David Lynn, a member of the Oklahoma Christian Athletic Hall of Fame, was named as the university's seventh athletic director on Nov. 18, 2016, 25 years after he first arrived at OC as a track and field student-athlete. He previously had served as OC's assistant athletic director for internal operations since 2010.
Lynn also completed his 14th season of his second stint as Oklahoma Christian’s men’s golf coach following the 2024-25 season. Most recently, Lynn led the Eagles to their second straight West/South Central Regional Runner-Up finish and fourth consecutive NCAA Division II National Quarterfinals appearance in 2025. Capping off the 2025 season was the program's first pair of PING GCAA First Team All-America selections in the NCAA era.
Lynn, a 1995 OC graduate, has been a staple in the success of the OC golf program since 1998, when he started as an assistant coach. He became the Eagles’ head coach before the 1999-2000 season and guided the team until 2008, when he handed the reins to Kelsey Cline for two seasons.
In 2011, the Eagles capped Lynn’s first season back with the program’s second NAIA national championship and Lynn was named as the Golf Coaches Association of America’s NAIA Dave Williams National Coach of the Year. In the fall of 2012, he guided OC to the NCCAA national title, with the Eagles taking the crown by a whopping 52 shots, a performance that earned Lynn NCCAA national coach of the year honors.
In 2016, OC's first season of NCAA Division II postseason eligibility, he guided the Eagles to a runner-up finish in the West-South Central Super Regional and a berth in the Division II Championship, played in Denver. He was named by the GCAA as the South Central Region coach of the year as well as the Heartland Conference coach of the year.
He again won the Heartland and South Central Region coaching honors in 2019, guiding the Eagles to five wins -- including their first Heartland title -- a No. 1 spot in the NCAA's South Central Region ranking and a No. 9 spot in the Division II coaches' poll. OC finished eighth in the Super Regional.
During Lynn’s two stints as OC's head coach, he has guided the Eagles to 74 team tournament titles and 70 individual titles. Under his tutelage, 23 OC golfers have received NAIA, NCCAA or NCAA Division II All-America honors a total of 62 times, 10 Eagles have been named as NAIA or NCCAA Scholar-Athletes a total of 21 times and 14 players have been named as GCAA All-America Scholars a total of 23 times.
OC strung together a run of 16 straight top-four finishes in national-tournament play (either the NAIA or NCCAA Championship), a streak that began in 2000 during Lynn’s first stint as the Eagles’ coach, and lasted through the 2015-16 campaign. Along with the NAIA national titles in 2009 (under Cline) and 2011, OC finished as the NAIA national runner-up in 2001, 2005, 2008 and 2012. In addition to the 2012 NCCAA title, OC was the NCCAA runner-up in 2014.
Lynn was named Sooner Athletic Conference coach of the year five times, in 2003, 2005, 2006, 2008 and 2012. He was picked as the Heartland Conference coach of the year in 2013, OC’s first season in the NCAA Division II conference, and in 2016 and 2019.
He’s a past president of the NAIA Men’s Golf Coaches Association (2007-2008) and served as the NAIA’s representative to the GCAA’s National Advisory Board from 2004 to 2008 and again from 2010 to 2012. From 2003-2005, he served as a rater for the SAC and NAIA Region 6 and from 2004-2007, he served as the chairman of the GCAA’s NAIA All-American Committee.
In 2008, he served as the men’s coach for the U.S. team in the World University Games in South Africa, and he was the U.S. co-coach in the event during the 2012 Games in the Czech Republic.
Lynn was inducted into the OC Athletic Hall of Fame in January 2014.
A native of Everett, Wash., Lynn was a NAIA Scholar-Athlete and four-year letterman in track and field at Oklahoma Christian. He received a master's degree in higher education from the University of Central Oklahoma in 2000. Lynn is married to Michelle (Hays) and the couple has a daughter, Mackenzie, and a son, Danny.
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