Terry Hull Crawford

Terry Crawford received the BS in 1970 and the MS in 1972 from UT. When she was a student, there was no intercollegiate athletics program for women other than a few club teams housed in the Department of Physical Education. A group of people connected to the men’s track program decided to start a community track club and to include women. As a freshman, she began her running career and participated from the Knoxville Track Club. By her junior year, she was representing the Knoxville Track Club at meets throughout the country and was training with the men’s track team. Her coach was Roger Gunn, a Knoxville businessman.

In 1972–73, the newly formed AIAW announced national championships in seven sports, one of which was track and field. Dr. Nancy Lay and Dr. Helen Watson of the Women’s Physical Education Department encouraged Crawford to go, and Lay and other members of the PE Department found the money for her to attend. She won two championships. In 1971 she was a member of the World University Games team and participated in the Pan-American Games the same year.

She retired from track in 1972 as a result of a disc injury and a severe hamstring pull. She concentrated on completing her graduate degree and served as an instructor in the PE Department. She taught at the high school level in Knoxville for a year and then joined the UT Physical Education Department as teacher and women’s track coach. In 1980 she coached her track team to the national title in the AIAW, the first women’s national championship.

Under her leadership, UT won the first four women’s SEC outdoor championships, as well as the first women’s SEC indoor championship. In 1984 Crawford accepted the head women’s track and field position at the University of Texas and extended her record of successes. Between 1984 and 1992, Texas won 18 Southwest Conference Championships—four in cross country, eight in indoor track and field, and six in outdoor track and field. The Texas team also won four NCAA championships during her tenure, including the first Triple Crown in NCAA women’s history in 1988. In 1992 she became director of men’s and women’s track and field and cross-country at Cal Poly, where she coached students to three individual national championships, as well as to team championships in both men’s and women’s cross country.

Crawford has served as president of the Women’s College Cross Country Association and as president of the US Track Coaches Association. She has served as national team coach for numerous competitions, including the 1988 Olympics. In 2008 the US Track & Field and Cross Country Coaches Association created an award in her name. The Terry Crawford Program of the Year Award is given to the most outstanding NCAA Division I women’s cross-country and track-and-field program. She is the author of Winning Track and Field Drills for Women (1985) and, with Bob Bertucci, Sociology of Sport Diverse Perspectives (1982).

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  • Title Terry Hull Crawford
  • Author
  • Keywords Terry Hull Crawford
  • Website Name Volopedia
  • Publisher University of Tennessee Libraries
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  • Access Date July 20, 2025
  • Original Published Date
  • Date of Last Update October 6, 2018