After winning 27 NCAA track and field titles in 17 seasons,track and field head coach Pat Henry is leaving LSU to become thehead coach at Texas A&M.
Henry replaces Ted Nelson who retired in June after 14 seasonsas head coach of the Aggies.
“I’m excited about the opportunity to lead the Texas A&Mtrack program,” Henry said in a statement on the Texas A&MAthletics Web site. “A&M has an excellent tradition in trackand field and I look forward to the challenge ahead. I like[Athletic Director] Bill Byrne’s vision; he is dedicated to beingthe very best and I look forward to working with him … Iappreciate the many outstanding track athletes at LSU, my coachesand the administration, but the timing is right for a newchallenge.”
Henry arrived at LSU in 1988 and had immediate success, winningthe NCAA women’s outdoor title in his inaugural season. Over thecourse of the next nine seasons Henry’s teams would capture 18 moreNCAA titles, including 10 straight women’s NCAA outdoorchampionships.
This season, LSU swept the men’s and women’s NCAA IndoorChampionships — their third sweep under Henry. The Tigers sweptthe NCAA Outdoors in 1989 and 1990. No other school has ever wonboth men’s and women’s titles in the same year.
During his tenure at LSU, Henry won 12 women’s outdoor titles,10 women’s indoor titles, three men’s outdoor titles and two men’sindoor titles.
Under Henry, the LSU track program has produced 37 Olympians and38 world championship competitors, with three Olympic goldmedalists and six world championship winners.
The Texas A&M job is a homecoming of sorts for Henry, whowas the head coach at Blinn Junior College in Brenham, Texas from1983 to 1987. Henry was named both Indoor and Outdoor NationalJunior College Coach of the Year in 1986 and 1987, and his teamsswept the 1987 NJCAA Indoor and Outdoor Championships.