Jimmy Carnes
Encyclopedia
James Jerome "Jimmy" Carnes (November 29, 1934 – March 5, 2011) was an American track and field
athlete, coach and administrator. A successful coach at the high school, college and international levels, Carnes compiled a 161–11 career dual meet record, highlighted by four college conference championships and six state high school championships. Carnes was the head coach of the U.S. Olympic
track & field team and the Florida Gators track and field team, the founder of the Florida Track Club, and a member of the U.S. Track & Field Hall of Fame.
. He attended Mercer University
in Macon, Georgia
from 1952 to 1956, where he played for the Mercer Bears basketball
team and was a javelin throw
er and high jump
er for the Bears track and field team. Carnes dated his future wife, Nanette, a Mercer education major whom he knew from Eatonton, while they were undergraduates.
in DeKalb County, Georgia
. In his second year at Druid Hills, he was named head coach of the track team. From 1957 to 1962, Carnes' Druid Hills track teams were a perfect 52–0 in dual meets and captured six Georgia high school state championships, and he was recognized as the Georgia coach of the year six times.
in Greenville, South Carolina
. His Furman track and field teams were 16–3 in dual meets, and won both the Southern Conference indoor and outdoor track and field championships in his two seasons there. After the 1964 track season, Carnes accepted the head coaching position at the University of Florida
in Gainesville, Florida
. From 1965 to 1976, Carnes' Florida Gators track and field teams finished in the top three in the Southeastern Conference
(SEC) fifteen times, won two SEC indoor track championships, and compiled a 93–3 overall record in dual meets. Among his many Gators track and field athletes were sixty-five SEC individual champions, four NCAA individual champions and twenty-four All-Americans.
In 1965, Carnes founded the Florida Track Club in Gainesville, an amateur track and field organization that helped to train high school athletes, college-level transfer students, future Olympians and other post-graduate competitors. Over the following decade, the Florida Track club became a magnet for serious track and field athletes training for international competitions, including Jack Bacheler
, Jeff Galloway
, Marty Liquori
and Frank Shorter
. Carnes recruited fifty-five graduate student-athletes for the Florida Track Club by offering several of them assistant coaching positions and helping many of them obtain graduate assistantships within the university to help them continue their graduate studies.
in Montreal. He was named the head coach of the U.S. men's track and field team that was forced to boycott the 1980 Summer Olympics
in Moscow as a result of the Soviet Union
's 1979 invasion of Afghanistan
.
Carnes became the chairman of the track division of the Amateur Athletic Union
(AAU) in 1977, and helped heal a decades-long institutional rift between the AAU and the NCAA. From 1980 to 1984, he served as the first president of the The Athletics Congress/USA (now known as USA Track & Field), after it was spun off from the AAU. He was also involved in the formation of TACTRUST, the first step toward open track competition, and worked to guide the sport from amateur to open competition rules.
Carnes served a total of twenty-one years as a member of the board of directors of the International Special Olympics
.
in 1980, the Georgia Sports Hall of Fame
in 1984, the U.S. Track & Field and Cross Country Coaches Association Hall of Fame in 1998, and the USA Track & Field Hall of Fame in 2008. He was also inducted into the University of Florida Athletic Hall of Fame as an "honorary letter winner" in 1983. The Gainesville Sports Commission has sponsored an annual championship called the Jimmy Carnes Indoor Track and Field Meet since 2008.
Track and field
Track and field is a sport comprising various competitive athletic contests based around the activities of running, jumping and throwing. The name of the sport derives from the venue for the competitions: a stadium which features an oval running track surrounding a grassy area...
athlete, coach and administrator. A successful coach at the high school, college and international levels, Carnes compiled a 161–11 career dual meet record, highlighted by four college conference championships and six state high school championships. Carnes was the head coach of the U.S. Olympic
Olympic Games
The Olympic Games is a major international event featuring summer and winter sports, in which thousands of athletes participate in a variety of competitions. The Olympic Games have come to be regarded as the world’s foremost sports competition where more than 200 nations participate...
track & field team and the Florida Gators track and field team, the founder of the Florida Track Club, and a member of the U.S. Track & Field Hall of Fame.
Early years
Jimmy Carnes was born in Eatonton, GeorgiaEatonton, Georgia
Eatonton is a city in Putnam County, Georgia, United States. As of the 2010 census, the city had a population of 6,480. The city is the county seat of Putnam County. It was named after William Eaton, an officer and diplomat involved in the First Barbary War...
