Dean Hayes
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A career that has spanned nearly 50 years of coaching, Dean Hayes will be honored Wednesday night as he will be inducted into the 2008 Class of the U.S. Track & Field and Cross Country Coaches Association Hall of Fame in Phoenix, Ariz. This will mark his fifth hall of fame induction.
Hayes, whose career began in 1959, has become a staple in the Murfreesboro community and in the Blue Raider family as he is currently in his 44th year of service at the University.
His men's teams dominated the Ohio Valley Conference (OVC), and his women's teams duplicated that success since Hayes took over the women's program in 1987. His squads continued their early success when Middle Tennessee moved into the Sun Belt Conference (SBC) winning 13 of 26 indoor and outdoor titles.
"It's a great honor to be inducted into the USTFCCCA Hall of Fame and to be recognized by your peers for your efforts. I have been fortunate enough to be around some great athletes," said Hayes on his induction. "I've had many opportunities in this life and I've benefited from being in the right place at the right time," Hayes added.
Hayes, a native of Naperville, Ill., began his illustrious coaching career at St. Mel High School in Chicago in 1959 before moving on to De La Salle High in Minnesota. His first collegiate coaching job came at his alma mater, Lake Forest College, in 1963, where he served as the head cross country coach and assistant track coach. He was at Lake Forest for two years until he was appointed to his present post at Middle Tennessee.
His arrival at Middle Tennessee in 1965 marked the emergence of a new class of track & field competition. He focused his recruiting efforts on the jumps and relays and securing top-notch competitors for his programs. Hayes is credited with opening Middle Tennessee track & field to minorities and with recruiting the school's first international student-athletes. He has guided the Middle Tennessee program to 29 OVC titles, 14 SBC championships, and 18 NCAA Top 25 finishes. Hayes has won 12 Sun Belt Conference Coach of the Year awards in addition to his 15 OVC Coach of the Year honors, which includes 10 in a row from 1977-1986. In 1981, Hayes was named the NCAA Outdoor Track & Field Coach of the Year, and was also named the NCAA District Coach of the Year outdoors in 1977 and then again in 1981.
Forty-four of his athletes have earned 84 All-American honors, four have become national champions, and a number of them have gone on to compete internationally in the Olympic Games, World University Games and Pan-American Games. There could have been more awards, but Middle Tennessee did not sport a track program from 1987-90. Some of his more notable athletes were NCAA Champions Tommy Haynes (1974), Barry McClure (1972, '73), Dionne Rose (1994), and most recently Mardy Scales (2003). Hayes also guided Roland McGhee to nine All-American honors, and both McClure and Greg Artis won All-American honors seven times.
He was inducted into the Blue Raider Hall of Fame in 1982, the Illinois Sports Hall of Fame in 1993, the Tennessee Sports Hall of Fame in 1994 and the Mason-Dixon Athletic Club Hall of Fame in 2005. Hayes served as the President of the NCAA Division I Track and Field Coaches from 1981-1983. |
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