Since 1897, LSU track & field has had an illustrious history filled with some of the most memorable performers and achievements in the school’s colorful athletic heritage.
From its quiet birth at the Tulane Spring Games to its seat atop collegiate track prominence, one factor has remained consistent with the program — success through hard work and an unmatched will to win.
H. Warren Taylor, Jr., LSU track & field historian wrote it best, “Tom Sherburne and Devall drew the signal distinction of being thefirst men of the Old War Skule to carry the Purple and Gold on the cinder path that they failed to win in their events does not distract from their envious place in Tiger track history; for they were the forerunners of a host of sterling athletes that have established a record of consistent winning unsurpassed in the southland.”
The rest is history.
NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIPS
After winning five SIAA (Southern Intercollegiate Athletic Association) conference championships between 1913-1922 and capturing three consecutive SIC titles, Tiger track & field burst onto the national scene with an improbable upset of heavily favored Southern California to win the 1933 National Championship at Soldier Field in Chicago, Illinois.
LSU trackmen were led by the speed of Glen “Slats” Hardin and the strength of Jack Torrance. Hardin set new world records in the 440-yard dash (47.1) and 220 low hurdles (22.9) while Torrance did the same in the shot put competition (52-10). The title did not rest in the Tigers’ hands until the final event when Matt Gordy vaulted over the 14-foot mark for the first time in his career to secure LSU’s first ever national title.
It took 54 years for LSU to again grab the national crown, but in 1987, it was worn twice by the Lady Tigers. In only the program’s sixth season, it swept the indoor and outdoor national titles as the Lady Tigers were led by NCAA champions Schowonda Williams, Sylvia Brydson and Sheila Echols.
The Lady Tigers repeated their outdoor success in 1988, but 1989 and 1990 saw the LSU track program reach its highest point thus far. Those two seasons brought a total of five national titles to Baton Rouge. For the first time in NCAA history, the same school won both the men’s and women’s crown at the NCAA Outdoor Championships, first in 1989, then again in 1990. In 1989, for the second time in its history, the Lady Tigers swept the indoor and outdoor crowns while the men captured the outdoor title. It was the Tigers first in 56 years.
The LSU men and women started the decade of the 90’s the same way they ended the 1980’s by combining for outdoor national championships in 1990. The Lady Tigers pulled off another sweep in 1991 by again claiming the winning spots in the indoor and outdoor meets.
One of the most memorable moments in LSU track lore came at the 1992 national championships in Austin, Texas. Trailing Florida entering the final day of competition, the Lady Tigers received a consulate team effort to rally and defeat the Lady Gators (87-81) for an unprecedented sixth consecutive national crown.
The Lady Tigers again demonstrated their dominance by winning two more national titles in 1993. They won their fourth indoor national championship in the past seven years in the last event by winning the 4×400-meter relay in a then-school record time of (3:33.63).
The Lady Tigers then went 80 miles south of where they started their outdoor streak in 1987 to win their seventh consecutive NCAA outdoor championship. They did it in record breaking fashion by scoring a school record 93 points and by outscoring their second place opponents by 49 points.
In 1996, the Lady Tigers made history by winning their tenth straight NCAA Outdoor title. Never before had a women’s team reached double figures in consecutive titles in any NCAA sport. Led by seniors D’Andre Hill, Kim Carson, and Zundra Feagin, who all brought home individual titles, the Lady Tigers stormed into Eugene, Ore. and took their place in history.
While an outsider might look on and perceive that an 11th consecutive NCAA Outdoor title in 1997 was just another day at the office, it was far from it. A heavy underdog, the Lady Tigers used a 43 point-final day explosion to capture the national crown again in Bloomington, Ind. The competition came down to a single event – the 200 meter final. LSU qualified Astia Walker and Peta-Gaye Dowdie, while Texas countered with two runners as well.
The Lady Tigers knew they had to outscore Texas by a single point to win the title. Walker finished second, while Peta-Gaye Dowdie placed fifth. Nanceen Perry and Angie Vaughan of Texas placed third and fourth. When the points were added up, LSU had outscored Texas 12-11 in the most crucial race of the meet, getting that one point advantage it needed to clinch the overall title 63-62 in the closest finish in NCAA history.
In addition, the Lady Tigers claimed a fifth consecutive NCAA Indoor crown in 1997, their eighth in an eleven year span. Moreover, when combining indoor and outdoor totals, the Lady Tigers claimed 19 of a possible 22 NCAA Championships from 1987-97, creating a dynasty like no other in women’s athletics.
On June 3, 2000, the Lady Tigers added to that illustrious history with their 12th NCAA title in 14 years. How appropriate that the team that dominated the 20th century claimed the first title of the 21st century. Picked to finish fifth before the start of the NCAA Outdoor Championships, the Lady Tigers blew away the form charts, coming up with 46 points on the final day of competition to edge Southern California at Wallace Wade Stadium on the campus of Duke University. Joyce Bates won the 100-meter hurdles, while Keisha Spencer won the triple jump. Peta-Gaye Dowdie won the 200-meter dash, finished second in the
100-meter dash, anchored the Lady Tigers’ 4×100-meter relay to a second place finish and helped their mile relay score. With better than 20 points, Dowdie was the high scorer in the women’s competition at the NCAA Championships and concluded her career as a 19-time All-American, second in LSU history only to Esther Jones.
