Stan Wright (track coach)

Stan Wright (August 1, 1921 – November 8, 1998) was the first African-American head coach of a United States track and field team. A noted college and national track coach and administrator over a forty-year period, he coached many Olympians and world record holders, for which, in 1993, he was rewarded with membership in the USA National Track and Field Hall of Fame. He achieved notoriety in 1972 as the man held responsible for the two American favourites for the 100 meters title, Eddie Hart and Rey Robinson, missing their quarter-final races. He was later exonerated in an official report to the United States Olympic Committee.

Born August 1, 1921 in Englewood, New Jersey, Wright graduated from Springfield College in Massachusetts in 1949.

Wright was a track coach for 26 years at Texas Southern University, acting as Head Track Coach between 1950 and 1967. Here he coached four Olympians, including the winner of the 100 meters at the 1968 Olympics, Jim Hines. Jim Hines, from Oakland, California had deliberately chosen to study at Texas Southern because it had the best track and field team in the country.

He was later head track coach at Western Illinois University, between 1967 and 1969, and California State University, Sacramento, between 1969 and 1979. He acted as Athletics Director for Fairleigh Dickinson College between 1979 and 1985.

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