Q&A #25

What D1 school has the most indoor/ outdoor track/cross country titles

the University of Arkansas has won 42 NCAA championships, including 11 cross country, 19 indoor track and 12 outdoor track. This all under the coaching of John McDonnell.

He was hired as the cross country coach in 1972 and added the entire men's track and field program in 1978.

Coach McDonnell led the track team to their first national championship at the 1985 NCAA Indoor Championships while the school was a member of the now-defunct Southwest Conference. Since then, the University of Arkansas has won 42 NCAA championships, including 11 cross country, 19 indoor track and 12 outdoor track. Other schools have won only 24 combined NCAA titles in the three sports during the same period.

McDonnell's 42 national championships (which include 19 in indoor track, 12 in outdoor track and 11 in cross country) are more than any coach in any sport in the history of college athletics. The next highest is 31 by Pat Henry, former LSU and current track coach at Texas A&M University.

McDonnell also won five national triple crowns. (in 1984-85, 1991–92, 1992–93, 1994–95 and 1998–99) Texas-El Paso has won three national triple crowns. No other school has ever won one.

In addition, McDonnell team and individual achievements include:^[1]

• • 20 conference triple crowns since 1982, including eight straight between 1987 and 1995

  • 25 consecutive conference titles in cross country with indoor track and outdoor track combined from 1987 to 1995

  • 73 conference championships in the last 77 events Arkansas has entered since 1981-1982

  • 84 conference championships overall since 1974 including 38 in the SWC and 46 in the SEC (out of a possible 50, or 90 percent)

  • 12 consecutive NCAA indoor track championships (1984–1995)

  • coached 185 track All-Americans, earning 652 separate All-America honors

  • 34 consecutive league cross country championships, including 17 straight in the SEC (1974–2007)^[1]

  • 54 individual national champions

  • 23 Olympians coached spanning three decades and six different Olympic Games including gold, silver and bronze medalists

  • his 1994 indoor track squad won the national championship by the widest margins in the history of the sport as well as scored the most points (94) in the history of the NCAA event

  • his 1994 squad scored a meet record 223 points at the SEC Outdoor Championships

  • has been named national, regional or conference coach of the year a total of 140 times

  • has coached 23 Olympians, including gold, silver and bronze medalists, 105 NCAA individual event champions and 331 individual event conference champions