The championship was not sealed, however, until the final event of the competition. After a seventh place finish by the Lady Tigers’ mile relay team, Spencer needed to finish in the top three in the triple jump to secure victory. She not only did that, she slammed the door with a jump of 45-10, matching her school record while bring the NCAA trophy back to Baton Rouge after a two-year hiatus.
OLYMPICS AND WORLD CHAMPIONSHIPS
Since 1928, LSU track and field has been well represented in major international competition. LSU’s first Olympic competitor was Sid Bowman who placed sixth in the triple jump at the Amsterdam games. Tiger trackmen Glen “Slats” Hardin and Bowman both placed at the 1932 Los Angeles games. Hardin became LSU’s first medal winner as he took second place in the 400 hurdles for the United States and Bowman finished seventh in the triple jump.
At the 1936 Berlin games, Adolf Hitler and Nazi Germany watched as Tigers Hardin, Jack Torrance and Billy Brown competed for the United States. Hardin made history in the 400 hurdles as he became the first LSU trackster to ever win an Olympic Gold Medal.
Billy Hardin ran for the United States in the 400 hurdles at the 1964 Olympics but it was 24 years before LSU had any of its athletes perform in this arena again. The 1988 summer games in Seoul, South Korea, saw six Tigers and Lady Tigers compete for five different countries. Schowonda Williams and Sheila Echols represented the United States; Robin van Helden, Holland; Mikael Olander, Sweden; Lavern Eve, Bahamas and Angela Phipps, Canada. Echols became the first Lady Tiger to wear a Gold Medal as a part of the United States’ 4×100-meter relay championship team.
The 1992 Barcelona Olympics featured seven LSU tracksters. Sheila Echols, Esther Jones, and Kym Carter competed for the United States; Lotfi Khaida, Algeria; Simon Williams, United Kingdom; Dahlia Duhaney, Jamaica; Edgar Diaz, Puerto Rico and Donalda Duprey, Canada. They were led by 21-time All-America Jones who was a member of the USA’s Gold Medal- winning 4×100-meter relay team. Echols competed in her second consecutive Olympics placing eighth in the long jump and Carter finished 11th in the heptathlon in her Olympic debut.
At the 1996 Atlanta Olympics, LSU track and field was once again well represented. For the third consecutive Olympiad, a former LSU track athlete won a Gold Medal, as former Tiger Glenroy Gilbert ran the second leg of the Canadian 4×100-meter relay team that shocked the United States. D’Andre Hill advanced to the semi-finals of the women’s 100 meter dash, and was the only American collegiate woman to compete in the track events at the 1996 Olympics. Debbie Parris of Jamaica just missed medaling by placing fourth in the women’s 400-meter hurdles, while on the same night, David Kiptoo of Kenya finished sixth in the final of the men’s 800 meters.
At the 1999 World Championships in Seville, Spain, LSU was as usual well represented. 12 current or former LSU athletes were on hand, led by current Lady Tiger All-Americn Peta-Gaye Dowdie, who made the quarterfinal of the 100 meter dash and won a Bronze Medal as the anchor of the Jamaican 4×100 meter relay team.
During the 1999 indoor season former Tiger All-American Rohsaan Griffin made a splash in the 200 meter dash once again, smashing the American indoor record in the event with a time of 20.32, winning the American title and making the final at World Indoors.
THE COACHES
LSU track and field has been blessed with exceptional coaching talent, but during its first 18 years, LSU had numerous coaches, none whose tenure lasted more than three years. Its first full-time coach was Tad Gormley who arrived on the Baton Rouge campus in 1916. During his 12 years, LSU won three SIAA titles, competed on the new Tiger Stadium track and came into track prominence.
After Gormley’s departure, the legendary Bernie Moore took over in 1930. Moore molded the program into a national power and in 1933 guided the Tigers to their first national championship and a title in the first-ever SEC championship in only his fourth season. The Tigers reigned over the young Southeastern Conference by capturing 12 championships in 18 seasons under Moore.
Former Tiger great Al Moreau, member of the 1933 National Championship team, took over in 1949 and LSU track and field did not break stride. During his career, LSU captured six SEC outdoor titles and two SEC indoor championships.
LSU track and field has reached its zenith under Pat Henry. What he has been able to accomplish since his reign began in 1988 is not only remarkable – it’s history.
The most successful coach in school history in any sport, Henry has led LSU to 20 national titles (18 women, two men) and 19 SEC titles (14 women, five men). With his Lady Tigers’ victory at Duke earlier this month, Henry became only the second coach in NCAA history, all sports, to reach the 20-NCAA title plateau.
Henry is one of only three coaches ever to have won a National Championship with both a men’s and women’s team. He is the only one of those three to have won more than one title on each side. Of LSU’s 34 national titles as a university, Henry has served as head coach to better than half.