NASHVILLE, Tenn. -- Ed Temple, the former Tennessee State track and field coach whose Tigerbelles won 13 Olympic gold medals and helped break down racial and gender barriers in the sport, died Thursday night. He was 89.Temples daughter, Edwina, told Tennessee State officials that her father died after an illness. He celebrated his birthday Tuesday.Words cannot in any fashion or manner express how deeply saddened we are over the loss of our beloved Ed Temple, Tennessee State University President Glenda Glover said in a statement. The TSU family has truly lost a precious gem and contributor to the history and legacy that is TSU. Most importantly, our hearts go out to his family.Temple coached the womens track team at Tennessee State, formerly Tennessee A&I, from 1953 to 1994. He was head coach of the U.S. Olympics womens teams in 1960 and 1964 and assistant coach in 1980.One of the athletes he coached at TSU, Wilma Rudolph, became the first American woman to win three gold medals at a single Olympics, in Rome in 1960. She won the 100 and 200 meters and teamed with Martha Hudson, Lucinda Williams and Barbara Jones to win the 400 relay.Temple, whose other gold medalists from TSU included Edith McGuire and Wyomia Tyus, was inducted into nine halls of fame, including the Olympic Hall of Fame in 2012, where he was one of only four coaches to be inducted. He also served as a member of the U.S. Olympic Committee, the international Womens Track and Field Committee and the Nashville Sports Council.Temple coached the first U.S. womens teams to compete in the Soviet Union in 1958 and in China in 1975. But he was best known for leading the athletes at TSU, known as the Tigerbelles, during his 41 years as the universitys womens track coach.He coached his teams to more than 30 national titles and led 40 athletes to the Olympics.For many of the women on his teams, Temple was more than a coach.I always looked at Coach Temple as a father figure and a man of truth and wisdom, said TSU Olympian Chandra Cheeseborough-Guice, a former Tigerbelle who succeeded Temple as track and field coach. He really brought out the best in me. He made me realize my potential that had not been tapped.Former Tigerbelle Edith McGuire Duvall said Temple was there for her after she lost her father.This man treated us all like his kids, Duvall said. He impressed upon me to finish school. We were there to run track, but also to get an education and to be ladies.Temple began his career during a time when black female athletes were treated as second-class citizens, even by their male counterparts.At the 1964 Olympics in Tokyo, the U.S. mens team refused to provide Temple with clothes for a female shot putter who didnt fit into the womens uniform. His runners had to practice with Japanese starting blocks because the mens team refused to turn over three blocks sent over for the women.Still, Temples team brought home the gold and silver in the 100 meters, gold in the 200 and a medal performance in the 400 relay.Those were the kind of things we had to battle, he said in June 1993 after retiring from coaching. It was unnecessary types of things. We, the women, were USA citizens representing the United States. Why did we have to go through all that kind of stuff? It just didnt make sense.In a 2007 interview with The Tennessean, Temple said Rudolph was the best female track and field athlete hed ever seen.She had it all, he said. She had the charisma, she had the athletic ability, she had everything. When I look back, she opened up the door for womens sports, period. Im not just talking about track and field.Temple said Rudolph took a nap just before winning the 1960 gold medal in the 100.I was out there all nervous, walking around the infield, he recalled. And Wilma was on the rub-down table, and she had fallen asleep. Fell asleep!Rudolph, who suffered from polio as a child, died of brain cancer in 1994.Temple was born in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, and attended Tennessee A&I, where he received bachelors and masters degrees.The track at TSU is named for Temple. So is Ed Temple Boulevard in Nashville, adjacent to the TSU campus. Seminars on sports and society, held each year on TSUs campus, are named in his honor, and in 2015, a 9-foot bronze statue was unveiled in Temples likeness at First Tennessee Park in Nashville.Even the Bible says a prophet is seldom honored in his hometown, U.S. Congressman Jim Cooper said at the statues unveiling. But here we are honoring perhaps one of the greatest coaches in all of history.Temple took great pride in the success of his athletes, both on and off the field.They are an inspiration to everybody, he said late in life. It just shows what can be done. Where theres a will, theres a way. Wholesale Cavaliers Jerseys .Y. -- Marcell Dareus and the Buffalo Bills defence made life miserable for Super Bowl MVP Joe Flacco. John Johnson Jersey . 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Of course, he also was the teams partial or sole owner those 50 years, so Mack didnt have to worry about a boss calling him into the office and ordering him to pack his bags.That isnt the case for pretty much everyone else in the coaching profession, who can face dismissal after even one bad year. Why, only five of the 30 active NBA coaches have been with their current club for more than three years. As former Manchester United manager Sir Alex Ferguson wrote in his autobiography about his 27 years with that club: The control I was able to exert over Manchester United was a privilege few managers will be lucky enough to know.Thats what makes Arsene Wengers tenure as Arsenals manager impressive. Oct. 1 will mark the 20th anniversary of when he officially took over for what has been by far the longest managerial tenure in club history. He is the only active Premier League manager who has been with his current club more than four seasons. That is noteworthy, even outside soccer.To have that kind of longevity, former baseball manager Tony La Russa said, he must not only have a tremendous knowledge of the game and how to manage, but he also does something well to relate with the players.Yet even as successful as Wenger has been -- three Premier League championships and six FA Cup titles -- this past spring there were fans jeering and holding banners with such wording as: Thanks for the memories but its time to say goodbye.It isnt easy keeping a coaching job. For most people. Jim Boeheim started as the Syracuse University mens basketball coach in 1976 and still holds that position 40 years later, longer than any other active coach or manager in a major American sport. What advice would he give to someone