Posted: December 2, 2005

Athletics: Dr. Bert Lyle honored with Giegengack Award

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. - Legendary coach and women's track and field advocate Dr. Bert Lyle has been honored with USA Track & Field's Giegengack Award. Dr. Lyle received the award Thursday night at the Jesse Owens Awards and National Track & Field Hall of Fame Induction Ceremony in Jacksonville, Florida. The event was held in conjunction with the 2005 USATF Annual Meeting.

Named in honor of former Yale University coach and 1964 Olympic Team head coach Robert Giegengack, the award goes to an individual who has made an outstanding contribution to the development and success of USA Track & Field, and the larger community of the sport. In the past, the award has gone to coaches, officials, Association leaders, administrators, and others from all segments of USATF. The USATF Board of Directors votes to select each year's winner.

Dr. Lyle was born in Tupelo, Mississippi. He earned his bachelor's degree from Duke University, a master's degree from Southern Methodist University, and a doctorate from the University of Texas at Austin.

His Texas Women's University track & field teams garnered three AIAW national championships, including the inaugural event, and his teams also won two track & field federation championships.

As well as serving as track & field coach from 1965 to 1988, Dr. Lyle also served as athletics director and a member of the faculty. Dr. Lyle was coach of the United States sprint, hurdle, and relay teams at the 1992 Summer Olympic Games in Barcelona, Spain. He has had a tremendous impact on track & field as Women's Development sprint subcommittee chair and as the elite sprint coordinator for the U.S. women.

Since his retirement from T.W.U. in 1988, Dr. Lyle has resided in Denton, Texas, where he continues to turn out a prodigious amount of material on the science of sprinting and hurdling. Dr. Lyle and his wife Pris celebrated 50 years of wedlock last February.

For more information on the 2005 USATF Annual Meeting, visit USATF.org.