Don Hood selected for coaches' hall of fame
8/24/2006 7:45:00 PM | Men's Track and Field, Track & Field
ABILENE -- Former ACU track and field coach Don Hood headlines a group of 12 of track and field's most accomplished collegiate coaches who will be indcuted into the United States Track and Field and Cross Country Coaches' Association Hall of Fame later this year in San Antonio.
The Class of 2006 features coaches coaches who won NCAA men's and women's team titles at all three divisional levels in cross country, indoor track and field and outdoor track and field. The distinguished group will be inducted during the USTFCCCA annual convention Dec. 12 in San Antonio.
"This year's Hall of Fame class personifies the values of collegiate track and field and cross country," said Sam Seemes, CEO of the USTFCCCA. "The mark they've left on their sports is immeasurable. Our association is honored to induct such a group of individuals into the Hall of Fame."
The Class of 2006 consists of Hood, Bill Bergan (Iowa State), Al Carius (North Central), John Coughlan (Illinois State), DeLoss Dodds (Kansas State), Bob Groseclose (Northeast Louisiana), Tom Heinonen (Oregon), Ted McLaughlin (Southern Methodist University), Bill Moultrie (Howard), Jack Pyrah (Villanova), Deb Vercauteren (Wisconsin Oshkosh) and Gary Wieneke (Illinois).
Groseclose coached track and field at Abilene High School in the 1950s, leading the Eagles to state championships in 1959 and 1960 before he went to Northeast Louisiana. Dodds is currently serving as the director of athletics at the University of Texas.
Hood is in his 10th season as an assistant coach on the Wildcats' staff after serving as the Wildcats' head coach for 11 seasons from 1978-88.
A 1955 graduate of ACU, Hood remains one of the world's foremost authorities on training techniques for and coaching of the pole vault. During his tenure, two Wildcat pole vaulters (Billy Olson and Tim Bright) competed in the Olympic Games for the United States, and a total of seven vaulters (Olson, Bright, Brad Pursley, Dale Jenkins, Steve Thaxton, Bobby Williams and Cam Miller) qualified for the U.S. Olympic Trials.
Olson was the most successful of the group, earning the world's No. 1 ranking in 1982 and setting 11 world indoor records.
During Hood's 11 seasons as the head coach, he led the Wildcats to eight NCAA Division II national championships and one NAIA national title. Hood coached nine Olympians at ACU and 12 overall in a coaching career that included stints at North Texas, Wichita State and Howard Payne.
He was named the head track and field coach in 1977 and shortly thereafter continued an incredible run of ACU success that continues to this day. Hood's teams won nine national championships and nine Lone Star Conference championships, and he was named Coach of the Year eight times.
Since his return to ACU as an assistant coach, Hood has been largely responsible for helping Wildcat female pole vaulters dominate the competition in the first seven years of the event.
He has coached five vaulters to all-America honors, and Jane McNeill was the first female in NCAA Division II history to win a national championship in the pole vault as she won the 1999 indoor championship. McNeill went on to win the 2001 outdoor national title.
Meredith Garner and Katie Eckley have also won national championships under Hood's tutelage, and Val Gorter and Angie Aguilar have earned all-America honors. Last year, Aguilar became the first NCAA Division II female pole vaulter to win the indoor and outdoor national championships in the same year.
