General | 6/26/2015 5:56:00 PM
WACO – Two of the most iconic figures in the history of ACU Athletics were announced Friday as two of the newest members of the Texas Track and Field Hall of Fame.
The hall of fame announced Friday that former ACU head track and field coach Oliver Jackson and three-time Olympic gold medalist Bobby Morrow will be inducted into the Texas Track and Field Hall of Fame during ceremonies on Friday, Jan. 8, at the Crowne Plaza-Addison. The induction ceremony will begin at 7 p.m., and the Texas Track and Field Coaches' Association will recognize the 2015 high school and collegiate Athletes and Coaches of the Year.
The 18-member class includes some of the biggest names in the history of Texas athletics, including nine-time Olympic gold medalist Carl Lewis, 1960 Olympic gold medalist (decathlon) Rafer Johnson, three-time Olympic gold medalist Jeremy Wariner, four-time Olympic gold medalist Sanya Richards-Ross, "Babe" Didrikson Zaharias – voted the Greatest Female Athlete of the 20th Century – and legendary coaches Clyde Littlefield (co-founder of the Texas Relays), Jack Patterson and Emmett Brunson.
With the induction of Jackson and Morrow, ACU now has six former coaches and / or student-athletes in the Texas Track and Field Hall of Fame: James Segrest (2010), Billy Olson (2012), Don W. Hood (2013), and Earl Young (2015). Segrest was in the inaugural induction class in 2010.
Here's a bio on both Jackson and Morrow:
Oliver Jackson (Head coach, 1948-63) – Jackson directed Wildcat track and field for 16 years, turning Abilene Christian into one of the top collegiate teams in the nation. The Wildcats under Jackson won 78 titles at the Texas, Kansas and Drake Relays, and his athletes also set or tied 17 American records and 15 national collegiate records.
He developed three U.S. Olympic team members -- sprinter Bobby Morrow, who won three gold medals in the 100 meters, 200 meters and 400-meter relay in 1956 in Melbourne; quartermiler Earl Young, who won a gold medal in the 1,600-meter relay in 1960 in Rome; and Billy Pemelton, who placed eighth in the pole vault in 1964 in Tokyo.
Jackson – who passed away Dec. 26, 2007 – is a member of seven other halls of fame including Abilene Christian, U.S. Track and Field Coaches Association, Drake Relays, and the NAIA. In 1978, he was inducted into the Texas Sports Hall of Fame in Dallas with five others, including Tom Landry, the late coach of the Dallas Cowboys.
Jackson was named head coach for ACU track and field in 1948 and served 16 years until 1963. He presided over the Wildcats' move from the college division to the university division in track and field. In addition to the three U.S. Olympians, he also coached national team members Segrest, who ran for the U.S. on the winning 400-meter relay team at the first USA-USSR dual meet in Moscow in 1958, and Bill Woodhouse, who won a gold medal at the Pan American Games in 1959 in Chicago in the 400-meter relay. His Wildcat teams won NAIA national collegiate titles in 1952, 1954 and 1955.
His 1953 team at Abilene Christian scored a remarkable "triple crown" by sweeping the 440, 880 and mile relays at the Texas, Kansas and Drake Relays. His teams also won titles at the California Relays, Penn Relays, West Coast Relays and Coliseum Relays.
Bobby Morrow (Sprinter) – The top sprinter of the middle 1950s, Bobby Morrow came from Abilene Christian College to emerge as one of the stars of the Melbourne Olympic Games. As a student at Abilene Christian, Morrow first attracted notice in 1955 when he won the AAU 100-yard dash title. The next year was his greatest. He started off by taking the national collegiate 100-200 sprint double, then won the AAU 100 for the second straight year.
In Melbourne, he won three gold medals, taking the 100 and 200 and anchoring the winning 4x100m relay team. His success continued in 1957 when he repeated the national collegiate sprint double, also winning the Sullivan Award as the nation's top amateur athlete. In 1958, he took the AAU sprint double, the last major titles he won. Morrow tied the world records in the 100 and 200 six times (three times in each) and also ran on Abilene Christian quartets that set world records in the 4x110-yard and 4x220-yard relays in 1958.
His duels with fellow Hall of Famer Dave Sime were some of the greatest in sprint history. He was elected to the U.S. Olympic Hall of Fame in 1989. He also won the 1956 Sullivan Award as the nation's premier amateur athlete. He was inducted into the Texas Sports Hall of Fame in 1960 and the ACU Sports Hall of Fame in February 1989. He was honored in May 2005 as the ACU "Athlete of the Century."
