Bubba Thornton (born March 9, 1947) was the

Texas Longhorns men's track and field The Texas Longhorns men's track & field program is coached by Edrick Floréal. The Longhorns were runners-up in the outdoor championships in 1987, 1988, and 1997 but have never won a title. Other notable coaches of the Texas men's program have in ...

coach at the

University of Texas at Austin The University of Texas at Austin (UT Austin, UT, or Texas) is a public research university in Austin, Texas. It was founded in 1883 and is the oldest institution in the University of Texas System. With 40,916 undergraduate students, 11,07 ...

from 1996 to 2013. He is also the former head coach for the

USA Track & Field USA Track & Field (USATF) is the United States national governing body for the sports of track and field, cross country running, road running and racewalking (known as the sport of athletics outside the US). The USATF was known between 1979 and ...

team for the

2008 Beijing Summer Olympics The 2008 Summer Olympics (), officially the Games of the XXIX Olympiad () and also known as Beijing 2008 (), were an international multisport event held from 8 to 24 August 2008, in Beijing, China. A total of 10,942 athletes from 204 Na ...

Thornton graduated from

Texas Christian University Texas Christian University (TCU) is a private research university in Fort Worth, Texas. It was established in 1873 by brothers Addison and Randolph Clark as the Add-Ran Male & Female College. It is affiliated with the Christian Church (Disciple ...

("TCU") in 1969 with a bachelor's degree in physical education. He participated in varsity football and track and field at TCU. After graduating, he was drafted by the Buffalo Bills in the 14th round of the 1969 American Football League draft and started as a rookie wide receiver. He began his coaching career at

Keller High School Keller High School is a public high school located in the city of Keller, Texas and is served by the Keller Independent School District. The school educates students in the majority of the city of Keller, western Southlake, northwestern Colleyv ...

where he served as the athletics director and head football coach from 1977 - 1981. In 1982, he became head coach of track and field at TCU where he coached 72 NCAA All-Americans and his men's team had five NCAA Top 10 finishes (1983, ’87, ’88, ’89 and ’91) and 11 Top 20 finishes. He also coached the TCU team to 39 major relay titles, including five NCAA 400-meter relay championships (1986, ’87, ’89, ’91 and ’95) and the 1983 1,600-meter relay national title. In 1996, Thornton was hired as the head coach for the men's track and field team at UT. In 17 seasons, his team as finished in the top 15 at the NCAA Outdoor Championships 13 times, including finishing in the top five four times. He has coached the UT team to 19 top 10 NCAA finishes and 11

Big 12 conference The Big 12 Conference is a college athletic conference headquartered in Irving, Texas, USA. It consists of ten full-member universities. It is a member of Division I of the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) for all sports. Its ...

titles (six indoor, five outdoor) and 1

Southwest Conference The Southwest Conference (SWC) was an NCAA Division I college athletic conference in the United States that existed from 1914 to 1996. Composed primarily of schools from Texas, at various times the conference included schools from Oklahoma ...

outdoor title. Thornton has also served as a coach in the following capacities: * Head Coach USA, Men’s Track and Field Team, USA Track & Field - 2008 Beijing Summer Olympic Games * Head Coach USA, World Outdoor Men’s Track and Field, USA Track & Field -

2003 World Championships in Athletics The 9th World Championships in Athletics, under the auspices of the International Association of Athletics Federations, were held from 23 August to 31 August 2003 in the Stade de France in Saint-Denis, Seine-Saint-Denis, France. Men's results T ...

* Assistant Coach USA, Men’s Track and Field Team, USA Track & Field - 2000 Sydney Summer Olympics * Head Coach USA -

1996 World Junior Championships in Athletics The 1996 World Junior Championships in Athletics were held in Sydney, Australia on August 20–25. Results Men Women Medal table Participation According to an unofficial count through an unofficial result list, 1049 athletes from 142 cou ...

Thornton retired in 2013. He was Inducted into the Texas Track and Field Coaches Hall of Fame, Class of 2015.

External links

Bubba Thornton's UT Profile

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Thornton, Bubba 1947 births Living people Texas Christian University alumni Athletics (track and field) coaches Place of birth missing (living people) TCU Horned Frogs football players Buffalo Bills players Texas Longhorns track and field coaches

See also

External links

References