Tom Tellez Honored as USATF Legend Coach
7/1/2016 12:00:00 AM | Track and Field
INDIANAPOLIS -- Legendary Houston Cougar track & field and U.S. International head coach Tom Tellez will be honored with the 2016 USATF Legend Coach Award, the organization announced this week.
Tellez will be recognized by USATF President Stephanie Hightower and USATF CEO Max Siegel at Hayward Field on at 12:15 p.m., July 2, at an award ceremony during the U.S. Olympic Trials.
Through two stints as the USATF International head coach, Tellez's United States track & field squads led all nations in overall medal count including the most gold medals. Tellez also helped lead the U.S. to 10 gold medals and 26 total podiums at the 3rd IAAF World Championships in Tokyo, Japan, while picking up 55 medals (26 gold) at the 1987 Pan American Games in Indianapolis, Indiana.
During his 23-year career coaching the Cougar men, Tellez garnered nine top 10 NCAA Indoor Championships finishes, while ranking inside the top 15 at the outdoor championships six times. Tellez started the women's program in 1982 and immediately won the Southwest Conference Indoor Championship in 1983. The Cougar women would go on to pick up three top 10 finishes at the NCAA Indoor Championships and eight top 20 marks at the outdoors under Tellez's tutelage.
Tellez won 12 conference championships at Houston in the SWC and Conference USA including six men's and women's indoor and outdoor titles during his first two seasons in Conference USA en route to winning the conference's coach of the year award in 1997 and 1998.
While with the Cougars, Tellez recruited and tutored some of the greatest athletes in school and track & field history. Tellez brought Carl Lewis to Houston and promptly coached him to four NCAA Championships and nine Olympic gold medals. Tellez also coached former 100-meter dash world record holder and his successor at the University of Houston, Leroy Burrell, to three NCAA titles and an Olympic gold medal.
Tellez also led Carol Lewis to four NCAA long jump national championships and coached Jolanda Jones to three heptathlon titles, while also tutoring the likes of Joe DeLoach, Kirk Baptiste and Frank Rutherford among many more athletes. In his coaching career, Tellez led 13 athletes to Olympic Medals and from 1984-86 six of his seven U.S. sprinters won Olympic gold.
As an athlete at Whittier College, Tellez was a sprinter as well as a halfback and defensive back for the football team, eventually earning a bachelor of science in physical education before moving on for his master's degree at Chapman College. He began his coaching career as a graduate assistant at Whittier before serving in U.S. Armed Forces, eventually returning to become the head coach at Buena Park High School and Fullerton Junior College before taking an assistant position at UCLA.
The USATF Legend Coach Award has been presented to Half of Fame Tigerbelle Coach Ed Temple (2014) and Dr. Joe Vigil (2015) in the first two years of its existence.
NATIONALLY RANKED SIGNING CLASS
The Cougars made noise throughout the entire offseason when the men's signing class was ranked as the No. 2 class in the nation by Flotrack last July. The current freshmen on campus are led by three incoming student-athletes on the MileSplit All-American team. Marcus McWilliams (110m hurdles), Gerald Mills (200m) and John Lewis III (100m) all earned All-America honors, while distance runner Jahnavi Schneider was named as the No. 3 cross country recruit in the state of Texas by TxRunning.com.
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Fans can keep up with the latest in University of Houston Cougar athletics by following us on Facebook (Facebook.com/HoustonAthletics), Twitter (@UHCougars), Instagram (houstoncougars) and YouTube.com (Youtube.com/UHAthletics). In addition, the Track and Field team has established its own official Facebook (facebook.com/HoustonCougarTrackandField) and Twitter pages ().
Players Mentioned
