AUBURN, Alabama—Harvey Glance, the greatest sprinter in Auburn track and field history and the University's first Black head coach in any sport, has passed away at the age of 66. A three-time Olympian and 1976 Olympic gold medal winner, Glance was a four-time NCAA champion at Auburn from 1976-79.
A native of Phenix City, Alabama, Glance won 14 Southeastern Conference championships and led the Tigers to four conference championships under nationally renowned coach Mel Rosen.
Glance won the NCAA 60-meter indoor national championship in 1976 and later that spring, Glance tied the world record of 9.9 seconds twice in the 100 in Columbia, South Carolina, and Baton Rouge, Louisiana. At the NCAA Outdoor Track and Field Championships in 1976, Glance won a pair of national titles in the 100 and 200-meters. The following year, he won his fourth national title, repeating outdoors at 100 meters. During his time at Auburn, Glance also broke the junior world record times of 10.12 and 10.11 over 100 meters.
In June 1976, Glance qualified to participate in the Montreal Olympics at the United States team trials winning the 100 meters. That summer Glance won a gold medal running the lead leg of the 4x100-meter relay with teammates Johnny Jones, Millard Hampton and Steve Riddick.
He qualified for the 1980 Moscow Olympics but did not compete due to the U.S. boycott. Although injured in 1984, Glance qualified for his third Olympic team as an alternate for the 4x100 meter relay at the Los Angeles games.
Internationally, Glance won a silver medal at 100 meters and gold as a member of the United States 4x100-meter relay team at the 1979 Pam American Games. In his last competitions, Glance won gold medals as a member of American teams at the 1985 World Cup in Canberra, Australia, the 1986 Goodwill Games in Moscow, USSR, the 1987 Pan American Games in Indianapolis, Indiana, and the 1987 World Championships in Rome, Italy.
In 1988, he became liaison for the U.S. Olympic team, vice president of USA Track and Field, president of the Athletes Advisory Committee, and a member of the U.S. Olympic Committee's Board of Directors.
Glance, who graduated from Auburn with a degree in Health & Human Performance, served as an assistant coach at Auburn in 1991 before succeeding Rosen as Auburn's track and field head coach for six seasons. At Auburn, Glance coached Olympians Craig Hepburn, Samuel Matete and Victor Houston and three NCAA champions in Houston (decathlon), Clark Humphreys (pole vault) and Juliet Campbell (400 meters). Campbell was named the 1993 SEC Female Athlete of the Year.
In 1994 Glance coached the World Junior Team in Lisbon, Portugal, which won five gold, eight silver, and four bronze medals. During the 1995-96 season, Glance's team earned 14 All-American honors, and in 1997, Glance served as head coach of men's track for Team USA at the World University Games in Trapani, Italy.
He concluded his collegiate coaching career as head coach at the University of Alabama from 1997-2011.
A successful international coach of American teams, Glance was the men's head coach at the 1999 Pan American Games, in which the United States led in total medals with 295. He was an assistant coach for Team USA at the 2003 World Championships in Paris, France, and coached the 2006 World Junior Team in Beijing, China. Glance also coached runners at the 2008 Olympics in Beijing and at the 2009 World Championships in Berlin, Germany, in which Americans won 13 track and field events.
Upon retirement in 2011, Glance continued as personal coach for Kirani James, who won the 400-meter event at the 2011 world championships in Daegu, South Korea, and in the 2012 Olympics in London, United Kingdom.
In 1996 he was inducted into the Alabama Sports Hall of Fame and received the Congressional Gold Medal of Freedom in 2008.