HOUSTON - Victor Lopez, who has led the Rice women's track and field team to national prominence over the past 25 years, will retire from the University following the 2005 outdoor season, athletic director Bobby May announced Wednesday.
Lopez, 61, has led the Owl women to four Western Athletic Conference outdoor titles, three WAC indoor championships, one Southwest Conference indoor title and two WAC cross country titles. Under his tutelege, 58 athletes have won 176 NCAA Division I or AIAW Division II all-America honors.
"Coaching at Rice University has been the best experience of my life," said Lopez. "I don't thnk there is a better example about what college athletics should be than at Rice. It was been a great experience, and I know I'm going to miss everything.
"It will always be in my mind and my heart that I came to a great place. I was blessed to be able to work at this institution."
"Victor Lopez represents all that is right with intercollegiate athletics," said May. "He thinks of himself as a teacher and is truly an exceptional coach and mentor. His contributions to Rice are voluminous and will be very difficult to duplicate.
"His teams have sustained an extremely high level of excellence over a quarter of a century, and it's the result of the talent and leadership of this exceptional individual."
Lopez has won seven WAC coach of the year honors as well as three SWC awards. He has been named the coach of the year twice in NCAA District VI.
Rice women's outdoor teams have had six top 20 and two top 10 finishes in the NCAA outdoor championships, capped by a ninth-place finish in 2001. Indoors, the Owls have scored among the top 20 five times and among the top 10 five times, including a fifth-place finish in 2002.
From modest beginnings, the Owls have produced a six-time NCAA Division I shot put national champion (former all-America Regina Cavanaugh), a three-time national champion in the javelin (Valerie Tulloch who won NCAA javelin titles as a freshman, junior and senior), an NCAA and USA triple-jump champion (Claudia Haywood) and the school's first-ever NCAA relay championship team, the 4x400-meter squad (TaNisha Mills, Melissa Straker, Andrea Blackett and Margaret Fox), which blew away the indoor competition in March 1997 with a Rice record time of 3:34.44. The last few years have seen a three-time 400 meter champion (once in indoor competition and twice in outdoor) and 400 hurdle runner up (Allison Beckford), who set new school and conference 400 records along the way.
Lopez took the 1987 and 1993 cross country teams to the NCAA championships, where they finished 15th and 19th respectively; but more significantly, the team became the only Rice women's program to ever qualify for the NCAA championships and bring home a SWC conference championship.
The Owls are coming off a WAC outdoor championship, won at the Rice Track Stadium in May. Funmi Jimoh was the 2004 meet's high-point performer and Beckford was named the meet's top athlete. It was Rice's fourth outdoor title in five years. Beckford then added all-America recognition at the NCAA championships. During the indoor season, senior Beth Hinshaw won all-America honors at the NCAA indoor meet in Fayetteville, Ark.
In 2003, the Owls made waves in the Western Athletic Conference once again. Despite falling short of their fourth-straight WAC indoor title, the Owls had an outstanding overall season. Beckford qualified for the NCAA indoor championships in the 400-meters, after winning her fourth-straight WAC indoor 400-meter title. That win made her the only female athlete in WAC history to acheive such a feat, and earned her and Lopez league honors. Lopez's squad won the conference outdoor meet with the freshman of the year (Jimoh) and the most outstanding performer (Beckford).
In 2002, the Owls won their third-straight WAC indoor championship, en route to their school-best fifth-place finish at the NCAA indoor championships. Lopez was named the indoor conference coach of the year for the third-straight time, after coaching his Owls to their record-setting league championship. At the NCAA indoor championships in Fayetteville that year, Lopez coached seven all-Americas and a national champion. The Owls distance medley and 4x400 meter relays finished sixth and seventh, respectively, while Aimee Teteris took fourth in the 800 meters, and Beckford won her first indoor 400 title.
The Owls have also performed well in the classroom. The graduation rate of the women's track athletes who entered Rice and then completed their eligibility during Lopez's tenure is an astounding 100 percent. Straker continued the strong academic tradition when she was named a second team CoSIDA academic all-district VI selection in 1997; Heather Howard was named a CoSIDA academic all-America second team cross country and first team track and field member in 1999; and Jamila Nelson earned the Arthur Ashe Jr. Award in 2000 for outstanding student athletes of color who maintained a 3.2 GPA and have demonstrated service to the institution and community. Since 1985, the Rice women's track program has seen eight athletes receive academic all-America honors 15 times, 10 more athletes achieve academic all-district honors 15 times, 43 athletes earn all-conference academic recognition 132 times and five cross country athletes receive the WICCCA academic award seven times. In addition, Cavanaugh was inducted into the CoSIDA Academic all-America Hall of Fame in the spring of 2000.
