Hall of Fame track coach Ed Temple, who helped guide history-making Olympians Wilma Rudolph and Wyomia Tyus to greatness, has died, The Tennessean reported, citing an anonymous Tennessee State University source. He was 89.
A native of Harrisburg, Pa., Temple rose to prominence in the 1950s as the track and field coach at Tennessee State, a historically black university in Nashville.
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He turned TSU's women's track team, which he dubbed "the Tigerbelles," into a national power, with the likes of Rudolph and Tyus, who were among 40 TSU women to represent the U.S. in the Olympics.
Rudolph became the first American woman to win three track and field gold medals (100m, 200m, 4x100m) at a single Olympic Games in 1960 in Rome.
Tyus became the first woman to successfully defend an Olympic 100-meter gold medal in 1964 (Tokyo) and '68 (Mexico City).
U.S. athletes won 13 gold, six silver and four bronze medals under Temple, who was inducted into the U.S. Olympic Hall of Fame in 2012.
He also led Tennessee State to 24 national titles and is a member of no fewer than eight other halls of fame, including the National Track and Field Hall of Fame and the Black Athletes Hall of Fame.
