Track Coach Grover Hinsdale Keeps Turning Out Olympic-Caliber Athletes
By Jack Williams
Five hours away from the biggest race of his life at the Olympic Games in Sidney, former Georgia Tech star Angelo Taylor placed a phone call halfway around the world to his coach, Grover Hinsdale. They had a 15-minute conversation that turned to gold.
Hinsdale, the long-time Yellow Jacket coach, had watched on television in Atlanta as Taylor raced to second place in the semifinal heat of the 400-meter hurdles. Hinsdale was concerned that Taylor “had not run his race.” He e-mailed his protege in Australia and the athlete responded by calling his coach on the day of the finals.
“I detected concern in Angelo’s voice,” Hinsdale said. “By finishing second in his heat, he had wound up in the least preferred position, lane one, through a random drawing. He felt some intimidation, some anxiety. He felt the lane position lessened his chance to win.
“I was not of the opinion that he couldn’t do something great in lane one. I explained to Angelo that the 1996 silver medalist (Samuel Matete of Zambia) had run in lane one in the Games in Atlanta. I forget to point out, and should have, that once in the Olympics, in 1972, the winner (Jon Aki-bua of Uganda), was in lane one.”
Of even more concern to Hinsdale was the manner in which Taylor had run in the semifinal heat. “He was coming off the hurdles and surging, trying to make up ground too quickly,” the coach said. “He needed to smooth out his race. Rhythm is everything in the hurdles. Angelo needed to relax and re-discover a rhythm. That’s one thing we talked about.”
Taylor did just what the coach suggested. He was his old self in the finals, racing to the gold medal in a personal best time of 47.50. He seemed to completely ignore the fact that lane one, with a much tighter, more difficult turn than the other lanes, had many times been a killer spot in the Olympics.
Taylor later claimed another gold medal in the 4 x 400-meter relay even though he did not run in the finals. He helped pace the team through the first two heats and then, as is traditional, turned over the finals’ assignment to the four men who had the best 400 times at the United States Olympic Trials.
Hinsdale learned of Taylor’s victory in the hurdles on the radio at 5:30 a.m. “It was my morning with the children, to go to breakfast and take them to school,” he said. “That’s when I heard the good news. Later, at 12:15 a.m. (Australian time), Angelo called to make sure I had heard. He was emotionally very spent.”
With Taylor’s success, the Georgia Tech “Gold Rush” continues in the Olympic Games. Hinsdale coached two trackmen to gold medals in 1996 in Atlanta, Derrick Adkins in the 400 hurdles and Derek Mills, a member of the championship 4 x 400-meter relay team.
Hinsdale was an assistant coach under Buddy Fowlkes in the 1980s when Antonio McKay won a gold in the 4 x 400 relay and a bronze in the 400 meters in the 1984 Games and then swept a gold in the 4 x 400 relay in the 1988 Olympics.
All together, Hinsdale has helped Tech athletes win six gold medals. The coach is much too modest to take a lot of credit for their accomplishments, but it is no coincidence that athletes under his direction keep reaching the pinnacle of the sport.
Georgia Tech head volleyball Coach Shelton Collier sums up best the way many people on The Flats feel about Hinsdale.
“In a recent national coaches’ seminar, I was asked which coach, in any sport, I most respected, and why,” Collier said. “I didn’t think of Dean Smith or Tom Landry. I listed Grover Hinsdale as my first choice.
“I am constantly amazed at him, and envious, because of the loyalty, devotion and respect his athletes have for him. Plus, he has developed world-class athletes, and that is very impressive.”
Hinsdale says his coaching philosophy is really quite simple. “Ever since I was in junior high school, I was fortunate to compete under coaches that were good people,” he said. “They treated us with respect and dignity, but commanded respect in return. That’s the way I operate. I am close to our athletes and very open with them. But I also emphasize strong discipline.”
It might appear strange that Hinsdale’s two prize proteges, Taylor and Adkins, won gold medals in the same event. Was that a coincidence?
“Well, it certainly wasn’t by design,” Hinsdale said. “We didn’t set out to win two gold medals in the hurdles. We just try to recruit the best athletes possible into our program. First, came a great athlete like Derrick Adkins to win a gold and, at the same time, he was accomplishing that feat in 1996, we were signing Angelo out of high school in Atlanta. We had been watching his performance for three years before he decided on Georgia Tech.
“It is unusual that they won gold medals in the same event. But I’m not surprised that it happened.”
Through the years, Adkins and Taylor have become very good friends as they trained on the Tech campus under Hinsdale. “Actually, Derrick has been a great mentor for Angelo,” Hinsdale said.
Adkins retired from track following the Olympic trials this past summer and now is studying in an Atlanta seminary to become a minister. “Derrick has a very good book out,” Hinsdale said. “It’s a self-motivational book for Generation X. I highly-recommend it.”
It was a major story when two Yellow Jackets, Adkins and Mills, won Gold Medals in their backyard in the 1996 Olympics.
Mills still is competing in international track events. He trains in Raleigh, N.C.
McKay, the gold medalist of the 1980s, still resides in the Atlanta area. He is a personal trainer for mid-teenage athletes in their off-season time in Alpharetta.
Taylor has not yet returned to Atlanta. He left Australia for Croatia to compete in the Grand Prix, the last major track event of the season. When he returns to Atlanta, he will continue to train under Hinsdale on the Tech campus in preparation for international competition on the track circuit.
“I have seen Angelo mature greatly in the last full year,” Hinsdale said. “He has matured in his approach to the business of track, to competition, to training and to his diet. In track, he can write his own ticket. He is capable of breaking the world record in his hurdles event. He just missed the record by seven-tenths of a second in the Olympics.”
Hinsdale, incidentally, now turns his attention to the development of the other young talent on his Georgia Tech team. Are there any future gold medal winners on the squad?
“I wouldn’t doubt it,” the coach said. “I hope that always will be the goal of the young men in our program. Winning a gold medal in the Olympics is an unbelievable accomplishment. But we have two or three who might be in the fight down the road.”
