The Assistants

a loyal coaching staff      

John was fortunate to choose as his first assistant, Dick Booth, who turned out to share the same competitive zeal and an uncanny knack for coaching jumpers. Dick is arguably the greatest jumps coach ever and coached 49 individual national champions. He served as John’s assistant for all but 4 years.  They were an incredible partnership.

Ted King, a British jumps coach, continued the Razorbacks momentum in the jumps during the 4 years of Dick’s absence. After his time with the Hogs, he spent 4 years coaching in Canada, and in 1992, he returned to a similar role in the UK.

Doug Williamson was the sprints coach and a very energetic member of the first NCAA teams. He became a head coach at Virginia in 1985. He was replaced by Stanley Redwine who played a vital role as an athlete in the early years and today is the highly regarded Head Coach at the University of Kansas. He spent 10 years on John’s staff.

After Stanley became Head Coach at the University of Tulsa,  John chose as his replacement Steve Silvey who had been head coach at Blinn Junior College where his teams won fifteen National Junior College Championships. Two other individuals held the sprints position during John’s tenure, Lance Brauman and a former Razorback athlete, Kyle White. Over the course of 34 years, John engendered tremendous loyalty from his team and saw little staff turnover which greatly contributed to the program’s success.