Clyde Hart, BBA '56

His talent for coaching is exemplified by nine medal-winning track and field Olympians. Clyde Hart has developed generations of Baylor student athletes during the past half century, and we honor his significant contributions through the presentation of the Distinguished Achievement Award.

As a state-of-the-art stadium bearing his name rises along the Brazos River in honor of his 55 years of experience as a Baylor coach and student athlete, Clyde Hart (BBA ’56), the director of track and field/400 meters and architect of “Quarter-Miler U,” still believes in selling the University first and the program and facilities afterward.

A champion sprinter, Hart garnered a scholarship to Baylor, where he began in 1952. After graduation, he worked for an oil company in Wink, Texas, and then taught and coached at Little Rock Central High School.

In 1963, Hart became Baylor’s head track and field coach, a position he held for 42 years until retiring in 2005 to become Baylor’s director of track and field/400 meters.

Olympians Michael Johnson, Jeremy Wariner and Sanya Richards-Ross are among the nine athletes he coached in six straight Olympic games to win a total of 13 gold, two silver and two bronze medals. His Baylor men’s 4x400-meter relay teams have earned outdoor All-America status and captured 20 NCAA titles. Hart has coached 34 national champions, and his teams have turned in 10 World-Best performances.

One of Hart’s proudest accomplishments is the advancement of the women’s track program from a physical education course in the early 1970s to a distinguished NCAA Division I program today.

Selected as USA Track & Field’s 1996, 2004 and 2006 Nike Coach of the Year, Hart is a member of the Arkansas Sports Hall of Fame, the USA Track & Field Coaches Association Hall of Fame, the Texas Sports Hall of Fame, the Baylor Wall of Honor and the Baylor Athletic Hall of Fame.

He was named the U.S. Olympic Committee’s National Track & Field Coach of the Year in 1996, 2004 and 2006. A Big 12 Coach of the Year honoree with multiple Indoor Coach of the Year titles from the NCAA and the Southwest Conference, Hart received the highest track-coaching honor in 2009 when he was named the International Coach of the Year by the International Amateur Athletic Federation.

In 1997, he was recognized as a Distinguished Alumnus and has received the W.R. White Award and the Herbert Reynolds Service Award.

Hart’s wife, Dr. Maxine Barton Hart (BBA ’56), is professor emeritus of Information Systems at Baylor. Their family includes sons Greg and Scott (MBA ’98); daughter-in-law Kim; and grandchildren Ryan (MBA ’13), Mason, a Baylor junior, and Kennedy Ann.