Aug. 13, 2007

For an accidental coach, Beverly Kearney's success seems almost preordained.

Kearney, a national-class sprinter at Auburn, was working three jobs in Southern California in the early 1980s when she decided she'd better go back to school and get her master's degree.

She enrolled at Indiana State and moonlighted as a graduate assistant coach on the Sycamores' track and field team. Her career took off like a rocket. At 24, she was named the head women's track coach at Toledo. Two years later, she took a job as an assistant at Tennessee. She was named the head women's coach at Florida at age 29 and took the same position five years later at Texas.

"I moved through the process quickly because I didn't know any better," Kearney said. "I can't say there was a distinct plan. The only plan I had was that I wouldn't fail."

In 15 seasons at Texas, Kearney has guided the Longhorns to six NCAA team championships and 19 conference titles. To the honors she didn't plan for, she can now add another - membership in the U.S. Track & Field and Cross Country Coaches Association Hall of Fame.

Kearney will be inducted into the Hall of Fame Dec. 18 at the USTFCCCA annual convention in Phoenix. She'll be joined in the Class of 2007 by Lew Hartzog, Cyrus Jones, Tom Jones, John Mitchell, Irv Mondschein, Jim Sackett and Karl Schlademan.

"I'm very humbled," Kearney said. "It's an honor from your peers. I don't think anything can surpass that. It's like when your parents say, `Good job.' It means more."

In leading Florida to the NCAA indoor championship in 1992, Kearney became the first female African American coach to win a Division I title in any sport. She was inducted into the International Women's Sports Hall of Fame in 2004. Kearney also received the Gary Bridwell Courage Award from the Dallas All Sports Foundation for her courageous battle to overcome traumatic injuries suffered in a 2002 automobile crash.

Kearney has coached 14 individual NCAA champions, including Sanya Richards, Marshevet Hooker, Destinee Hooker, Suziann Reid, Michelle Carter and Erin Aldrich while 15 of her relay teams have won NCAA titles.

"The biggest thrill for me is seeing people walk across that stage or receive a medal - to see someone achieve a dream," Kearney said. "That's what drives me. It's addictive."

Just as she had no big goals when she started out in coaching, Kearney said she never imagined she'd be coaching this long. But she understands why she's still doing it.

"The most special thing is to get an e-mail from an athlete five or 10 years later and they say, `I get it now.' It might take them awhile, but they eventually understand what I was trying to teach them," Kearney said.

For more information on the inductees in this year's USTFCCCA Hall of Fame class, see www.ustfccca.org.