In the middle of his 40th season coaching track and field at Louisiana Tech University, Gary Stanley announced his retirement today in a press release from the university. Stanley has been the head coach for the Bulldogs for the last 34 years.
The numbers Stanley has put are gaudy.
21 times Stanley was named coach of the year. 19 conference championships, 21 if two as an assistant are included. 46 athletes under Stanley have received All-American honors, including 21 in the last six years.
"When I think back to those championship teams," Stanley said, "I am most proud of the fact that we found a way to get it done. I'm always so happy for those kids. And it's never easy. Right? But, I also think about the ones that got away. The championship meets lost by one or two points."
Stanley's competitive spirit may have rubbed off from his mentor-legendary college track coach Jerry Dyes, who hired and mentored Stanley before turning over the reins in 1984.
"He was one of the smartest people I have ever been around," Stanley said. "He could coach any event and was good at it. I coached the distance and he coached everything else."
Mike Cambre was senior at East Jefferson High School when Stanley was a sophomore "wanna-be" distance runner at the school. It was the beginning of a friendship that has spanned half of a century.
Stanley ran for a junior college in Pensacola before returning to Louisiana and competing for and graduating from Southeastern Louisiana University in 1977.
Before he coached in college, Stanley made a name for himself as the Bonnable head coach, where he coached distance phenom John Ratcliff, the high school phenom set a Louisiana state record in Class 4A for running the 3200 meters in 9:12, good enough for No. 4 in the nation in 1982. Ratcliff dipped down to 8:53 in a meet the summer after his graduation from Bonnabel.
"Those were special years," Stanley said. "John was a great student and a great kid."
"I'm not surprised at what he has accomplished," Cambre said. "He has always had a burning desire to succeed. He had a sticktoitiveness about him which speaks to his dedication to the sport."
The thing which has impressed Cambre the most about his friend and former high school teammate over the years is his innate ability to push his athletes beyond what they thought was possible.
"I cannot tell you how many times I have been around Gary and an athlete has come up and told him 'Coach, I never thought I could run that fast.'" Cambre said.
Long-time hall of fame former high school and college coach Frank Trammel agrees.
"Coach Gary had a way to take normal high school guys and turn them into something special at the college level," Trammel said. "He was very cerebral and was able to see things other coaches either couldn't see or failed to see. Over the years, I don't think he got enough credit for that."
Sometimes, it wasn't just athletes who Stanley pushed outside of their comfort zone.
"I'll never forget when he came walking up to me at the Tech track," TCU assistant track coach Shawn Jackson, who --at the time--was Stanley's graduate assistant-- said. "He said, 'hey! You're going to be my assistant coach."
"What are you talking about?" Jackson asked.
Stanley repeated it to Jackson.
"I don't think I'm ready," Jackson confided in Stanley.
"Well, you better get ready," Stanley told him. "I've made my mind up and you're going to be my assistant coach."
The two had a very different conversation when Jackson competed for Stanley. A sprinter who transferred to Louisiana Tech from Erie Community College in Buffalo, NY, Stanley walked into Hutchison Dormitory and found Jackson and his teammates dancing in the hallway with loud music blasting from speakers.
"He told me in no uncertain terms that if I didn't get my act together he would put my ass on a bus back to Buffalo," Jackson said. "I believed he would have done it. That was all it took."
Jackson, who was an assistant for Stanley for 18 years, reflected on Stanley's career in the DFW airport Thursday afternoon waiting with his TCU Horned Frogs sprinters and jumpers to fly to a meet in Ames, Iowa.
"I am so appreciative of his mentorship," Jackson said. "That is the main thing. There came a time when he told me that I needed to leave Tech and spread my wings. And I did. He knew what was best for me. He believed in me when I didn't believe in myself. Now, I have become a part of his family and he has become a part of my family. I'm happy for him that he can walk away from the stress and do some things that he has always wanted to do."
What does Stanley want to do?
"An assistant coach asked me last weekend on the bus coming home from Birmingham at 1a.m.," Stanley said. "I told him what I'm NOT going to do. I'm not going to worry. As a coach, you worry every day about your athletes. I'm not going to worry."
Five conferences, "eight or nine" athletic directors, it's been quite the ride-and minefield- for Stanley to navigate over his 40 year coaching career.
While many successful coaches have their eyes on big-time jobs, Stanley never considered putting Ruston in his rearview mirror.
"I loved the rolling hills," Stanley said. "I loved running on the trails. I loved the weather. I loved going to the track at 9 pm and turning on the lights and being able to have a workout if I wanted. I've been real fortunate. I've been damn lucky."