A History of Unc Track & Field
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A HISTORY OF UNC TRACK & FIELD At left: The 1931 North Carolina Track Team. At right: Tony Waldrop ran 11 consecutive sub-four minute miles. Below: Jim Beatty dons the cover of Sports Illustrated after qualifying for the Olympics. orth Carolina’s great tradition in track and field began in 1900 when Nthe men’s team overwhelmed 5,000-meter. In 1962 he set world records in the Davidson 125 1/2 - 11 1/2 in the first state one and two mile events and American records championship at Horner’s Park in Oxford. in the 300, 1,500 and 3,000-meter runs. Beatty In 1901, the Tar Heels won the Southern was awarded the James A. Sullivan Award as Intercollegiate Athletic Association meet in the nation’s top amateur athlete. He is still New Orleans, and in 1904 Carolina participated today the only Tar Heel athlete to receive this in its first Penn Relays. award. Carolina hosted its first dual meet in 1908 Joe Hilton, who had been a member of the on what was then known as Lake Track, the Carolina staff since 1946, took the job as head state’s first cinder track, built by Harry S. Lake coach in 1963. Hilton replaced Dale Ranson in 1898. who had been head coach since 1952, but com- The track and field program continued to peted for and coached at UNC since the 1920s. grow and thrive in the 1920s under the tutelage Hilton guided the Tar Heels program until retir- of coach and athletic director Robert A. Fetzer. ing in 1981. During his 19 years at the helm, Along with one of his early proteges, Dale Hilton coached 77 individual ACC champions, Ranson, Fetzer helped spawn the golden era of two national champions and five All-Americas. Tar Heel track. Reggie McAfee, a three-time All-America Between 1911 and 1930, the Tar Heels com- in that era, is the Carolina record-holder for the piled an amazing 50-1 dual meet record. As 880-yard and 300-meter runs. McAfee won the members of the Southern Conference, the Tar ACC outdoor mile championship twice and also Heels won 14 of 26 outdoor league champi- won the indoor mile and the 100-yard run. The runner-up in the mile at the 1972 and 1973 onships and 11 of 14 indoor titles. Fetzer, the helped Carolina to a third-place finish national- NCAAindoor championships, McAfee finished dean of the conference coaches, founded the ly. third in the indoor mile at the 1973 national indoor games. At the 1949 Penn Relays, Albans and team- meet. In the 1973 World University Games, Among the early standouts was Galen “The mates Jack Moody, Dick Taylor and Bob McAfee placed second in the 1,500-meter. Dixie Flyer” Elliott, who turned in in the Morrow set an American and world record of Another mile specialist, Tony Waldrop, nation’s fastest time in the mile in 1926. He 58.6 seconds in the shuttle hurdles relay. The stunned the track world by running 11 consecu- received All-America honors that year, the first Tar Heels further enhanced their national stand- tive sub-four minute miles in competitive races. of many Carolina performers to earn such ing the following year during the 1950 Relays During the streak, Waldrop set the world record national recognition. when Bob Kirk won the javelin for the second mark at 3:55.0 at the San Diego Games and Harry Williamson distinguished himself as consecutive year and the shuttle hurdles team of later ran a personal record of 3:53.2 at the Penn Carolina’s first Olympian. He won the bronze Albans, Moody, Morrow and Garrett Relays. medal in the 800-meter as part of the American Fitzgibbons won the event. The amazing Waldrop won the 1973 indoor contingent, led by Jesse Owens, which domi- All-America middle distance runner Dave 1,000-yard run and the 1974 NCAAindoor mile nated the 1936 Berlin Olympics. Scurlock competed in 1955-59 and won three championship, six ACC titles and a goal medal Floyd M. “Chunk” Simmons, who compet- straight Atlantic Coast Conference indoor and in the 1,500-meter at the Pan American Games. ed in five events for Carolina, was the bronze outdoor half-mile championships and placed He received All-America honors in cross coun- medalist in the decathlon at the 1948 London second in the 1955 NCAAoutdoor champi- try and indoor and outdoor track. Waldrop was Olympics. He repeated as bronze medalist four onships. named the 1974 ACC Athlete of the Year, was years later at the 1952 Helsinki Games. Another standout of the 1950s was distance honored by the NCAAfor his academic “Wild Bill” Albans, who won more blue rib- runner Jim Beatty. He