Friday, July 14, 2000

Murray would now accept ACU job
By Ted Dunnam
Reporter-News Staff Writer

Jon Murray, Abilene Christian University’s interim head track coach, said he would now fill the current vacant head coaching job at the school if it were offered to him.

Murray, who became the interim head coach at the school when former head coach Wes Kittley took a similar post at Texas Tech last year, says his interests about the vacancy have changed during the past month. When the ACU head coaching job first became available, Murray was reluctant to consider himself for the position.

“Before, I thought they needed to open it up and see what was out there,’’ Murray said. “My original intent was to have a search and seek out who the best applicant was. Yes, I’d take it now. I still feel like I’m a very good candidate.

“My motivation is still to find the best applicant for the job. It just happens I’m applying a little later now.’’

Murray said he decided to throw his hat into the ring about three weeks ago.

“It’s been kind of a complicated situation,’’ Murray said.

Murray has served on the ACU coaching staff since 1991 where he has spearheaded the men’s and women’s cross country programs. His teams have won a combined 16 Lone Star Conference cross country titles.

This past fall, serving as interim head track coach, he guided the ACU men and women to national titles in the NCAA Division II indoor track and field championships. The Wildcats narrowly missed making it a clean sweep at nationals this past spring as the men won outdoor nationals while the women finished second.

Murray first became a full-time assistant in 1993 when Kittley took over both ACU track programs.

Stan Lambert, ACU Director of Athletics, had hoped to hire a track and field coach by now, but that obviously hasn’t panned out.

“It’s not moving as fast as we hoped it would,’’ Lambert said. “We’re still talking to a couple of candidates, checking out some references and looking at backgrounds. No meetings have been set.’’

One candidate, Don D. Hood, the son of former ACU track coach Don Hood, opted not to take the position with the Wildcats after interviewing.

“He elected to stay at Southwest Texas State,’’ Lambert said. “He was certainly in the top three candidates we had. One of the other two has also withdrawn his name.’’

That candidate was Steve Guymon, head track coach at Cordova High School in Memphis, Tenn.

“He was coaching in Tennessee and had been an assistant at Kansas for 10 or 11 years. For personal and family reasons, he decided to withdraw,’’ Lambert said. “He is an Oklahoma Christian University graduate whom we learned about through other contacts.

“We had a couple of sources recommending him to us.’’

Lambert said the timetable for hiring a coach is diminishing.

“Obviously, we’d like to have someone in place by the time school starts Aug. 25,’’ he said. “We’d prefer to have it done much sooner than that. In either case, our objective is to get the best person we can for the job.’’

Contact assistant sports editor Ted Dunnam at dunnamt@abinews.com or at 676-6771. We are on the Web at sports.texnews.com.