Clyde Hart, the longtime legendary Baylor track and field coach who guided the program into the reputation of “Quarter Miler U,” died on Saturday at age 91 following a battle with cancer.
Baylor University, where Hart coached for 42 years — bulk of his of over five decades in the sport — confirmed reports of his death.
“Coach Hart is one of the legends in track and field. He will truly be missed,” said Baylor Vice President and Director of Athletics Mack Rhoades said in a statement. “He is the reason why coaching is such an honorable profession. The impact that he had on his student-athletes is immeasurable . . . just ask them.”
Hart was a driving force behind Baylor’s surge in collegiate track as he boasted a coaching resume that secured 34 national champions (14 individual and 20 relay team titles) along with 566 All-American performances. He was also known for having a hand in producing standouts like Michael Johnson, Jeremy Wariner, Greg Haughton, Darold Williamson and Sanya Richards-Ross — who all saw various levels of Olympic glory.
The nine Olympian he coached combined for 17 medals, including 13 gold.
“He pushed us to always be the best and to pursue excellence in everything we did,” Todd Harbour, who succeeded Hart as Baylor head coach in 2005, said in a statement. “He was like a second father to me and so many others.”
But Hart felt that his impact on coaching track extended far beyond the 400-meter success that his program made into its hallmark.
“I told my wife, on my tombstone, don’t put that I was a quarter-miler coach,” he said in 2019. “I was a track coach.”
Hart coached several state champions in various events while at Little Rock Central High School from 1957 to 1963. He made an immediate impact at the school in his first year while building a profile that would eventually lead him back to Baylor, his alma mater, in 1963. The prospect of doing more on a bigger stage came in the late 1970s when he was offered a full-time assistant coach gig at Baylor.
“At Baylor, I coached the first 60-foot shot-putter, had the first 26-foot long jumper, the first 7-foot high jumper, first sub-4-minute miler. I coached all of those,” Hart also said in 2019. “Actually, I enjoyed coaching the half-mile probably more than the quarter-mile and had more success early on in the half. And probably lectured more on the long jump than anything. At one point, we had three kids jumping 25 feet, and one of those was a walk-on.”
Hart retired as Baylor head coach in 2005 and took on the position of track and field director, which he held until 2018.
Clyde Hart was born on February 3, 1934 in Eudora, Arkansas to Thomas Clyde and Emma Lee Hart and made his mark in the sport at Hot Springs High School in Hot Springs, Arkansas where he won five high school state championships. Hart later enrolled at Baylor where he was a three-year letterman at Baylor from 1954 to 1956 after turning down an offer to attend LSU.
He is survived by his wife Maxine and sons Greg and Scott.
