Legendary track and field coach Clyde Hart was ‘second father to so many’

By Jerry Hill

Baylor Bear Insider

WACO, Texas – Clyde Hart, the man who built Baylor track and field into "Quarter Miler U." in his 56 years with the program, died Saturday in Waco after a lengthy bout with cancer.

Hart, 91, coached 34 national champions (14 individual, 20 relays) and 566 All-American performances in his Hall of Fame Baylor career and was the personal coach for nine Olympians who won a total of 13 gold medals, one silver and three bronze.

"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. "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."

Born Feb. 3, 1934, in Eudora, Ark., to Thomas Clyde and Emma Lee Hart, won five Arkansas high school state championships at Hot Springs and was a three-year letterman at Baylor (1954-56) after initially committing to LSU.

After building Little Rock Central High School into one of the elite programs in the state in his first stint as a coach, Hart returned to his alma mater as the head track and field coach when Jack Patterson left to take the job at the University of Texas in 1963.

Hart coached his first All-Americans in 1985, when Willie Caldwell won the 500 meters at the NCAA Indoor meet and then anchored the 4x400 relay to a win at the NCAA Outdoor Championship.

That was the first of 20 national championships in the 4x400 relay between 1985 and 2009, when Quentin Iglehart-Summers anchored a group with Trey Harts, Marcus Boyd and LeJerald Betters to the indoor title. He also coached seven national champions in the 400 meters, including Jeremy Wariner, who won the NCAA indoor and outdoor titles before adding Olympic gold medals in the 400 and 4x400 relay at the 2004 Olympics.

"He pushed us to always be the best and to pursue excellence in everything we did," said Todd Harbour, a five-time All-American and six-time conference champion who followed Hart as head coach in 2005 when Clyde stayed on as director of track and field. "He was like a second father to me and so many others."

Staying for another 14 years as the director while also coaching the 400-meter runners, Clyde retired after the 2019 season, when he led Waco native Wil London to a third-place finish in the 400 meters and another All-American finish for the 4x400 relay.

"What can I say about Coach Hart. He was an amazing coach, phenomenal mentor and a second father to me," said current head coach Michael Ford, a six-time All-American and two-time national champion for Hart at Baylor. "Today, we lost a great man, Baylor legend and super human being. He will always be remembered and in my heart."

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

He served as an assistant coach on USA's 2000 Olympic team, when Michael Johnson won his second-consecutive 400-meter title after sweeping the 200 and 400 in 1996. The NCAA national indoor coach of the year in 1989 and 1996, Clyde was also a four-time Southwest Conference indoor coach of the year and the Big 12 women's indoor coach of the year in 2005.

"When you think of Baylor, you think of Coach Hart," current associate head coach Stacey Smith told the Waco Tribune-Herald. "It wasn't just the track program, it was the whole community. . . . He represented Baylor wherever he went."

Rhoades, who came to Baylor three years before Hart retired, said he feels "so blessed to have had a relationship with him."

"He was always so supportive and loved his Baylor Bears. There was never a visit when we did not talk about football, basketball and all our other sports. All of us who knew him will miss him, and (his wife) Maxine and the Hart family remain in our prayers."

Survivors include his wife of 69 years, Maxine Barton Hart; sons Greg Patterson Hart and Scott Barton Hart (and wife Kimberly); grandsons Ryan Walter Hart (and wife Taylor) and Mason Clyde Hart (and wife Nicole); granddaughter Kennedy Ann Razo (and husband Nathan); great-grandson, Thorne Hart; brother James B. Hart (and wife Carolyn); sister-in-law Ann Barton Jones; and brother-in-law Dr. Gerald Cobb.

Funeral services are pending.

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