by Larry Eder
How do you write about an icon like Clyde Hart?
Clyde Hart was one of the finest coaches in American Track & Field history, period.
A class act, with a wicked sense of humor and the ability to combine scientific theory with the anecdotal (we call that commons sense), Clyde coached athletes for over five decades, such as Michael Johnson, Sanya Richards-Ross and Jeremy Wariner.
Coach Hart once told me, of his 400 meter training, “Well ,Jim Bush took my Tuesday workouts and I took his Thursday workouts. We learned from each other.” as he smiled, laughing at the same time.
His advising of Michael Johnson in 1996 and Sevilla 1999 was pretty amazing and totally under reported. Clyde Hart knew just what to do to keep MJ relaxed between the 200m and 400m and between the rounds. In Sevilla, the WR could have happened in the semi-final, as MJ was on it until 300m, when, Clyde had him shut down. Pretty damn amazing. His 1995 double in Gothenburg should also be appreciated.
That common-sense approach was hewn over decades of observation. That his coaches notes (done in 1996 for our Super Clinic at Atlanta, where we did the coaches clinic with Criss Somerlott), are still the most popular coaching feature we have EVER published.
We will miss Clyde Hart. Heck, I will just missing chatting with him, between races and heats.
My sincere thoughts and prayers for Maxine Hart, his wife of 69 years, his children, family, athletes and friends.
He and Jim Bush are in track heaven now, telling stories!
Hall of Fame coach Clyde Hart, who guided some of the legends of U.S. 400-meter running to Olympic glory, died Nov. 1 in Waco. He was 91 from USATF.org
Best known as coach to Olympic 400-meter champions Michael Johnson, Jeremy Wariner and Sanya Richards-Ross, Hart also led his Baylor men to 20 indoor and outdoor NCAA 4×400 relay titles in his 56 year career. He was selected as a men’s assistant coach for the 2000 U.S. Olympic Track & Field team before stepping down to focus on his work with Johnson.
“He was like a second father,” said Johnson, winner of four Olympic gold medals. “Our coach-athlete relationship was the best I could have ever hoped for, as we were like minded in our pursuit of excellence and unafraid to take on the greatest challenges. We were together in my most difficult times and my most significant triumphs as an athlete.”
From 1996-2012, Hart coached at least one gold medalist at the Olympic Games, including four in the 400. Athletes under his guidance won more than a dozen Olympic golds and he produced 29 NCAA champions and more than 450 NCAA All-Americans. In 2004 and 2006 Hart was named Nike Coach of the Year by USATF, and he was honored with the USATF Legend Coach Award in 2017.
“The selflessness, love, dedication and passion he poured into me and countless others is unparalleled,” said Richards-Ross, the 2012 Olympic champion. “His unwavering support and love for me beyond my track prowess made us more like family than colleagues and it’s that love and friendship I’ll always cherish most.”
“Outside of being my coach, he was also my mentor in coaching,” said 2004 Olympic gold medalist Jeremy Wariner, now a high school coach in Texas. “Coach Hart once told me that even though he has been coaching for 45 years, he’s still learning 400-meters. That stood out to me. It showed that he was always trying to find new ways to help us get faster and stronger.”
Active in the development area of the sport, Hart was named head coach for the U.S. men at the 1985 Pan American Junior Championships and served in several other international team positions through the years. Inducted into the USTFCCCA Coaches Hall of Fame in 2001, he was named International Coach of the Year in 2009 by the International Amateur Athletic Federation (now World Athletics).
Twice an NCAA indoor National Coach of the Year honoree, Hart was president of the collegiate coaches association from 1989-91. He was inducted into the Arkansas Sports Hall of Fame, the Texas Sports Hall of Fame, and the Baylor Athletic Hall of Fame, and the track and field facility at Baylor is named in his honor.
Hart was born Feb. 3, 1934, in Eudora, Arkansas, and he starred in the sprints at Hot Springs High School, where he tied the state record in the 100-yard dash as a senior in 1952. As a senior at Baylor University in 1956, Hart finished second in the Southwest Conference 100y in a windy 9.3, was second in the 220y, and helped the Bears to gold in the 440-yard relay.
After graduating from Baylor with a degree in business administration, Hart returned to Arkansas and after working for a year took a coaching and teaching position at Central High School in Little Rock. That put him in the midst of one of the seminal scenes in American civil rights history.
Hart’s first day at Central, Sept. 4, 1957, was the same day the Little Rock Nine tried to attend the school, and the ensuing battle between state and federal governments led to the closure of all four Little Rock high schools for the 1958-59 school year. During that period Hart was assigned to substitute at area elementary and junior high schools.
During his time at Central, where his boys’ track and field teams rewrote the state record book, Hart earned a master’s degree in education from the University of Arkansas. He was hired as head coach at Baylor in 1963.
Hart is survived by his wife of 69 years, Maxine, and two sons, Greg and Scott.
From www.usatf.org.
Here’s the link to the MOST POPULAR Coaching piece on RunBlogRun, Clyde Hart, on Training for the 400 meters, : https://www.runblogrun.com/2023/04/clyde-harts-guide-to-400-meter-training-from-1996-super-clinic-notes-world-coaches-notes.html?swcfpc=1
