Bucknell University Athletics
Former Bucknell Track Coach Art Gulden Enters USTFCCCA Hall of Fame
12/17/2009 7:00:00 AM | Women's Cross Country
Dec. 17, 2009
LEWISBURG, Pa. – Art Gulden, longtime Bucknell track and field and cross country coach, was inducted into the U.S. Track & Field and Cross Country Coaches Association (USTFCCCA) Hall of Fame at the USTFCCCA's annual convention on Wednesday night. A member of the Bucknell Athletics Hall of Fame Class of 2001 and one of the premier coaches in Bison history, the late Gulden was honored with five other coaches from around the country for their contributions to cross country/track and field.
The USTFCCCA Hall of Fame recognizes coaches who have brought great distinction to themselves, their institutions and the sports of cross country and track and field. Those honored exemplify the qualities of dedication to the sport, leadership and passion for their profession that serve as an inspiration to coaches everywhere in every sport.
Gulden's son and Bucknell graduate, Artie, received the honor on his father's behalf at the convention in Orlando, Fla.
"It was quite an exciting night for the Gulden Family,” said current Bucknell cross country and track and field head coach Kevin Donner. “Many of his former assistant coaches and colleagues were in attendance, and it was only fitting to have a former assistant coach (Brad Hackett) hand out the award to Art's son Artie."
During his tenure at Bucknell, Gulden built the cross country/track and field program virtually from scratch to lead his teams to some of the greatest results in the university's history. During his 31 years at the helm of the Orange and Blue, Gulden's teams collected an impressive 68 conference titles. Many of those came on the cross country course where the men's squad claimed 18 consecutive conference championships from 1975 to 1992. Those teams also won four IC4A titles, earned 167 straight dual-meet victories over 16 years and made nine NCAA Championship appearances during a 21-year span, earning the distinction as Bucknell's most nationally accomplished program of that era.
Gulden's women's squads were equally successful, as no other team won more cross country and track and field titles during the first decade of Patriot League competition. In 1999, the Bison earned their first-ever at-large selection to the NCAA Cross Country Championship where they finished 24th overall.
Under Gulden's tutelage, the cross country and track and field teams regularly claimed among the highest grade-point averages of any on campus, and nearly a dozen student-athletes earned Academic All-America honors.
In addition to his coaching duties, Gulden served as chairman of the TAC Eastern Regional Olympic Development Committee, president of the IC4A Cross Country and Track and Field Coaches Association, and a member of the NCAA Cross Country Executive Committee and U.S. Olympic Development Committee for Distance Running. Gulden also served as president of the U.S. Cross Country Coaches Association in 1991-92, and coached the U.S. national team at the World Cross Country Championships in Norway in 1989.
Gulden was recognized for his success several times throughout his career, as he was named the Patriot League Coach of the Year 20 times in his 11 years in the conference and IC4A District II Coach of the Year five times. He was posthumously inducted into the Bucknell Athletics Hall of Fame in 2001 after passing away in May of the same year while attending the ECAC and IC4A Track & Field Championships in Princeton, N.J.
Joining Gulden in the USTFCCCA Hall of Fame Class of 2009 were Franklin Pitcher “Pitch” Johnson, Sr. (Drake University/Stanford University), Oscar Moore, Jr. (Rowan University), Charles “Chuck” Rohe (Furman University/University of Tennessee), Duane Vandenbusche (Western State College of Colorado) and Gary Winckler (Florida State University/University of Illinois).
The current Bison track and field teams' next meet of the season will be the Gulden Relays, named for the former coach. The annual meet, which was first hosted in 2002, is slated for Jan. 9, 2010 at Gerhard Fieldhouse.
