Jamaican ‘Poppy’ Thomas inducted in athletics hall of fame
JAMAICAN Victor “Poppy” Thomas was on Tuesday inducted into the US Track & Field and Cross Country Coaches Association (USTFCCCA) Hall of Fame at their annual convention held in Denver, Colorado.
Thomas, who has been the head coach at Lincoln University in Missouri for over 22 years, was one of six coaches inducted into the hall of fame that started in 1995 and which “recognises coaches who have brought great distinction to themselves, to their institutions, and to the sports of cross-country and track and field”.
“This year’s class increases the number of all-time inductees to 223 coaches from the club, high school, and collegiate ranks,” the USTFCCCA website said.
Thomas is the first Jamaican to get the honour.
The former coach at St Andrew Technical led Lincoln to 14 national team titles in NCAA Division II women’s track and field as well as to more than 140 individual national titles and 950 All-America honours.
“Whether it is athletically or academically, Thomas has had plenty of opportunities to celebrate. Since taking over the men’s and women’s track & field programmes at Lincoln in 2002 at least one of his squads has finished in the top 10 at the NCAA DII Championships indoors or outdoors — every year but one,” the site said. “The lone exception being 2020, a year whose national track & field championships were not held due to the COVID-19 pandemic.”
Among his list of achievements, Thomas’s charges at Lincoln have finished in the top 10 nationally as a team 66 times, with 52 of those being in the top five.
His squads have been named USTFCCCA NCAA Division II Scholar Team of the Year seven times, and four athletes — Nandelle Cameron (2008), Sedeekie Edie (2016), Ryan Brown (2019) and Kizan David (2021) — have earned Scholar Athlete of the Year honours.
Thomas — who has been named USTFCCCA National Coach of the Year six times and Regional Coach of the Year on 11 occasions, with 11 conference Coach of the Year honours as well — coached for two years at Gardner-Webb, where he guided David Lloyd to the NCAA DII crown in the 400-metre hurdles.
He has been inducted to the Drake Relays (2012) and Missouri Sports (2021) halls of fame, the latter joining his Lincoln track & field programme being inducted in 2013.
