Sam Bell (athletics coach)

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Sam Bell (born March 7, 1928 in Columbus , Missouri , † June 27, 2016 in Bloomington , Indiana ) was a successful American athletics coach, especially for middle-distance runners.

Life

After high school in rural Nebraska, Bell volunteered for naval aviation in 1945 . However, since the war was already over, it was no longer used. From 1946 Bell studied at the private Doane University in Crete (Nebraska) political science and English (Bachelor 1950). After two years as a teacher and athletics coach at Wymore High School in Gage County , Nebraska, he moved to Cottage Grove, Oregon . This fundamentally changed his life, because with Dyrol Burleson he found and trained the new record holder of the USA over a mile of high school. Now Bell continued his studies at the University of Oregon , where he completed his master's degree in sports science in 1956 . In 1957 he became assistant coach, the following year head coach of the athletes at Oregon State University, and he won the American University Championship with his cross-country team in 1961. In 1965 he moved to the University of California, Berkeley , before moving to Indiana University Bloomington in 1969 , where he stayed until his retirement in 1998. Here, his teams won a total of 26 Big Ten Conference championships . Bell demanded very intensive training from his runners with a variety of tempo runs.

Athletes he trained included Olympians Dyrol Burleson , Morgan Groth , Tracy Smith , Jim Spivey , Bob Kennedy , Terry Brahm , Mark Deady , Sunder Nix , Robert Cannon and DeDee Nathan . He was the head coach at the international match between the USA and the USSR in 1964, coach of the medium and long distance athletes at the 1976 Olympic Games in Montreal and at the 1987 Pan American Games . He played an important role in separating USA Track & Field from the Amateur Athletic Union as the organization responsible for athletics in the USA. In 1992 he was inducted into the National Track and Field Hall of Fame and in 2001 into the United States Track and Field Coaches Hall of Fame , which also honored him with the 2011 George Dales Award .

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ http://www.indystar.com/story/sports/college/indiana/2016/06/27/ini-iu-track-coach-sam-bell-dies/86442950/ on . 4th March 2017
  2. ↑ Arnd Krüger : Many roads lead to Olympia. The changes in training systems for medium and long distance runners (1850–1997) . In: N. Gissel (Hrsg.): Sporting performance in change . Czwalina, Hamburg 1998, pp. 41-56.
  3. ↑ https://www.nytimes.com/2016/06/28/sports/sam-bell-an-exacting-mentor-of-runners-dies-at-88.html?_r=0 on . 4th March 2017
  4. ↑ http://iuhoosiers.com/news/2011/12/15/Former_Coach_Sam_Bell_Named_George_Dales_Award_Honoree.aspx on . 4. <March 2017
personal data
SURNAME Bell, Sam
BRIEF DESCRIPTION American athletics coach
DATE OF BIRTH March 7, 1928
PLACE OF BIRTH Columbus , Missouri
DATE OF DEATH June 27, 2016
Place of death Bloomington , Indiana