There’s a twinkle in Pat Connolly’s eye when she talks about her long love affair with track and field. And her newest love, Radford University, brings that same sparkle to her eye. It’s an unlikely pairing: an internationally renowned track coach and a brand new program nestled in the scenic foothills of Southwest Virginia.

But all Connolly had to do was meet with the new track teams’ biggest fans, university president Douglas Covington and athletic director Greig Denny, to find the enthusiasm that kindled her desire to build another championship program. “What attracted me, as much as anything, was the attitude of the athletic director and the president,” says Connolly, who joined the Highlander staff last summer. “They were very committed that they wanted a track and field program. I saw an opportunity to start something and make it really wonderful.” And Connolly knows a thing or two about making something wonderful in track and field. A three-time Olympian, she has won 15 outdoor national championships and set 18 United States records in the 400-meters, the 800-meters and the pentathlon. The California native was an eight time All-American and won the pentathlon at the Pan American Games in 1967.

As a coach, she started women’s cross country and track and field at UCLA in 1973 and led the Bruins to the Association of Intercollegiate Athletics for Women (AIAW) national championship in 1977. After leading UCLA to a second-place finish in the 1978 AIAW championships, the forerunner to current NCAA women’s events, Connolly left the school to concentrate on becoming a personal coach. She trained two-time U.S. Olympic champion Evelyn Ashford from 1976 to 1984. She also guided Renaldo Nehemiah’s return to track and field after his stint with the San Francisco 49ers and coached Diane Williams to the U.S. National 100-meters championship and a fourth place finish in the world championships in 1987.

Connolly left coaching to raise her family with her husband of 24 years, Harold Connolly, the 1956 Olympic gold medalist in the hammer throw. This summer he’s retiring from his post as head of the Special Olympics in Washington, D.C. to join his wife in Radford as a volunteer assistant coach next season.
The Connolly’s road to Radford started when Denny first advertised the coaching position in the spring of 1997. “I was surprised to see that kind of resumé come in when we were first starting the program,” says Denny. “We had a lot of good candidates, but Pat’s experiences at the highest levels of track and field really stand out. She gives our program instant credibility.”

The addition of men’s and women’s track and field brought the number of Highlander varsity sports to 20. Radford had been the only Big South Conference member not offering track and field, and the addition of the program became a priority for President Covington, after he talked with potential students.

“Consistently in our surveys of prospective freshmen, track is the sport that most students wanted to see us add at Radford,” says Covington, who competed in the sport as an undergraduate at Central State University. “This is a natural outgrowth of our cross country program, and one that should strengthen our running program as a whole.”



The entire RU athletic program will be strengthened by the addition of the new track and field/soccer stadium slated to open this fall. Located just west of the Dedmon Center, the first phase of the $4 million facility will include a modern NCAA regulation track and a new full-size soccer field and scoreboard. A pit area for field events will be located adjacent to the facility, and Covington and Connolly envision a venue the entire community can use. Additional phases will provide bleacher seating for 5,000 fans along with a building that includes a press box, training room, locker room facilities and office space for teams like track, cross country, soccer, lacrosse and field hockey, which will utilize the new stadium. Lights will allow use of the facility at night and, again, make the Dedmon Center complex one of the top athletic facilities in the region.

“No question that this will be an outstanding facility,” says Dedmon Center director Ron Downs. “I’m sure one day this track will host some of the top state, regional and national competitions. Pat has such a great reputation on the national level, and she’ll be out there actively pursuing these type of events.”

The track and field program could pay major dividends to the university right away by bringing more prospective students to campus, but it’s the long term prospects that excite the 55-year-old Connolly. “I would like to take one athlete, if not the whole team, to a national championship here before I retire,” she says. “A national champion at Radford, wouldn’t that be awesome?”