and operates Precision Golf School.

"I can hope to be half the man he was," Linville said.

Jerry Steele helped hire Jensen at Guilford in 1965. The two played basketball at Wake Forest, and Steele brought on Jensen as an assistant coach before leaving to coach at High Point University.

The two teams faced each other often, and Steele knew Jensen as a fierce competitor and a tenacious recruiter.

"He probably knows nothing about lacrosse, but if you hired him to coach lacrosse, and gave him an unlimited phone budget ... he's just a good judge of people," Steele said.

Through the success, Steele said, Jensen could've moved on to a bigger college. But Jensen liked it here.

"Guilford is a unique place, a unique community," Steele said. "And he found a comfort zone for him and his family."

Contact Gerald Witt at 373-7008 or gerald.witt@news-record.com