. He attended Mercer University
Mercer University
Mercer University is an independent, private, coeducational university with a Baptist heritage located in the U.S. state of Georgia. Mercer is the only university of its size in the United States that offers programs in eleven diversified fields of study: liberal arts, business, education, music,...
in Macon, Georgia
Macon, Georgia
Macon is a city located in central Georgia, US. Founded at the fall line of the Ocmulgee River, it is part of the Macon metropolitan area, and the county seat of Bibb County. A small portion of the city extends into Jones County. Macon is the biggest city in central Georgia...
from 1952 to 1956, where he played for the Mercer Bears basketball
Basketball
Basketball is a team sport in which two teams of five players try to score points by throwing or "shooting" a ball through the top of a basketball hoop while following a set of rules...
team and was a javelin throw
Javelin throw
The javelin throw is a track and field athletics throwing event where the object to be thrown is the javelin, a spear approximately 2.5 metres in length. Javelin is an event of both the men's decathlon and the women's heptathlon...
er and high jump
High jump
The high jump is a track and field athletics event in which competitors must jump over a horizontal bar placed at measured heights without the aid of certain devices in its modern most practiced format; auxiliary weights and mounds have been used for assistance; rules have changed over the years....
er for the Bears track and field team. Carnes dated his future wife, Nanette, a Mercer education major whom he knew from Eatonton, while they were undergraduates.
High school
Carnes graduated from Mercer in 1956, and accepted his first job as a physical education teacher and assistant coach for the football, basketball and track teams at Druid Hills High SchoolDruid Hills High School
Druid Hills High School is a high school operated by the DeKalb County School System. It is located at 1798 Haygood Drive, in the Druid Hills CDP in unincorporated DeKalb County, Georgia, United States...
in DeKalb County, Georgia
DeKalb County, Georgia
DeKalb County is a county located in the U.S. state of Georgia. The population of the county was 691,893 at the 2010 census. Its county seat is the city of Decatur. It is bordered to the west by Fulton County and contains roughly 10% of the city of Atlanta...
. In his second year at Druid Hills, he was named head coach of the track team. From 1957 to 1962, Carnes' Druid Hills track teams were a perfect 52–0 in dual meets and captured six Georgia high school state championships, and he was recognized as the Georgia coach of the year six times.
College
In 1962, Carnes became the head cross country and track and field coach at Furman UniversityFurman University
Furman University is a selective, private, coeducational, liberal arts college in Greenville, South Carolina, United States. Furman is one of the oldest, and more selective private institutions in South Carolina...
in Greenville, South Carolina
Greenville, South Carolina
-Law and government:The city of Greenville adopted the Council-Manager form of municipal government in 1976.-History:The area was part of the Cherokee Nation's protected grounds after the Treaty of 1763, which ended the French and Indian War. No White man was allowed to enter, though some families...
. His Furman track and field teams were 16–3 in dual meets, and won both the Southern Conference indoor and outdoor track and field championships in his two seasons there. After the 1964 track season, Carnes accepted the head coaching position at the University of Florida
University of Florida
The University of Florida is an American public land-grant, sea-grant, and space-grant research university located on a campus in Gainesville, Florida. The university traces its historical origins to 1853, and has operated continuously on its present Gainesville campus since September 1906...
in Gainesville, Florida
Gainesville, Florida
Gainesville is the largest city in, and the county seat of, Alachua County, Florida, United States as well as the principal city of the Gainesville, Florida Metropolitan Statistical Area . The preliminary 2010 Census population count for Gainesville is 124,354. Gainesville is home to the sixth...
. From 1965 to 1976, Carnes' Florida Gators track and field teams finished in the top three in the Southeastern Conference
Southeastern Conference
The Southeastern Conference is an American college athletic conference that operates in the southeastern part of the United States. It is headquartered in Birmingham, Alabama...
(SEC) fifteen times, won two SEC indoor track championships, and compiled a 93–3 overall record in dual meets. Among his many Gators track and field athletes were sixty-five SEC individual champions, four NCAA individual champions and twenty-four All-Americans.
In 1965, Carnes founded the Florida Track Club in Gainesville, an amateur track and field organization that helped to train high school athletes, college-level transfer students, future Olympians and other post-graduate competitors. Over the following decade, the Florida Track club became a magnet for serious track and field athletes training for international competitions, including Jack Bacheler
Jack Bacheler
Jack Bacheler , is an American distance runner and two-time U.S. Olympian . Bacheler was a founding member of the Florida Track Club at Gainesville, Florida in the late 1960s, and personally designed the club's distinctive "orange" logo...
, Jeff Galloway
Jeff Galloway
Jeff Galloway is a former American Olympian and the author of Galloway's Book on Running....
, Marty Liquori
Marty Liquori
Martin Liquori is an American middle distance athlete.Liquori first rose to fame when he became the third American high schooler to break the four-minute mile by running a 3:59.8 in 1967, three years after Jim Ryun first did it.He grew up in Cedar Grove, New Jersey and attended Essex Catholic...
and Frank Shorter
Frank Shorter
Frank Charles Shorter is a former American long-distance runner who won the gold medal in the marathon at the 1972 Summer Olympics. His victory is credited with igniting the running boom in the United States of the 1970s....
. Carnes recruited fifty-five graduate student-athletes for the Florida Track Club by offering several of them assistant coaching positions and helping many of them obtain graduate assistantships within the university to help them continue their graduate studies.