The success of Lopez's track teams over the years has not gone unnoticed. He was named the 1994 District VI outdoor coach of the year, adding it to the 1993 District VI indoor, the 1987 SWC outdoor and the 1989 SWC and district VI coach of the year honors. In 2001 the Puerto Rico native was named the NCAA south region coach of the year. The past three years has seen Lopez earn the WAC indoor coach of the year honors, and he was named the league's best in 2000 and 2001 after leading the Owls to WAC outdoor titles.
Lopez's acclaim, however, is not limited to collegiate circles or even to this country. The 61-year-old Puerto Rican native was appointed national coordinator of the 1992 Puerto Rico national Olympic team in December 1991 after consulting the team in both 1984 and 1988. His most recent international coaching experience came in Athens, Greece, at the 2004 Olympics, where he was head coach of the Puerto Rican track and field staff.
Several of the Owls women's track and field team, present and past, were participants in recent Olympic games. In 2000, Fox was a member of the Canadian track and field squad, and ran the 4x400 relay down under. Blackett and Straker both ran for the Barbados national team, and Heather McDermid, an NCAA all-America and two-time SWC champion in the 800, won a bronze medal in rowing. Blackett and Beckford also competed for their respective countries in the 2004 Games.
Lopez also continues to maintain a high profile in Central America and the Caribbean, where he is recognized as a leader in that region's efforts to stimulate the sports' growth. In 1998 he was elected president of the Central American and Caribbean Confederation, the body which governs track and field in 35 countries in that region. He again was appointed president of that organization in 2002. In addition, Lopez supervises the training of world-class athletes such as Blackett, who was a finalist in the 1997, '99 and 2003 World Championships and was ranked fifth in the world in '03. She won the 1998 Commonwealth Games 400-meter hurdles, establishing a new record with a time of 53.91. In 1999, she finished fourth in the World Championships with a new personal best of 53.36.
In 1990, he was awarded the prestigious 75th anniversary commemorative medal handed out by the International Amateur Athletics Federation (IAAF) for his efforts in developing track and field in Central America and the Caribbean. He was the first North or Central American recipient of this honor, given in conjunction with the 75th anniversary of the IAAF to men and women who have made significant advances toward the sport of track and field.
In December 1997, Lopez was named head of delegation for the America's Team for the track and field World Cup 1998. This new challenge placed Lopez in charge of all the athletes in the Western Hemisphere, with the exception of those from the United States.
In 1995 and again in 1999, Lopez was elected to the IAAF technical committee, which reviews and amends the technical rules for all aspects of international track and field. Lopez also serves as an advisor to the IAAF-NACAC regional development center. He is president of the North America, Central America and Caribbean Track and Field Coaches Association, an organization which encompasses all levels of coaching within nearly 50 countries. At the 1993 IAAF congress in Stuttgart, he was awarded the Veterans Pin, an award signifying 20 years of service and promotion of track and field at the international level.
Lopez is a member of the IAAF Coaches Commission and the executive committee of the NCAA Division I Coaches Association. He is also a member of the international technical officials panel of the IAAF, a body of track and field experts from across the world who are assigned to supervise a number of international meets. In that capacity, Lopez has worked such meets as the 1990 and 1992 World Junior Championships, the 1992 and 1994 World Cups, the 1991 and 1995 Pan-American Games and the 1987 and 1999 World Championships.
In addition to his track resume, Lopez is also considered one of the globe's best training theorists and methodologists. He has been consulted regarding strength and conditioning programs for such teams as the Chicago Bulls.
A former high school champion in the 100- and 200-meter dashes, Lopez received several scholarship offers from across the United States, but signed with Houston and coach Johnny Morriss. Lopez lettered four years as a sprinter and hurdler before graduating in 1971 (following his three-year stint from 1967 to 1970 in the U.S. Army).
Over the years, he has had the opportunity to work with some of the world's most renowned coaches. His previous mentors include Carlo Vittori and Erminio Azzaro of Italy, Ulrich Jonath of West Germany, Jose Ballesteros of Spain, Wilbur Ross of the United States and Manolo Garcia of Puerto Rico.
Lopez and his wife, Evelyn, who recently retired from Bellaire High School, have two children; Antonio, a Rice graduate and Starbucks executive, and Lolita, a graduate of Harvard and a news reporter for WB 11 in New York City.