Texas Tech University Athletics
Kittley Named to Big Country Athletic Hall of Fame
March 02, 2006 | Track and Field
March 2, 2006
Lubbock, Texas - Red Raider track and field head coach Wes Kittley heads a list of eight new inductees into the Big Country Athletic Hall of Fame, it was announced by the committee today.
Al Pickett, chairman of the Big Country Athletic Hall of Fame, said today that joining Kittley in the Class of 2006 will be Spike Dykes, the winningest football coach in Texas Tech history, former Abilene Cooper athlete and coach Randy Allen, former Bangs and Abilene Christian University track star James Segrest and former major league baseball player Chuck Harrison, who was a football and baseball star at Abilene High and Texas Tech.
Kittley, a state champion in the 880-yard run as a senior in high school at Rule, was an All-American at ACU. He took over as the women's track coach at ACU in 1985 and then took over the men's program, too. He won a record 29 NCAA Division II track championships during his tenure at ACU. In 1996, he became the first coach to win the men's and women's indoor and outdoor national track championships in the same year. He won all four again in 1999. Kittley became the track coach at Texas Tech in 2000, and led the Red Raiders to their first Big 12 men's track championship in 2005. Kittley is also the coach of 2004 Olympian, National Champion and former Tech standout Jonathan Johnson, also a native of Abilene.
The Big Country Athletic Hall of Fame covers a 19-county area surrounding Abilene. The addition of the eight new inductees brings to 42 the total number of members of the Big Country Athletic Hall of Fame.
The fifth annual Big Country Hall of Fame banquet, sponsored by Texas State Technical College, will be held May 22 at 7 p.m. at the Abilene Civic Center. Banquet tickets are $25 each for adults and $12.50 for ages 12 and under. To order tickets or to sign up for the golf tournament that will be held that same day at Diamondback Golf Club, call (325) 734-3644 or e-mail susie.clack@tstc.edu.
