James Jerome Carnes (November 29, 1934 – March 5, 2011) was an American

track and field Track and field (or athletics in British English) is a sport that includes Competition#Sports, athletic contests based on running, jumping, and throwing skills. The name used in North America is derived from where the sport takes place, a ru ...

athlete, coach and administrator. A successful coach at the high school, college and international levels, Carnes compiled a 161–11 career dual meet record, highlighted by four college conference championships and six state high school championships. He was the head coach of the U.S. Olympic track & field team and the Florida Gators track and field team, the founder of the Florida Track Club, and a member of the U.S. Track & Field Hall of Fame.

Early years

Jimmy Carnes was born in

Eatonton, Georgia Eatonton is a city in and the county seat of Putnam County, Georgia, United States. As of the 2020 census, the city had a population of 6,307. It was named after William Eaton, an officer and diplomat involved in the First Barbary War. The n ...

.Phil Gulick,
Florida's Jimmy Carnes—Charley Finley of Track?
''St. Petersburg Times'', pp. 1C & 4C (August 4, 1970). Retrieved April 2, 2010. He attended

Mercer University Mercer University is a Private university, private Research university, research university in Macon, Georgia, United States. Founded in 1833 as Mercer Institute and gaining university status in 1837, it is the oldest private university in the s ...

Macon, Georgia Macon ( ), officially Macon–Bibb County, is a consolidated city-county in Georgia (U.S. state), Georgia, United States. Situated near the Atlantic Seaboard fall line, fall line of the Ocmulgee River, it is southeast of Atlanta and near the ...

from 1952 to 1956, where he played for the Mercer Bears

basketball Basketball is a team sport in which two teams, most commonly of five players each, opposing one another on a rectangular Basketball court, court, compete with the primary objective of #Shooting, shooting a basketball (ball), basketball (appro ...

team and was a

javelin throw The javelin throw is a track and field event where the javelin, a spear about in length, is thrown as far as possible. The javelin thrower gains momentum by running within a predetermined area. Javelin throwing is an event of both the men's de ...

er and

high jump The high jump is a track and field event in which competitors must jump unaided over a horizontal bar placed at measured heights without dislodging it. In its modern, most-practiced format, a bar is placed between two standards with a crash mat f ...

er for the Bears track and field team. Carnes dated his future wife, Nanette, a Mercer education major whom he knew from Eatonton, while they were undergraduates.

Coaching career

High school

Carnes graduated from Mercer in 1956, and accepted his first job as a physical education teacher and assistant coach for the football, basketball and track teams at Druid Hills High School in

DeKalb County, Georgia DeKalb County (, , ) is located in the north central portion of the U.S. state of Georgia (U.S. state), Georgia. As of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, the population was 764,382, making it Georgia's fourth-most populous county. Its ...

. In his second year at Druid Hills, he was named head coach of the track team. From 1957 to 1962, Carnes' Druid Hills track teams were a perfect 52–0 in dual meets and captured six Georgia high school state championships, and he was recognized as the Georgia coach of the year six times.Georgia Sports Hall of Fame, Inductees
Jimmy Carnes
. Retrieved April 2, 2010.

College

In 1962, Carnes became the head cross country and track and field coach at

Furman University Furman University is a private university in Greenville, South Carolina, United States. Founded in 1826 and named after Baptist pastor Richard Furman, the Liberal arts college, liberal arts university is the oldest private institution of higher l ...

Greenville, South Carolina Greenville ( ; ) is a city in Greenville County, South Carolina, United States, and its county seat. With a population of 70,720 at the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, it is the List of municipalities in South Carolina, sixth-most pop ...

. His Furman track and field teams were 16–3 in dual meets, and won both the Southern Conference indoor and outdoor track and field championships in his two seasons there. After the 1964 track season, Carnes accepted the head coaching position at the

University of Florida The University of Florida (Florida or UF) is a public university, public land-grant university, land-grant research university in Gainesville, Florida, United States. It is a senior member of the State University System of Florida and a preem ...

Gainesville, Florida Gainesville is the county seat of Alachua County, Florida, United States, and the most populous city in North Central Florida, with a population of 145,212 in 2022. It is the principal city of the Gainesville metropolitan area, Florida, Gainesv ...

.Richard Rogin,
When It Gets Cold Up North, Astute Runners Head South To Gainesville
" ''Sports Illustrated'' (December 13, 1982). Retrieved July 9, 2011. From 1965 to 1976, Carnes' Florida Gators track and field teams finished in the top three in the

Southeastern Conference The Southeastern Conference (SEC) is a collegiate List of NCAA conferences, athletic conference whose member institutions are located primarily in the South Central United States, South Central and Southeastern United States. Its 16 members in ...

(SEC) fifteen times, won two SEC indoor track championships, and compiled a 93–3 overall record in dual meets.GatorZone.com, Track & Field, History,
Former Gator Coach Jimmy Carnes To Be Inducted in USATF Hall of Fame
" press release (November 8, 2008). Retrieved April 5, 2010. Among his many Gators track and field athletes were sixty-five SEC individual champions, four NCAA individual champions and twenty-four

All-American The All-America designation is an annual honor bestowed on outstanding athletes in the United States who are considered to be among the best athletes in their respective sport. Individuals receiving this distinction are typically added to an Al ...

s. In 1965, Carnes founded the Florida Track Club in Gainesville, an amateur track and field organization that helped to train high school athletes, college-level transfer students, future Olympians and other post-graduate competitors. Over the following decade, the Florida Track club became a magnet for serious track and field athletes training for international competitions, including

Jack Bacheler Jack Strangl Bacheler (born December 30, 1943) is an American former long-distance runner and two-time U.S. Olympian ( 5,000 meters in 1968 Mexico City Olympics, and Marathon in 1972 Munich Olympics). Born in Washington, District of Columbia, ...

