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https://ucasports.com/news/2021/10/13/general-uca-track-to-bear-name-of-richard-martin-jr.aspx

Not many of us have put in 50 years of our lives everyday supporting UCA......a terrific track competitor and teammate.....Coach is what track folks will say is the person they most want to carry the baton....brought our XC and track and field programs back from the graveyard to win conference championships at both D2 and D1 levels and regularly have athletes...men and women....compete at NCAA national meets.....his athletes have basically rewritten our record books which were already pretty solid from our AIC days....congrats and thanks much....


CONWAY, Ark. _ It is fitting that a man who spent 50 years as part of the University of Central Arkansas athletics department will now have an athletic facility that will bear his name for the next 50 years and beyond.

Richard Martin, Jr., who competed as a student-athlete and coached and taught numerous sports at UCA since 1971, will be honored Friday with the naming of the UCA track as the Richard Martin Jr. Track. The dedication ceremony will take place at 5:30 p.m. at the Bill Stephens Track & Soccer Complex at the corner of Donaghey Avenue and Dave Ward Drive.

"Coach Richard Martin has been a part of the UCA fabric for 50 years,' said Dr. Brad Teague, UCA's director of Athletics. "His tenure is remarkable and unparalleled. Richard played football and ran track for the Bears, and since then, his whole career has been devoted to those two sports at the University of Central Arkansas.

"For someone who has given so much to this institution, it makes perfect sense to name the track in his honor. We are proud for Coach Martin to have this recognition on our campus forever.'

Martin, the longest tenured coach in UCA Athletics history, was a standout track athlete and football player in the early 1970s _ a four-year letterman in both _ and then moved directly into coaching both sports. Martin earned his B.S.E. in Education from UCA in 1976, and immediately began working as a graduate assistant coach for the football and track teams. The following fall, after earning his M.S.E. in Health Education, he became a full-time assistant in football, track and field and cross country.

While leading the UCA track and field program, Martin won five Arkansas Intercollegiate Conference championships and was a five-time winner of the NAIA District 17 Coach of the Year Award and AIC Coach of the Year Award. His women's cross country team won the school's first Gulf South Conference championship for UCA in 1998. In all, Martin coached more than 40 indoor and outdoor All-Americans, and numerous student-athletes who have been inducted in the UCA Sports Hall of Fame.

As a track and field student-athlete, Martin earned numerous accolades, capturing AIC Championships in the 200-yard dash (1974), 100-yard dash (1975), the mile relay (1975) and helping set a UCA and AIC record in the 400-yard relay (1975). Martin also earned All-American honors in the mile relay when UCA finished second in the NAIA National Championship meet.

Martin, Martin, a member of the UCA Sports Hall of Fame, the Arkansas Track and Field Hall of Fame and the Dunbar High School Hall of Honor (Lufkin, Texas), retired from coaching at the close of the 2019-2020 school year, and now serves as Senior Diversity & Inclusion Administrator in the athletics department.

All friends, former student-athletes, and fans are welcome to attend. For more information, contact UCA Athletics at (501) 450-3150.