By Jerry Hill
Baylor Bear Foundation

Clyde Hart, the legendary coach that has tutored the likes of Olympic champions Michael Johnson and Jeremy Wariner, still calls Danny Brabham "the best all-around track athlete I have ever coached."

"He would pester me to death in meets when he got through long-jumping to do something else ÃÆ'Æ' ¢ÃƒÆ' ¢' ¬" throw the javelin, run on the sprint relay, whatever," Hart said of Brabham, who still holds Baylor's school record in the long jump with a mark of 26-9 ½. "He could do it all, and he liked doing it. He didn't want to sit around. He wanted to be doing something."

After 44 years of coaching, including the last 28 at Baylor ÃÆ'Æ' ¢ÃƒÆ' ¢' ¬" "I figure it was pretty close to 700 meets that I've been to or had something to do with over that period of time" ÃÆ'Æ' ¢ÃƒÆ' ¢' ¬" the 66-year-old Brabham is retiring. Friday is his last official day.

But, if you think he's just going to go away and do nothing, you don't know Danny Brabham.

"I've got other things I want to do," said Brabham, who has been the assistant head coach for the last 12 years. "I've got some handiwork stuff I want to do. I've got things I need to do and want to do. . . . We have some traveling we want to do, me and my wife (Debbie). And we have the grandkids. I've missed some things, but not the major things, I've tried not to miss with all my kids and grandkids.

"It's been a good career. It's just time for me to move on."

"Good career" hardly does Brabham justice.

Over his career, Brabham coached 43 All-Americans, 36 school record-holders and a pair of NCAA champions in triple jumper Stacey Bowers and hurdler Bayano Kamani. In 2001, Kamani and Michael Smith became the first and only duo in history to finish 1-2 in the 400-meter hurdles at the NCAA Outdoor Track and Field Championships.

"Those are some of the most memorable ones," Brabham said. "But, every one that I've had ÃÆ'Æ' ¢ÃƒÆ' ¢' ¬" All-Americans or not, place in conference or not ÃÆ'Æ' ¢ÃƒÆ' ¢' ¬" everybody has worked extremely hard to do this. It's been a good run. I've had some that came close, very close. But, all of them have worked extremely hard and all of them improved dramatically. I've enjoyed coaching every one of them."

Starting at Baylor in 1989, Brabham coached everything from the pole vault to all the throws, all the jumps, both hurdle events and the multi-event decathlon, pentathlon and heptathlon. "I figured it up at one point, and I think I was coaching 13 of the 21 events," he said.

"That's what made him an outstanding coach is that he's had the experience doing those things," said Hart, who originally hired Brabham to replace Que McMasters from Hobbs (N.M.) High School, where he spent four years as the head track and cross country coach.

"My coaching career, I had to learn through books and clinics and all that. Well, Danny had done most all that stuff, so he was a natural to come back here and be the multis coach, which he did an outstanding job. With the weight people, vaulters, jumpers, whatever he did, Danny did a good job, because he knew it. He was a great technician."

Other pupils include six-time All-American Skylar White (shot put and discus), five-time All-American April Holliness in the long jump and former All-Americans Bill Payne, Kyle Hanna and Jim Autenreith in the pole vault.

"Danny is probably one of the top guys out there in the country that really could coach so many different events," Baylor head coach Todd Harbour said. "What he did, the loyalty he showed to Baylor all those years, at least hopefully he's felt on my part that we've rewarded that. He's going out on his terms. Sometimes, it's hard to let go, but I know my time is coming at some point, too."

For Brabham, few of his athletes' performances were more rewarding than former walk-on Jenna Pfeiffer, an eight-time All-Big 12 honoree who broke the 14-year-old school record in the heptathlon with 5,500 points and placed 13th at this year's NCAA Championships.

"That one had been in the record books for a long time," Brabham said. "Kerry (O'Bric) had had it, and then Jordan (Willmann) broke her record. It's rewarding to watch them improve that much and improve in every event in the multis. That's one of the enjoyable things. Anytime they improve and PR, that's what you really strive for. Everything else is icing on the cake. If they can get PRs and end up setting school records, that's the top of the cake."