, Jeff Galloway, Marty Liquori and Frank Shorter. Carnes recruited fifty-five graduate student-athletes for the Florida Track Club by offering several of them assistant coaching positions and helping many of them obtain graduate assistantships within the university to help them continue their graduate studies.

Olympics

Carnes served as the assistant coach of the U.S. men's track and field team for the

1976 Summer Olympics The 1976 Summer Olympics (), officially known as the Games of the XXI Olympiad () and officially branded as Montreal 1976 (), were an international multi-sport event held from July 17 to August 1, 1976, in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. Montreal ...

in Montreal. He was named the head coach of the U.S. men's track and field team that was forced to boycott the

1980 Summer Olympics The 1980 Summer Olympics (), officially known as the Games of the XXII Olympiad () and officially branded as Moscow 1980 (), were an international multi-sport event held from 19 July to 3 August 1980 in Moscow, Soviet Union, in present-day Russ ...

in Moscow as a result of the

Soviet Union The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR), commonly known as the Soviet Union, was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 until Dissolution of the Soviet ...

's 1979 invasion of

Afghanistan Afghanistan, officially the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan, is a landlocked country located at the crossroads of Central Asia and South Asia. It is bordered by Pakistan to the Durand Line, east and south, Iran to the Afghanistan–Iran borde ...

Business ventures

In 1973, Carnes and Liquori co-founded Athletic Attic, one of the nation's first sports equipment chain stores, with an emphasis on running shoes for training and competition.Associated Press,
Gators Track Coach Quits
" ''Sarasota Herald-Tribune'', p. 3C (September 1, 1976). Retrieved April 6, 2010. At the peak of the running craze, Athletic Attic had over 165 stores in the United States, Canada, Japan and New Zealand with over $40 million in annual revenue. Carnes resigned as the Gators track coach in September 1976 to focus on his Athletic Attic business interests and his Olympic coaching.

Sports administration

As chairman of the Governor's Council on Sports and Physical Fitness, Carnes was the founder of the Sunshine State Games, Florida's annual Olympic-style multi-sport festival.Florida Sports Foundation, Sunshine State Games,
Florida loses long-time amateur sports advocate
." Retrieved July 9, 2011. The first games were held in 1980, and have been held every year since then. Carnes became the chairman of the track division of the

Amateur Athletic Union The Amateur Athletic Union (AAU) is an amateur sports organization based in the United States. A multi-sport organization, the AAU is dedicated exclusively to the promotion and development of amateur sports and physical fitness programs. It h ...

(AAU) in 1977,Associated Press,
Former US track and field coach Carnes dies
" ''USA Today'' (March 5, 2011). Retrieved July 11, 2011. and helped heal a decades-long institutional rift between the AAU and the NCAA. Former USATF President Jimmy Carnes dies
" USA Track & Field (March 7, 2011). Retrieved July 17, 2011. From 1980 to 1984, he served as the first president of The Athletics Congress/USA (now known as

USA Track & Field USA Track & Field (USATF) is a United States national governing body for the sports of track and field, cross country running, road running, and racewalking (known as the sport of athletics outside the US). The USATF was known between 1979 and 1 ...

), after it was spun off from the AAU. He was also involved in the formation of TACTRUST, the first step toward open track competition, and worked to guide the sport from amateur to open competition rules. Carnes served a total of twenty-one years as a member of the board of directors of the International

Special Olympics Special Olympics is the world's largest sports organization for children and adults with intellectual disabilities, providing year-round training and activities to 5 million participants and Unified Sports partners in 172 countries. Special Ol ...

Honors

Carnes was inducted as a member of the Florida Sports Hall of Fame in 1980, the

Georgia Sports Hall of Fame Georgia most commonly refers to: * Georgia (country), a country in the South Caucasus * Georgia (U.S. state), a state in the southeastern United States Georgia may also refer to: People and fictional characters * Georgia (name), a list of pe ...

in 1984, the U.S. Track & Field and Cross Country Coaches Association Hall of Fame in 1998,U.S. Track & Field and Cross Country Coaches Association, Hall of Fame, Class of 1998
Jimmy Carnes
Retrieved April 2, 2010. and the USA Track & Field Hall of Fame in 2008.USA Track & Field, Hall of Fame
Jimmy Carnes
Retrieved April 2, 2010. He was also inducted into the University of Florida Athletic Hall of Fame as an "honorary letter winner" in 1983. The Gainesville Sports Commission has sponsored an annual championship called the Jimmy Carnes Indoor Track and Field Meet since 2008.

Personal life

Carnes was married to Nanette Carnes, and they were the parents of three sons and a daughter. He died in Gainesville in 2011, after a three-and-a-half-year battle with cancer; he was 76 years old.Pat Dooley,
Former UF track coach Jimmy Carnes dies of cancer
" ''The Gainesville Sun'' (March 5, 2011). Retrieved March 5, 2011.
," ''Orlando Sentinel'' (March 5, 2011). Retrieved June 21, 2011. Carnes was survived by his wife and their children.

References

Bibliography

*Caraccioli, Jerry, & Tom Caraccioli, ''Boycott: Stolen Dreams of the 1980 Moscow Olympic Games'', New Chapter Press, Washington, D.C. (2009). . *Carnes, Jimmy, ''Teaching High School and College Track and Field Athletics'', Paladin House, Geneva, Illinois (1976). .

External links

*
GatorZone.com
– Official website of the Florida Gators. {{DEFAULTSORT:Carnes, Jimmy 1934 births 2011 deaths Olympic coaches for the United States Druid Hills, Georgia Florida Gators track and field coaches Mercer University alumni People from Eatonton, Georgia Sportspeople from the Atlanta metropolitan area