Terry Pope, a legendary Rockdale High School head track coach, whose Tiger track teams more than dominated opponents in the 1990s died June 22 in Austin at age 78. Pope, who coached at
Pope, who coached at RHS from 1991-1999 was remembered as much for his leadership and inspirational qualities as his track successes.
And his statistics were staggering.
In that period his Tiger track teams won 48 of 54 meets including every Rockdale Relays.
That’s an 89-percent winning percentage.
Pope’s teams won seven straight district championships and two regional championships. Rockdale athletes were
Rockdale athletes were also a fixture at the state meet during his tenure as they were represented seven different years.
At those seven state meets his athletes competed in 16 different events and captured 10 medals: five gold, three bronze and two silver.
Pope’s teams were known for having such an insurmountable lead after the field events that it was virtually impossible for them to be caught during the rest of the meet.
MOTI VATOR—What kind of motivator was Terry Pope?
In 1996 the Rockdale Relays win streak was about to be broken. The Tiger basketball team went deep into the playoffs with a Tuesday area game before the Relays on Saturday.
Most of the track team was playing basketball, they hadn’t practiced track and Pope figured RHS could not field a varsity team.
He said so. The Tigers lost the basketball game and The Reporter o n Wednesday came out with a story that a “Tigerless” Rockdale Relays would be held that year.
After that paper came out, Pope’s athletes came to him and said, “coach we can’t let this string stop.”
Pope agreed to try and field a team and seven of the athletes from the basketball team practiced for about an hour on Thursday. (No Friday practice possible since there was a junior-high meet at the track.) At the first handoff area
At the first handoff area before the sprint relay on Saturday, Pope eased over to Reporter News Editor Mike Brown: “This will be the first time they’ve handed off to each other, in practice or anywhere else.” Rockdale was second in that relay and won the meet by 77 points over the runner-up.
FAMILY—Pope is survived by his wife, Judy; sons Robert and Kendall; daughter Emily; twin sister Mary Alice; numerous grandchildren, in-laws and family and friends.
A celebration of his life will take place in the coming months as were his wishes.
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