Coach Ed Temple

Coach Ed Temple. Tigerbelles Head Coach 1950-1994. , "In looking over my 44 years as coach, I know that we accomplished monumental things at TSU and the Olympics. This Plaza stands as a witness to those deserving student athletes who helped to make the tradition." , Coach Ed Temple , Tigerbelles Head Coach 1950-1994 , U.S. Olympic Coach 1960, 1964, 1980. , Born September 20, 1927, in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, Coach Edward Stanley Temple is revered as the father of U.S. women's track and credited with taking it to the top of the world. During a 44-year run, the creator of the renowned Tennessee State University Tigerbelle dynasty was a visionary, pioneer, drillmaster, diplomat, mentor and women's advocate. Coach Temple hurdled discrimination and gender barriers to build 34 national championship teams featuring Olympic athletes who won a total of 26 medals. , A graduate of TSU, Coach Temple took over the women's track team in 1950, training in sub-par facilities for a sport nobody cared about. Under his leadership, the Tigerbelles were soon breaking world records and winning national championships and international acclaim, all with no athletic scholarships to offer. , Coach Temple also served on the U.S. Olympic Committee for 24 years and as a national coach for 28 years. He led the U.S. women's team in 1958 for the first track meet with the USSR and in the 1959 Pan American Games. He became the first to repeat as an Olympic head coach, guiding the record-breaking 1960 and 1964 women's teams (he also was a coach in 1980 when the U.S. boycotted the Olympics in Moscow). He directed the U.S. team during the 1970 European Tour of Germany, Russia and Romania, in the groundbreaking meet against China in 1975, and the 1975 Pan American Games. , Coach Temple has been elected to numerous halls of fame, which include the National Track and Field Hall of Fame, Tennessee Sports Hall of Fame, National Sports Hall of Fame, Black Athletes Hall of Fame, and Tennessee State University Hall of Fame. , In 1993, the National Track and Field Coaches Association established the Edward S. Temple Award, which is presented annually to the top college female track and field athlete. , ( back ) , TSU Olympians. (If no country is listed in parenthesis, athlete was on the U.S. Olympic Team.) , Estelle Baskerville (1964, 1968) · Helen Blake (Jamaica-1980) · Ralph Boston (1960, 1964, 1968) · Vivian Brown (1964) · Chandra Cheeseborough (1976, 1980, 1984) · Shirley Crowder (1960) · Isabelle Daniels (1956) · Marcella Daniels (Panama-1964) · Iris Davis (1968, 1972) · Lorraine Dunn (Parama-1960, 1964) · Mae Faggs (1952, 1956) · Ryan Fann (Paralympic - 2004) · Martha Hudson (1960) · Barbara Jones (1952, 1960) · Debbie Jones (Bermuda-1968, 1976, 1980) · Madeline Manning Mims (1968, 1972, 1976, 1980) · Margaret Matthews (1956) · Edith McGuire (1964) · Kathy McMillan (1976, 1980) · Eleanor Montgomery (1964, 1968) · Brenda Morehead (1976, 1980) · Una Morris (Jamaica-1964) · Audrey Patterson (1948) · Mamie Rallins (1968, 1972) · Emma Reed (1948) · Wilma Rudolph (1956, 1960) · Anna Lois Smith (1960) · JoAnn Terry (1960, 1964) · Cynthia Thompson (Jamaica-1948, 1952) · Wyomia Tyus (1964, 1968) · Martha Watson (1972, 1976) · Willye B. White (1956) · Lucinda Williams (1956, 1960)