CORPUS CHRISTI -- Bill Woodhouse, one of the members of ACU's famed sprint group of the 1950s, passed away Thursday. He was 77.
Woodhouse's funeral is scheduled for 11 a.m. Tuesday at the Seaside Funeral Home in Corpus Christi (4357 Ocean Drive).
Woodhouse, a 1959 ACU graduate, twice tied the world record in the 100-yard dash at 9.3 seconds and ran on several world-record 440-yard and 880-yard relay teams for the Wildcats. He was also fourth in the 100 and 200 at the 1958 NCAA Division I championship meet while running for legendary Abilene Christian track and field head coach Oliver Jackson.
Track and Field News ranked him fourth in the world in the 220 and 10th in the world in the 100 in 1958.
Woodhouse won four Penn Relays championships during his ACU career, running the third leg on the 1958 440-yard relay championship team, and then anchoring the winning 880-yard relay team in 1958 and the 440-yard and 880-yard relay teams in 1959. Woodhouse twice tied the world record in the 100-yard dash (9.3 seconds) in 1957 and 1959 during his career at Abilene Christian.
Woodhouse was inducted into the Penn Relays Wall of Fame in 2004 after earning Outstanding Collegiate Performer honors in 1959. That year he set the Penn Relays Carnival record in the 100-yard dash (9.5) and anchored ACU's Carnival-record teams in the 440- and 880-yard relays. He's also been inducted into the Drake Relays Hall of Fame (1980) and the ACU Sports Hall of Fame (1990).
Woodhouse finished fifth in the 100 at the U.S. Olympic Trials in 1960 to become an alternate member of the U.S. Olympic Team, and he ran on the gold-medal-winning 400-meter relay team for the U.S. at the 1959 Pan American Games.
Woodhouse, a native of Mason City, Iowa, and 1955 graduate of Mason City High School, was inducted into the Iowa High School Track and Field Coaches' Association Hall of Fame in 1979.
