Honoriing a legendary coach that put Tennessee State track and field on the map.

Coach Ed Temple came to TSU in 1950 as a student, and left in 1994 as one of the most celebrated coaches in Olympic history.

Temple coached the women's Olympic track team in 1960 and in 1964, becoming the first to repeat the feat. He also was the coach of the 1980 team that boycotted the Olympics in Russia.

Even though Temple could not offer any student-athlete a scholarship, he still found a way to bring top quality talent to TSU such as Wilma Rudolph, Wyomia Tyus and Willie White.

Those runners, along with many others that Temple coached, combined to win 23 Olympic medals and 34 National Championships.

In all, Temple was a coach for 28 years and a part of the Olympic committee for 24.

Eight of the Tigerbelles that Temple coached have been inducted in the National Track and Field Hall of Fame including Wilma Rudolph and Chandra Cheeseborough- the current director for the TSU track and field team.

Outside of track, Temple made sure that his girls performed well in the classroom. In fact, all but one of Temple's Olympic TSU student-athletes graduated, and 28 of his trainees have master's degrees.

Last month, Temple was inducted into the United States Olympic Hall of Fame in Chicago.

Temple is also a member of the National Track & Field Hall of Fame, Tennessee Sports Hall of Fame, Helms Hall of Fame, Tennessee State University Hall of Fame, Harrisburg Central Area Chapter Hall of Fame, Pennsylvania Sports Hall of Fame, Ohio Valley Conference Hall of Fame, Black Athletes Hall of Fame and Communiplex National Sports Hall of Fame.

Tennessee State created an award for Temple called the Edward S. Temple Award that is given each year to the top female track and field student-athlete at the school.

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