Dr. Coker, who spent 29 years teaching health and P.E. at Northwestern State University in Louisiana after leaving Wilson, was Atlantic Christian College’s second track & field coach from 1956-62. When he took over the program from Tom Evaul after its first season, he started out with just a handful of young men on the team, but quickly built the program to more than 20 student-athletes. The 1960 track team posted a 5-1 dual meet record, the best in school history, and his teams beat East Carolina twice in track and once in cross country. By the time he left ACC, Coker’s track teams had broken or tied 42 school records, and his runners had captured six conference and six NAIA District 26 individual titles.
He started the school’s cross country program in 1958, and his team beat ECU in its first meet. Not a bad resume for a young man from Knoxville, Tenn., who came to ACC to teach physical education and run the intramural program. Considering he could offer no scholarships in either sport, and that the school had no on-campus track facility, his coaching record is amazing.
His innovative nature led him to grow the track program in other ways, such as an annual Turkey Day race, an intramural track meet and pulling players from the basketball and baseball teams…as well as physical education classes. On May 5, 1958, Coker arranged for the Bulldogs to host Guilford College in the first night meet under the lights on ACC’s home track, which was located just outside Fleming Stadium. He chalked lane lines in the grass for home events. Coker said the purpose of the meet was “to promote the sport of track and provide Wilson and Wilson County residents, who are unable to attend the regular day track meets, an opportunity to witness the events.” Some 150 spectators turned out to watch and, led by Dick Knox (Class of 1961), the Bulldogs won eight of 12 events and defeated Guilford 57-52 for their historic first win. Woody Daly, also being inducted this year in the Barton Hall, won the 100-yard dash that night in 10.3 seconds.
Also in 1958, Coker, along with members of his physical education classes, organized the first track and field day for Wilson elementary school students. Nearly 2,000 youngsters took part in the event during its first two years.
At the time, Bernie West wrote in his column in The Wilson Daily Times that “if there were more folks around like Sam Coker, the sport of track and field would abound everywhere. Coker and his class deserve the thanks of the entire populace of Wilson. The Atlantic Christian folks have done a tremendous thing for Wilson, providing this means of recreation for so many of our youngsters.”
By 1961, the Wilson Elementary Schools Track Meet attracted 1,062 male entrants from the fifth and sixth grades. Members of Coker’s P.E. classes went to the schools before the trials to help them learn how to train for the big races.
Coker and his wife, Charlsie, left Atlantic Christian following the 1962 track season so he could pursue a doctorate at the University of Iowa. They then moved to Louisiana, where he had a large impact as a health and physical education professor at Northwestern State.
Coker, born in Knoxville on Nov. 27, 1928, played basketball and baseball for four years at Karns High School. He helped coach track and cross country at the University of Tennessee while earning his B.S. and M.S. degrees in Health and Physical Education. He then coached and taught at Karns for six years before Ed Cloyd pulled him out of a bookstore at the YMCA Blue Ridge Assembly in the summer of 1956 to coach track at ACC.
A fierce competitor, Coker used to train with his teams while at ACC. He loved playing handball and racquetball, and, at the age of 53, he was ranked first, third, and seventh in three Louisiana state divisions in racquetball. He served as an official at various track and field meets in Louisiana and affected the lives of thousands of children through some 40 years of volunteer work with the Boys and Girls Clubs of America. He was the recipient of the Louisiana Service Award from the Boys and Girls Club for his long-standing work with youth and was instrumental in the planning, design, and construction of the Martin Luther King Recreation Center in Natchitoches. He has also shared his knowledge of health and physical education through 37 research articles and presentations to numerous groups and professional organizations.
