Edward Stanley Temple, the women’s track and field coach at Tennessee State University for more than four decades, died on September 22, two days after his 89th birthday.
Temple coached at Tennessee State, a historically black college, from 1950 to 1994, and 40 female Olympians came out of his program. His athletes won 23 Olympic medals, 13 of them gold, and their dominance in the early years of women’s collegiate track and field established Temple as one of the nation’s leading coaches. He also served frequently on the staffs of U.S. teams in international competition.
But Temple was not all about track and field, and he urged his runners to view athletics as a stepping stone to success beyond sports. The veteran coach was always quick to point to the educational and career accomplishments of his team members, known as the Tigerbelles. Of his 40 Olympians, 39 earned bachelor’s degrees, 28 went on to complete master’s degrees, and eight earned doctoral or medical degrees.
A native of Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, Temple was born on September 20, 1927. He attended John Harris High School in his hometown where he was the first African-American to captain the basketball and track teams. Temple entered Tennessee State—then known as Tennessee Agricultural and Industrial State Normal Academy—on a track scholarship in 1946. After he graduated in 1950, he began helping the school’s track teams, which at the time included only a few women. Temple also worked toward a master’s degree in sociology, a subject he eventually taught at Tennessee State while he coached.
Minimal funding during the early years meant Temple had to cut corners with the women’s track program. He drove his own DeSoto station wagon to transport team members to meets. And rather than patronize segregated restaurants, Temple’s teams would bring meals with them and stop for picnic lunches. The program did not begin offering scholarships until 1967, and by that time Temple and his Tigerbelles were dominating the collegiate women’s track and field scene.
The quality of Temple’s coaching became evident at the 1960 Rome Olympics. Temple was named head coach of the U.S. team, and seven Tigerbelles were representing their country. In Rome, Wilma Rudolph, the best-known of Temple’s athletes, became the first American woman to win three gold medals in one Olympic Games.
Rudolph triumphed at both 100 and 200 meters at the 1960 Games and anchored the victorious 4 x 100-meter relay team that included her Tigerbelle teammates Martha Hudson, Barbara Jones, and Lucinda Williams. The accomplishments of these women captured the attention of the American public, helping increase opportunities for women and girls at the collegiate and secondary school levels.
At the 1964 Tokyo Olympics, another Temple athlete from Tennessee State, Wyomia Tyus, claimed gold at 100 meters, an accomplishment she would repeat at Mexico City in 1968. Edith McGuire was runner-up to Tyus in the Tokyo 100 meters and ran to gold in the 200 meters. Temple’s final Olympic medalist was Chandra Cheeseborough-Guice, a 1981 Tennessee State grad. At the 1984 Los Angeles Games, she became the first women to win gold medals in both the 4 x 100-meter and 4 x 400-meter relay events.
Cheeseborough-Guice, who also took the silver medal at 400 meters in Los Angeles, returned to her alma mater in 1994 to coach Tennessee State’s program upon Temple’s retirement in May of that year. She was elevated to her current position as Director of Men’s and Women’s Track and Field in 2011.
“I always looked at Coach Temple as a father figure and a man of truth and wisdom,” said Cheeseborough-Guice in a statement. “He is one of the finest people I have ever had an opportunity to meet. He really brought out the best in me. He made me realize my potential that had not been tapped.”
Temple was named to at least nine different halls of fame, including the National Track and Field Hall of Fame (administered by USA Track & Field) in 1989. He is presently one of only four coaches enshrined in the United States Olympic Hall of Fame. Temple was preceded in death by his wife of 57 years, Charlie B. Law Temple, and the couple is survived by two children and a grandson.