Brabham was part of an experienced and loyal coaching staff ÃÆ'Æ' ¢ÃƒÆ' ¢' ¬" all former Baylor athletes ÃÆ'Æ' ¢ÃƒÆ' ¢' ¬" with Hart, Harbour, Bowers (Smith), Michael Ford and Jon Capron.

"Shortly after arriving at Baylor, I quickly observed the exceptional culture of leadership our track and field program held, established by a staff with experience, knowledge and faith," said Vice President and Director of Athletics Mack Rhoades. "Coach Brabham epitomizes all of these characteristics, and his lasting legacy of service to our student-athletes for almost three decades is truly appreciated."

Coming to Baylor at a time when so many athletic department staffers were given extra assignments, Brabham also handled the pre-game set-up for football and all the parking details at Floyd Casey Stadium for 12 years.

"And all that while still trying to coach those 13 events," he said. "I finally decided, that's enough of that, I'm killing myself trying to do this. Let somebody else take it over."

Harbour said Danny's nickname was "Captain Hook," because "it could be a regent, it did not matter. If they were parked where they weren't supposed to park, Danny hooked them."

Before tutoring All-Americans and school record-setters, Brabham was one himself, becoming Baylor's first All-American when he finished second in the long jump behind USC's Henry Hines at the 1971 NCAA Indoor Championships.

"That's the year Clyde just me on a plane and sent me to the NCAA indoor meet in Detroit, Michigan, no coaching, nothing," he said. "I got second, went back to the hotel, got on a plane the next morning and flew to Austin. The bus met me at the airport, I got off the bus the next day and did five events down at Texas. You couldn't do that anymore."

A 1991 Baylor Hall of Fame inductee, Brabham also won the U.S. Track & Field Federation indoor and outdoor national championships in 1971 and was sixth in the long jump at the 1973 NCAA Outdoor Championships, earning his second All-America honor. He won back-to-back Southwest Conference titles in the long jump in 1972-73 and set the school record of 26-9 ½ at a meet in College Station in 1973.

"Even today, that's going to win most of your meets," Hart said. "You're talking about a long time ago when Danny did that."

Not that it surprised Hart. Four years earlier, he had watched from the stands as a skinny kid from Roswell, N.M., won the long jump and pole vault titles at the New Mexico state meet and set records in both.

"I just happened to be sitting by this lady and made the comment, 'Who's that kid from Roswell? That guy's pretty remarkable,''' Hart said. "And she said, 'Well, that's my nephew.' . . . I introduced myself and told her where I was from, and she said, 'Baylor? That's a Baptist school, isn't it? We're all Methodists.' And I said, 'Well, the way I look at it, there's only a couple foot of water difference between Methodists and Baptists. You sprinkle, we dunk.'''

Recruited by Arkansas, Oklahoma and New Mexico, among others, Brabham said he got the feeling after his Baylor visit, "This is where I want to be."

And other than 16 years coaching junior high and high school ÃÆ'Æ' ¢ÃƒÆ' ¢' ¬" in stops at Odessa, Crane and Georgetown, Texas, and Roswell and Hobbs, N.M. ÃÆ'Æ' ¢ÃƒÆ' ¢' ¬" that's where he has stayed.

He and his wife built their own homes in both Georgetown and Roswell, and Danny will use those same skills to renovate a home in Midland that he inherited when his aunt died in October.

"I don't want to go overboard fixing it, but I'm going to do a lot of things to it to where it's nice and livable for somebody else," he said.

Like Coach Hart said, the guy doesn't "want to sit around."

Danny and his wife, Debbie, have two children: Brian, a former Baylor decathlete and currently a professor in exercise and sport science at UMHB; and Heather, a former Baylor track student manager and currently a teacher in Robinson; and five grandchildren, Tommy and Tori Brabham; and Brady, Neeley and Cami Farnum.