Former SUNY Cortland cross country and track and field head coach Dr. Jack Daniels has been selected for the 2019 induction class of the United States Track and Field and Cross Country Coaches Association's (USTFCCCA) Coaches Hall of Fame.
Daniels will be one of six coaches honored at the 2019 USTFCCCA Convention in Orlando, Fla., on Tuesday, December 17. (
USTFCCCA Release)
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1997 Cortland C-Club Hall of Fame inductee, Daniels coached the Red Dragons' men's cross country teams for 17 seasons (1986-95, 1997-2001, 2003-04) and the women's cross country squads for 16 seasons (1987-95, 1997-2001, 2003-04). He also was Cortland's men's and women's track and field coach from 1987-91 and 1993-96, in addition to 1999-2000 for the men's team.
Daniels led Cortland women's cross country to seven national team titles (1989, 1990, 1992, 1993, 1994, 1995 and 1997) as well as a runner-up showing in 1991. His women's teams finished in the top 10 nationally every year from 1987-99. He led the Red Dragons to 11 SUNYAC titles and his runners earned 41 All-America honors, including four individual national champions. He was honored as the NCAA Division III Women's Cross Country "Coach of the Century" for the 20th century.
On the men's side, Daniels' cross country teams made eight NCAA championship appearances, won seven SUNYAC titles and boasted five All-Americans. Cortland finished sixth nationally in both 1987 and 1991.
Additionally, Daniels guided Cortland's women's indoor track and field team to a national title in 1991.
Once dubbed the "world's best running coach" by Runner's World magazine, Daniels coached 24 individual national champions and more than 90 All-Americans at Cortland. After his tenure at Cortland, he served as head distance coach for Northern Arizona University's Center for High Altitude Training from 2005-09. Daniels is currently the head cross country coach at Wells College in Aurora, N.Y. – a position he's held since March 2013. (CORRECTION: Daniels recently retired from his coaching position at Wells).
Daniels is a 1955 graduate of the University of Montana. He earned a master's degree from the University of Oklahoma in 1965 and a Ph.D. from the University of Wisconsin in 1969. He is a two-time Olympic team medalist in the modern pentathlon (horseback riding, epee, pistol, swimming, cross country running), earning a silver medal in the 1956 Olympics in Melbourne, Australia and a bronze in the 1960 Olympics in Rome, Italy.
