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Clyde Hart

After 42 years as Baylor's head track and field coach, Clyde Hart retired his position June 14, 2005, to become director of track and field. Hart's four-plus decades of leadership have seen Baylor track and field reach monumental heights while earning a world-wide reputation as "Quarter-Miler U."

His pupils have captured the last three Olympic gold medals in the 400 meters with Jeremy Wariner winning the event in 2004 and Michael Johnson capturing Olympic gold in 1996 and 2000. All-told, Hart has coached six Olympians who have won a total of eight Olympic gold medals and one bronze with Johnson claiming five gold medals, Wariner two and Darold Williamson one.

From the time he took over the program from his mentor, Jack Patterson, in 1964, through the 2005 season, Hart has coached 29 national champions (14 individual and 15 relay) and 475 All-America performances - 357 men's All-America honorees (123 individual and 234 relay) and 118 women's All-Americans (45 individual and 73 relay). His men's 4x400-meter relay teams have earned outdoor All-America status for 26 consecutive years and captured 14 NCAA titles. His 2004 4x400-meter relay team set an NCAA indoor record with a 3:03.96 clocking and his 1997 unit set a World Record at the Big 12 Outdoor Championships. All-told, Hart's teams have turned in 10 World-record performances (nine individual and one relay) and nine NCAA record efforts.

He was named the 2006 Nike Coach of the Year, earning the award for the second time in his career, for his work with world quarter-mile champions Wariner and Sanya Richards. Both Wariner and Richards swept the 2006 IAAF Golden League meets and went undefeated during the outdoor season. Richards also set the American record in the event with a time of 48.70.

Also in 2006, both Baylor's men's and women's 4x400-meter relays swept both the indoor and outdoor Big 12 titles and each earned All-America honors outdoors. Individually, Angel Perkins was an All-American in the 400 meters, while Reggie Witherspoon was among the top 10 nationally in the event and swept the indoor and outdoor Big 12 titles and even added the indoor 200-meter title, a feat never before accomplished in the history of the conference.

In his final season as head coach at Baylor, he guided Williamson to his first-ever individual national title in the final 400-meter race of his career at the NCAA Outdoor Championships. Williamson also captured an unprecedented fourth straight Big 12 400-meter title, anchored the Bears' to their eighth straight Big 12 4x400-meter relay crown both indoors and outdoors and anchored the squad to All-America performances at the NCAA Indoor and Outdoor Championships.

The 2004 campaign was a career year, even by the legendary coach's standards. Wariner, then a sophomore, captured the gold medal in the 400 meters, leading the United States to a 1-2-3 sweep at the Olympic Games in Athens. Wariner became the first quarter-miler in history to sweep the four major titles in the event, including the U.S. Championship and the NCAA Indoor and Outdoor crowns. Later, Wariner would hand the baton to junior teammate Williamson as the Baylor duo led the U.S. 4x400-meter relay to nearly a five-second victory for the gold medal. Wariner ran third and Williamson anchored all year as the duo led the Bears to the NCAA Indoor title with a collegiate record time of 3:03.96 and completed an undefeated season in the relay with the NCAA Outdoor championship. The 4x400-meter relay has a 20-year streak of All-America finishes and has produced 15 national titles (one women's) since 1985.

Hart was named the 2004 Nike Coach of the Year and was inducted to the Baylor Wall of Honor, the highest award bestowed upon Baylor letterwinners. Former pupil Michael Johnson was inducted into the United States Track & Field Hall of Fame and his 200-meter performance at the 1996 Olympics in Atlanta was deemed the greatest track and field moment in the last 25 years by USATF. Wariner was honored as the Mondo National and Regional Outdoor Track Athlete of the Year, while Williamson was named Big 12 Outdoor Track Athlete of the Year.

The season was also memorable on the women's side as junior April Holliness won the NCAA Midwest Regional title in the long jump and became a four-time All-American by finishing third at the NCAA Outdoor Championships. Junior LaKadron Ivery earned All-America honors in the 200 meters, while senior Jordan Willmann was an All-American in the pentathlon.

In 2003, eight athletes earned All-America honors, including Holliness in the long jump and Willmann's outstanding performance in the heptathlon. Wariner was an All-American by finishing seventh in the 400, while the men's 4x400-meter relay squad of Brian McDonald, Williamson, Wariner and Jamen Saziru placed fifth.

In 2002, the quartet of Zsolt Szeglet, Charles Sterling, Michael Smith and Williamson combined for the national title in the 4x400-meter relay. Bayano Kamani and Smith combined for a 1-2 finish in the 400-meter hurdles, an NCAA championship first, while Floyd Thompson finished fifth in the 800 meters and Jim Autenreith tied for sixth in the pole vault. On the women's side, the 4x400-meter relay team of Tiffany Wise, Chava Demart, Keisa Brown and Barbara Petrahn ran to a fourth-place finish in the event. Petrahn and Demart also earned individual All-America honors, as Petrahn finished fifth in the 400 meters, and Demart placed fifth in the 400-meter hurdles. In 2001, Hart led the men's team to a third-place finish and the women's team to a 21st-place finish at the NCAA Outdoor Championships.

Those accomplishments are just a few in a long list by Hart, a coach widely regarded as one of the best in the country. Selected as USA Track & Field's 2004 and 2006 Nike Coach of the Year, Hart is a member of the Baylor Wall of Honor, the Arkansas Sports Hall of Fame, the USA Track & Field Coaches Association Hall of Fame, the Texas Sports Hall of Fame and the Baylor Athletic Hall of Fame. He served as an assistant coach on the United States' 2000 Olympic team and was named the U.S. Olympic Committee's National Track & Field Coach of the Year in both 1996 and 2004.

A two-time (1989 and 1996) NCAA national indoor coach of the year, four-time (1981, 1984, 1989 and 1996) Southwest Conference indoor coach of the year and one-time (2005 women's indoor) Big 12 coach of the year honoree, Hart is married to the former Maxine Barton, a professor emeritus of Information Systems at Baylor. Their family includes sons Greg and Scott, daughter-in-law Kim and grandchildren Ryan, Mason and Kennedy Ann.