Longtime William and Mary Director of Track and Field and Cross Country Dan Stimson will be one of the 10 former Tribe legends inducted into the William and Mary Athletics Hall of Fame Class of 2014 on Saturday, April 12.
The Class of 2014 will consist of Ashleigh Akens Rabe '94 (Women's Basketball), David Corley, Jr. '03 (Football), Ann Ekberg Saunders '03 (Field Hockey), Debbie Hill (Head Volleyball Coach), Tracey Leinbach '81 (Women's Golf), Carrie Moore '99 (Women's Soccer), Billy Owens '95 (Men's Soccer), Lisa Rayner '96 (Track and Field), Trevor Spracklin '01 (Men's Tennis) and Stimson.
The event is scheduled to take place April 12, 2014 at the Fort Magruder Hotel and Conference Center. Please contact
Meagan Bedsaul in the Tribe Club's Special events office for more information at either 757-221-3365 or
mmbedsaul@wm.edu.
Stimson has been a fixture with the Tribe track and field and cross-country teams since he joined the program in 1986-87 as the first Director of both the men's and women's programs. He spent 25 years as the Director, stepping down prior to the 2011-12 season to focusing on coaching the throwing athletes. During his tenure as Director, W&M won 49 of 94 possible CAA titles (52%), including sweeps of all four championships in 2003-04. Tribe athletes earned 64 All-American awards and one spot on the U.S. Olympic Team during that 25 year span.
In the throws, eight of the 12 events (between men and women) have had the school records reset by Stimson athletes, many multiple times. Perhaps his greatest successes have come in the hammer, weight throw, and javelin; events that are not sponsored by a majority of high school federations (meaning athletes must start learning them in college). Since the CAA began sponsoring track and field in 1990, W&M athletes have won 31 conference titles in the hammer and the javelin, including 16 of 24 all-time golds in the men's javelin. In fact, the Tribe's dominance of this event is so complete that a W&M male has won the javelin event in 12 of the 14 CAA Championships contested since 2000.
Among the notable athletes under Stimson's tutelage was Brandon Heroux '12, who won the javelin all four years and placed eighth at the 2012 NCAA Championships to earn first-team All-America honors. In 2013, the Tribe throwers won five of eight conference titles, and both Brian Waterfield (shot put champion, scored in all four throws) and Natalie Baird (hammer champion, scored in three events) were named Most Outstanding Field Athlete of the Meet. Tyler Steel '00 and Andy Smith '06 each won their events four times as well (the hammer and the javelin, respectively), and in 2013 freshman Bob Smutsky was just a few inches off of All-America honors before going on to win the USAT&F Junior National Championship in the javelin. In 1992, Mike Howell won all three “weight” throwing events during the CAAs (shot put, hammer, and discus) – to this day, he is still the only man to ever accomplish the feat.
Stimson's record is also impressive in mentoring coaches. The last three men's coaches all went on to big-time coaching or Director jobs after leaving W&M – Walt Drenth to Arizona State and then Michigan State, Andrew Gerard to Stanford (winning an NCAA title) and then to George Mason, and Alex Gibby to Michigan. Including Stimson's own two Coach of the Year awards, a Tribe coach has won 48 CAA honors all-time.
