AUBURN, Ala.—Auburn track and field head coach Ralph Spry, in his 25th season at the helm of the Tigers' program, will retire at the conclusion of the 2022 season. Spry led the Auburn women to the 2006 NCAA Outdoor Championship and has guided the Tiger men's and women's teams to a combined 12 top-five national finishes and 54 top 25 finishes.
"It's very special to be somewhere for 25 years and I'm extremely thankful for the countless student-athletes, coaches and staff that have given their all to the Auburn track and field program," Spry said. "There have been a lot of championship and record-setting performances along with a team national title during the last quarter of a century, but it is the relationships that I cherish most. It's always difficult to leave something that is close to your heart, but I am and always will be an Auburn Tiger."
One of the most successful coaches in the history of the program and Auburn Athletics, Spry was named the 2006 Division I Women's Outdoor Track and Field Coach of the Year for leading the program to its first national championship that season.
While on the Plains, Spry has coached 21 individuals who have won a combined 32 national championships, including 19 NCAA Outdoor Champions and 13 NCAA Indoor Champions. In the program's illustrious history, Spry's athletes have won 32 of the 55 individual national titles obtained in its 100-year history. A total of 419 All-America honors have been earned under Spry's leadership, including a program-best 31 during the 2005 season.
"For a quarter century, Coach Ralph Spry has guided Auburn's track and field program to great heights, becoming in 2006 only the third coach in Auburn Athletics history to lead a program to a national championship, joining Shug Jordan and David Marsh," Director of Athletics Allen Greene said. "This retired U.S. Army officer has faithfully served Auburn, coaching hundreds of All-Americans. We thank Coach Spry for his tireless dedication to Auburn and the positive impact he's made on student-athletes on and off the track. We congratulate Coach on his well-earned retirement and look forward to celebrating his outstanding career for the remainder of the outdoor season."
He has coached 27 Olympians, including Kerron Stewart who won the 100m silver medal and 200m bronze medal at the 2008 Summer Olympics. Under his tutelage, six athletes have been World Championship performers including 2001 400m champion Avard Moncur, 2007 high jump champion Donald Thomas and Stewart, a 2009 4x100m relay champion.
When Spry led the women's program to its first national championship in 2006, he was just the third Auburn coach ever to win a national championship and is one of six coaches in Auburn Athletics history to capture a national title.
Spry led the Auburn men to a second-place finish at the 2008 NCAA Outdoor National Championships, marking the sixth time Auburn has finished in the top three in the nation under Spry.
One of Spry's best all-around seasons came in 2007 when he led Auburn's men to a third-place finish at the NCAA outdoor meet, and a fifth-place performance at the NCAA Indoor Championships, while the women also finished fifth at the indoor meet. Auburn produced national champions in six events and earned 15 All-America honors. The season was capped by Stewart earning the Honda Sports Award as the nation's top female collegiate track and field athlete.
In 2006, he earned a national championship when the Auburn women's team took home the NCAA outdoor title. The Tigers scored 57 points to easily outdistance USC, which placed second with 38.5 points. Auburn had All-America performances in nine events, including two individual national champions and three second-place finishers, and broke two school records during the four-day event.
In addition to a fourth-place men's indoor finish in 2005, Spry came close to a pair of national titles in 2003, as the men finished second at both the indoor and outdoor meets, tying for the highest finish indoors and outdoors for the Auburn men.
Spry was hired to be the fourth track and field coach in Auburn history in late 1997. A native of Aberdeen, Maryland, Spry competed at Ole Miss where he was the first athlete in program history to win a national championship. A two-time NCAA All-American and three-time All-SEC performer, Spry won the 1983 NCAA and SEC long jump.
A member of the Ole Miss Athletics Hall of Fame, Spry graduated in 1984 and as an active member of the R.O.T.C., accepted a commission in the U.S. Army after his graduation. As an officer in the U.S. Army, he was a member and an assistant coach on the All-Army track team that won the Armed Forces Championship during his time with the team.
After attending the Army's Ranger school in 1989, Spry served as Company Commander in the 9th Infantry Regiment, 7th Infantry Division.
After winning two high school state championships in the long jump and triple jump in Maryland, Spry attended Anne Arundel Community College. While in junior college, he was four-time NJCAA champion, winning three triple jump crowns and one long jump title. He was an eight-time JUCO All-American and is now a member of the NJCAA Track and Field Hall of Fame.
Spry and his wife Anne have two children, Tiffany and Ralph Jr.
A national search for Auburn's next head coach will commence at the conclusion of the outdoor season.
