Tuesday, April 25, 2000

ACU to open search for head track coach
Murray asks school to resume looking for permanent coach
By Al Pickett
Reporter-News Staff Writer

Abilene Christian University is looking for head track and field coach again.

Jon Murray, who has served this year in an interim capacity, announced Monday that he has asked Stan Lambert, ACU’s director of athletics, to open the search for ACU’s new head coach immediately.

“Jon has done a great job,” Lambert said. “We’ve been talking over the last couple of months about what the program needed and what his strengths were. He came in to my office Wednesday and said he had decided that he thought the best position for him was head cross country coach and assistant track coach, which is the job he held before being named the interim head coach. He asked that we open it up, and that’s what we’ll do.”

Although Murray made the request last Wednesday, he didn’t want to make the announcement until Monday because he didn’t want his teams to be distracted by the news at last weekend’s Lone Star Conference championships. ACU won both the men’s and women’s conference team titles Saturday in San Angelo.

“This has been a great experience,” said Murray, who will remain at ACU as the head cross country coach and an assistant in track. “But all along I’ve just been the interim head coach. More than anything, I wanted them to have a national search to see what kind of candidates are out there. When I was named the interim coach, they said they were going to do that, and they haven’t yet.”

Murray, who has been the head cross country coach at ACU since 1991, was named the interim head track and field coach on Aug. 20, replacing long-time coach Wes Kittley, who resigned last summer to accept the head coaching position at Texas Tech.

“The transition has been as smooth as any I’ve been around,” Murray said. “We’ve been successful, and that’s a tribute to our athletes and coaches.”

Murray guided the ACU men’s cross country team to the LSC championship last fall, his 15th combined LSC cross country title during his coaching tenure at the school. The Wildcats finished third at the South Central Region meet and a school-best fourth place at the NCAA Division II national meet last fall.

He then led the men’s and women’s teams to NCAA Division II indoor track and field championships and LSC outdoor track and field titles this spring.

Lambert said his goal is to hire a new head coach by June 1, just a few days after the NCAA Division II outdoor national championships conclude. Lambert said Dr. Carroll Osburn, a professor in the ACU College of Biblical Studies, will serve as chairman of the search committee.

“Jon has done an outstanding job in the last nine months serving as interim head coach,” Lambert said. “He was able to bring stability and continuity to a program when it was needed most. I could not be more pleased with the way in which he stepped in and allowed our program to continue the success which we have all grown accustomed to having in the track and field at ACU.

“We owe Jon a tremendous debt of gratitude for the job he performed in serving as head track coach on an interim basis, and we’re certainly happy that Jon will continue in his role as the head cross country coach and assistant track coach.”

ACU has won 44 national track and field championships and will go to the national outdoor meet (May 25-27 in Raleigh, N.C.) as the odds-on favorite to win two more. If ACU wins both the men’s and women’s team titles, it would add to its legacy of dominance by becoming the only school in NCAA history to win four national track and field championships in one season on three different occasions. ACU first accomplished the feat in 1996 and again in 1999.

“We are looking for someone who will lead this program in the future and maintain the level of success achieved over the last several years,” Lambert said. “Jon has done a tremendous job while serving as interim head coach, and it will be a challenge to find someone who is as dedicated and committed to our program as Jon.”

Contact sports editor Al Pickett at 676-6772 or picketta@abinews.com. We are on the Web at sports.texnews.com.