A Tennessee State University committee has selected Coach Edward Stanley Temple as a recipient of the Doctor of Humane Letters. A legendary coach of the TSU Tigerbelles and distinguished educator, Temple will be awarded the honorary degree at the Fall Commencement exercise on Saturday, Dec. 19, 9 a.m., at the TSU Gentry Complex.
“This honor was well deserved due to his tremendous coaching accomplishments in athletics and life’s work in the field of education,” wrote selection committee chairperson Dr. Murle E. Kenerson in a letter to TSU President Melvin N. Johnson.
Temple earned his bachelor’s and master’s degrees in health and physical education with a minor in sociology from TSU. He also served as associate professor of sociology at the university.
During Temple’s 44 years as women’s track head coach at TSU, 40 members of his famed Tigerbelle teams competed in the Olympics, winning a total of 23 medals, including 13 Gold. Temple also led the Tigerbelles to 34 national titles and 30 medals in the Pan American Games. Eight Tigerbelles have been inducted into the National Track and Field Hall of Fame.
Temple’s coaching accomplishments extend well beyond the practice track at TSU. He served as women’s track head coach for two consecutive U.S. Olympic Teams (1960 in Rome and 1964 in Tokyo), as well as an assistant head coach for the 1980 Games.
He served as the women’s track head coach in 1958 and 1959 in dual competitions between the USA and the USSR; the 1959 and 1975 Pan American Games; the 1970 European Tour of Germany, Russia and Romania; and the 1975 USA vs. China competition.
Temple also served as head coach of the USA Junior Team at the 1982 and 1986 Pan American Junior Games, head coach of the U.S. National Junior Women’s Track Team at the dual meet with Romania, and head coach of the first ever World Junior Championships held in Athens in 1986.
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