became the first man to prowess and was awarded the Patterson Medal, bons and established more school and confer- break the indoor four-minute mile barrier with a symbolic of the University’s Most Outstanding ence records than anyone in Carolina track mark of 3:58.9. He dominated his events in the Senior Athlete. annals, joined Simmons at the 1948 London ACC, winning the conference indoor mile and Ralph King, another of Carolina’s outstand- Games as a triple jumper. Albans led the Tar two-mile races three years in a row and the out- ing distance runners, won four indoor and four Heels to the 1949 Southern Conference indoor door mile title twice. outdoor ACC championships. The three-time championships with five first-place finishes in Beatty retired from running after college but All-America won the indoor mile title three sprinting, hurdling and jumping events. The returned to the sport under the guidance of leg- times, the 1,500 and 5,000-meter runs twice next year he scored more points than any other endary Hungarian coach Mihaly Igloi. Beatty each and the indoor two mile once. He also competitor at the NCAAChampionships. His made the 1960 Olympic Team, but was ham- won the 1977 ACC cross country champi- first-place finish in the 220-yard low hurdles pered by a foot injury during his race in the onship. PAGE 40 • 2003 NORTH CAROLINA TRACK & FIELD A HISTORY OF UNC TRACK & FIELD Tar Heel standouts of the late ‘70s and ‘80s Kim Austin concluded a brilliant career in include distance specialists Gary Hofstetter, 1990 in which she won six All-America honors Jimmy Cooper and Glenn Sparrow, middle dis- and eight ACC championships. Austin holds tance runner Wayne Miller, high jumper Lee three ACC meet records and the Tar Heel triple Shuler and pole vaulter Chris Mand. jump record, indoors and outdoors. Kendra From 1986-90 the Tar Heels have won five Mackey (Warren) won 13 individual and relay consecutive ACC decathlon championships and ACC championships in the sprints. all five titles belong to one family. Kevin Sharon Couch became the first Tar Heel McGorty won the ACC decathlon from 1986-88 women’s track athlete to win the coveted and tied the conference record for most Patterson Medal, symbolic of the University’s decathlon titles won. Dennis McGorty won two Most Outstanding Senior Athlete. Couch won championships in 1989-90. eight ACC titles and won MVPhonors at three In 1992, Allen Johnson won the NCAA ACC Championships. She placed third in the championship in the 55-meter indoor hurdles in long jump at the U.S. Olympic Trials in June a meet-record and Hoosier Dome best 7.07 sec- 1992 and was a 2000 Olympian in the hurdles. onds. It was the fourth national title in UNC She placed sixth in competition in Barcelona, track history. The UNC men were seventh at Spain. In 1993 she had the third-best long the national indoor meet in 1992, the highest- jump among U.S. athletes. ever finish by a UNC men’s track team. High jumper Tisha Waller rewrote the Johnson finished second at the NCAA record book in 1991. She won both ACC Championships as a senior in both the 55-meter championships, finished second at the NCAA indoor hurdles and the 110-meter outdoor hur- meets and set ACC records both indoors and dles. He also set an ACC record in the long outdoors. Waller leaped 6-4 two consecutive jump at the indoor championships when he weeks indoors and cleared 6-3 1/2 at Texas in sailed 26-8 1/2. That broke the oldest existing Joan Nesbit is one of the school’s best distance runners. the spring. The South Boston, Va. native also conference record. set the record at the prestigious Penn Relays Then men were ninth at the 1993 NCAA and placed third at the TAC National Indoor Championships, Carolina’s second tional track map in 1995 when he won the Championships. Waller also competed for the straight Top 10 national finish. In addition to world championship titles in the indoor 60- U.S. in the World University Games in Johnson’s runner-up showing in the hurdles, meter hurdles in Barcelona, Spain and the out- England. She later represented the U.S. Randy Jordan was fourth in the 55-meter and door 110-meter hurdles in Sweden. Olympic team in 1996 in Atlanta in the high Chad Black was fifth in the hurdles. McCall made the U.S. National Team and jump. The 1994 Tar Heel men won the outdoor ran a leg on the 400-meter relay. In 1993 the Tar Heels swept both confer- ACC championship for the second time in three The Carolina women’s program began in ence championships led by All-America and years.