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Post by texas48 on Feb 9, 2024 8:28:40 GMT -6
Saw news this morning that ACU Track and Field LEGEND Don Hood has passed away. His son, Derek, posted on Facebook about 6:30 a.m. this morning, saying, "Heaven just added an amazing tenor. The praises will sound a little sweeter this morning! My Dad peacefully crossed over early this morning."
I am sure we all know the legend Coach Hood left in his path...not only the thousands of students who ran/threw/jumped/vaulted for him, but the other student-athletes with whom he interacted as well as the coaches and parents.
Blessings to the Hood family and friends on the loss of this wonderful man!
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Post by WildCatToothDoc on Feb 9, 2024 9:12:22 GMT -6
Amazing coach, man, and Christian! Heaven is happy to have him!
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Post by EastTexasWildcat on Feb 9, 2024 12:11:29 GMT -6
Yes, blessings to the Hood family. He was a great man, dad and coach. An absolute legend.
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Post by rc on Feb 10, 2024 19:56:03 GMT -6
Such an admirable man, devout Christian, and great coach. He is a legend.
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Post by acutrackfan on Feb 13, 2024 14:15:45 GMT -6
Coach Hood was truly one-of-a-kind guy. He was a student of the sport of T&F. His greatest success internationally was with his vaulters, but he did clinics on several different disciplines in the T&F world - throws, hurdles, jumps. One great vault story -- at the 1984 Olympic Trials in LA, there were 18 competitors in the PV and 6 (1/3 of the field) were current or former ACU vaulters. Billy Olson made the US Olympic team that year and Brad Pursley was the alternate -- which means he trained with the Olympic team right up to the Games themselves.
Coach Hood would speak his mind and that sometimes got him crossways with that ACU athletic administration. One of the greatest successes for Coach Hood was the way he mentored Wes Kittley into becoming one of the premier T&F coaches in America. There are three ACU coaches in the Texas T&F Coaches Association Hall of Fame -- Oliver Jackson, Don Hood, and Wes Kittley (who was inducted this past year). I certainly plan on being at the funeral and there will no doubt be many of his athletes there. Note too that memorial gifts can be made to the Don Hood T&F Endowment -- I made my memorial gift to it today.
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Post by acutrackfan on Feb 16, 2024 22:37:35 GMT -6
Went to Coach Hood's funeral today. A staggering number of All-Americans and Olympic trial participants. The things his athletes said about Coach Hood were absolutely life-changing for them. Bill Olson was on a trip that was planned a long time ago, but he did a video. One of the things he talked about was they got $5 a day each to buy food -- he would pool his money with 2 of his vaulting buddies and go to the grocery food and see how far $15 would go -- loaves of bread, lunch meat, cinnamon rolls and the like. And, these guys were the very best in the world in the pole vault! Amazing what Coach Hood could do with a tiny budget.
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