Olympics
Carnes served as the assistant coach of the U.S. men's track and field team for the 1976 Summer Olympics1976 Summer Olympics
The 1976 Summer Olympics, officially known as the Games of the XXI Olympiad, was an international multi-sport event celebrated in Montreal, Quebec, Canada, in 1976. Montreal was awarded the rights to the 1976 Games on May 12, 1970, at the 69th IOC Session in Amsterdam, over the bids of Moscow and...
in Montreal. He was named the head coach of the U.S. men's track and field team that was forced to boycott the 1980 Summer Olympics
1980 Summer Olympics
The 1980 Summer Olympics, officially known as the Games of the XXII Olympiad, was an international multi-sport event celebrated in Moscow in the Soviet Union. In addition, the yachting events were held in Tallinn, and some of the preliminary matches and the quarter-finals of the football tournament...
in Moscow as a result of the Soviet Union
Soviet Union
The Soviet Union , officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics , was a constitutionally socialist state that existed in Eurasia between 1922 and 1991....
's 1979 invasion of Afghanistan
Afghanistan
Afghanistan , officially the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan, is a landlocked country located in the centre of Asia, forming South Asia, Central Asia and the Middle East. With a population of about 29 million, it has an area of , making it the 42nd most populous and 41st largest nation in the world...
.
Business ventures
In 1973, Carnes and Liquori co-founded Athletic Attic, one of the nation's first sports equipment chain stores, with an emphasis on running shoes for training and competition. At the peak of the running craze, Athletic Attic had over 165 stores in the United States, Canada, Japan and New Zealand with over $40 million in annual revenue. Carnes resigned as the Gators track coach in September 1976 to focus on his Athletic Attic business interests and his Olympic coaching.Sports administration
As chairman of the Governor's Council on Sports and Physical Fitness, Carnes was the founder of the Sunshine State Games, Florida's annual Olympic-style multi-sport festival. The first games were held in 1980, and have been held every year since then.Carnes became the chairman of the track division of the Amateur Athletic Union
Amateur Athletic Union
The Amateur Athletic Union is one of the largest non-profit volunteer sports organizations in the United States. A multi-sport organization, the AAU is dedicated exclusively to the promotion and development of amateur sports and physical fitness programs.-History:The AAU was founded in 1888 to...
(AAU) in 1977, and helped heal a decades-long institutional rift between the AAU and the NCAA. From 1980 to 1984, he served as the first president of the The Athletics Congress/USA (now known as USA Track & Field), after it was spun off from the AAU. He was also involved in the formation of TACTRUST, the first step toward open track competition, and worked to guide the sport from amateur to open competition rules.
Carnes served a total of twenty-one years as a member of the board of directors of the International Special Olympics
Special Olympics
Special Olympics is the world's largest sports organization for children and adults with intellectual disabilities, providing year-round training and competitions to more than 3.1 million athletes in 175 countries....
.
Honors
Carnes was inducted as a member of the Florida Sports Hall of FameFlorida Sports Hall of Fame
The Florida Sports Hall of Fame is an association dedicated to honoring athletes with outstanding achievement in sports in Florida. It has expanded its goals to include encouraging physical fitness among Florida's citizens through the example of its honorees.The FSHOF was founded by the Florida...
in 1980, the Georgia Sports Hall of Fame
Georgia Sports Hall of Fame
The Georgia Sports Hall of Fame is located in Macon, Georgia. It is the largest state sports hall of fame in America at .-Exhibitions:The Hall of Fame houses over of exhibit space broken down into sections including Hall of Fame Inductees, High School, collegiate sports, Olympic, Paralympic,...
in 1984, the U.S. Track & Field and Cross Country Coaches Association Hall of Fame in 1998, and the USA Track & Field Hall of Fame in 2008. He was also inducted into the University of Florida Athletic Hall of Fame as an "honorary letter winner" in 1983. The Gainesville Sports Commission has sponsored an annual championship called the Jimmy Carnes Indoor Track and Field Meet since 2008.
Personal
Carnes was married to Nanette Carnes, and they were the parents of three sons and a daughter. He died in Gainesville in 2011, after a three-and-a-half-year battle with cancer; he was 76 years old. Carnes was survived by his wife and their children.See also
- Florida GatorsFlorida GatorsThe Florida Gators are the intercollegiate sports teams that represent the University of Florida located in Gainesville, Florida. The "Lady Gators" is an alternative nickname sometimes used by the Gators women's teams...
- History of the University of FloridaHistory of the University of FloridaThe history of the University of Florida is firmly tied to the history of public education in the state of Florida. The University of Florida, colloquially known as "Florida" or "UF," originated as several distinct institutions that were merged to create a single state-supported university by the...
- List of alumni of Mercer University
- List of University of Florida Olympians
- University Athletic AssociationUniversity of Florida Athletic AssociationThe University Athletic Association, Inc. is a non-profit corporation that is responsible for maintaining the Florida Gators intercollegiate sports program of the University of Florida in Gainesville, Florida...
External links
- GatorZone.com – Official website of the Florida Gators.