For student-athletes like Dan Harding sports is an essential component of a K-Plan—sometimes the essential component.

Dan credits his K-Plan for its role in shaping his independence and self-confidence—two values that have served him well in graduate school (MBA, Marquette University, 2005) and during his 25-year career in corporate management at US Bank, where he currently serves on the company’s insurance specialty team.

Components of that influential K-Plan include a bachelor’s degree in economics, study abroad in Germany and his accomplishments as a men’s tennis team Hornet. Among the latter: All-American in singles (once); Michigan Intercollegiate Athletic Association First Team (twice); MIAA Most Valuable Player (twice); and All-American in doubles (three times). In two of those three All-American doubles seasons he was partnered with his brother, Kyle, a fellow 2025 Hall of Fame inductee. Playing doubles with his brother is one of two accomplishments of which Dan is most proud. The other: winning the Regional Rolex tournament in singles and doubles.

Dan’s excellence on the court and in the classroom earned him honors as a CoSIDA Academic All-District IV Second Team selection in his senior year.

The Hornet teams on which he played won four conference championships (overall record: 23-0) and finished in the top 10 in the country every year Dan played—second (1997), third (1998), second (1999), and ninth (2000).

Tennis and the Harding family are so tightly entwined they are almost indistinguishable. In addition to Kyle, Dan’s brother Matt also played tennis for K, and his sister, Heather, played collegiate tennis at the University of Wisconsin-Green Bay.

“I’m grateful to my parents for their years of tennis instruction and tournament support,” says Dan. “And I appreciate my wife, Suzie’s, understanding over the years. She still lets me play each week.

“I’m also grateful to our brilliant 11-year-old daughter, Lilly,” he adds. “She has been playing tennis since she was three years old and is graciously allowing me to be her coach.”