just starting out?Try to do a great job and win. Then you can last another year, Boeheim said with a laugh. Just keep winning and youll be all right. Nothing else will matter. If you win, youll be OK. If you dont win, youll be looking for another job.Maintaining a managerial position is difficult anywhere, but coaches tend to last longer at the college level. In addition to there being more teams, coaches can acquire much more control at schools than in the pros, and the universities are not bought and sold by multibillionaire owners who want to make instant changes.I think [control] is something coaches ask for when they take a job, former Florida State football coach Bobby Bowden said. You can imagine the control Nick Saban has at Alabama. He probably has the biggest staff in the country, and whatever he wants, he gets. If you have the biggest weight room, he will get one bigger. If you have the biggest dormitory, he will get one bigger.Bowden coached Florida State for 34 years before leaving at age 80 after the 2009 season. Thats a long time, but consider that Eddie Robinson was Grambling States football coach for 55 years.The professional level is different, with the great majority of coaches and managers in major sports having been with teams less than four years. Gregg Popovich, who has been coaching the NBAs San Antonio Spurs since 1996, is the longest-tenured active coach with one team in U.S. major professional sports. Los Angeles Angels manager Mike Scioscia and New England Patriots coach Bill Belichick, who both took over their teams in 2000, are the longest serving in Major League Baseball and the NFL, respectively. Claude Julien, about to enter his 10th season with the Boston Bruins, is the longest tenured in the NHL.The professional ranks are more difficult to last a long time in, Boeheim said. Its just a different dynamic to the whole thing. If you dont get some good players, youre not going to last very long. In college, you have the chance to recruit more players and maybe get better. Its harder and the longevity is more difficult in the NBA than it is in college.Another factor, Scioscia says, is that a successful college coach is not only the coach, hes his own general manager. Hes going to go out and recruit the players he wants. Hes going to run the program the way he wants to. As a baseball manager, you are definitely part of a team of not only coaches but a team connected with executives and front office guys that are the people who put the team together.As a baseball manager, Ive been very fortunate to have this opportunity, but that beecomes more fragile the length of time youre in one place because general managers change very often and there are a lot of things youre not just in control of.ddddddddddddJust staying with one team doesnt inherently make the job all that much easier.Weve probably had four or five, six turnovers -- or different looks -- with this team. Its not like you manage the same players for 16 years, Scioscia said. There are always new challenges about team building and figuring out how the parts work. A lot of managers have to do that when they go to different organizations. Ive just been doing it at one organization, but I think the challenges are the same.Generational changes are part of that dynamic.When I started coaching in the 1950s after World War II, Bowden said, youd tell a kid to do something and he would not bat an eye. He just did it. And if not, you threatened to get rid of them. Nowadays you have to sell them on it. Tell them that if you do it that way, it will help you in this way.As the athletes approach changes over generations, so must the coaches. Which is part of the reason why La Russa, now chief baseball officer for the Arizona Diamondbacks, always made certain to read up on and research leadership methods.Probably the key to longevity is you have to maintain a really fresh and Whats next? attitude, said La Russa, who had two managerial stops that lasted at least a decade, 10 years with the Oakland Athletics and 16 with the St. Louis Cardinals. You can have a couple good years and human nature is to get complacent. Its really vital to free your mind so that youre always looking at whats next. Its good. It makes you hungry to do more.Just to stay fresh is really important, especially with the people youre leading. If you stand up and just start yakking, they may tune you out because theyve heard you say it before.While coaches and managers get older, being around young athletes helps them retain some youth. Scioscia says that coaching players from different cultures also is very beneficial.I think its fun if you embrace the cultural differences of kids from Latin America or kids from California or North Carolina or South Korea, he said. Its been a learning experience for me. I think when you sift through all the cultural difference and changes not only in our club today but how things that have evolved in 16 years, the one thing that these players are connected with is their passion for the game. And thats what you need to tap into to motivate them.Bear Bryant coached the University of Alabama football team for 25 years and won six national championships. After his final game, a reporter asked Bryant what he planned to do in retirement. He replied, Probably croak in a week. He died of a heart attack a month later.Bowden has been enjoying retired life after his full 57 years in coaching.All of a sudden, there is a big weight lifted from your shoulders, he said. I didnt have to worry about players grades, worry about conduct, worry about a 2 oclock call from the police. All of a sudden a weight was lifted off my shoulders. And boy, was it different. Boy, what a relief. Now, I just have to worry about food that I still have to buy.Boeheim, who turns 72 in November, says he will retire in two years. Well see whether that is the case. And how many more years Wenger, who turns 67 in October, keeps going. After all, when Ferguson turned 60 in 2001, he planned to retire at the end of the season, his 16th at Man U. His family, however, told him to continue managing. One, your health is good, his wife told him. Two, Im not having you in the house. And three, youre too young anyway. So he continued for another 11 years.Although now retired, Fergusons presence still remains at Old Trafford, not just in legend but in the form of a bronze statue with arms folded in a commanding manner.Meanwhile, there are new coaches and managers just beginning their careers and hoping to be able to match those of Ferguson, Wenger, Boeheim, La Russa, Bowden and others.I tip my hat to anyone who has sat in that head-coaching position for that long, whether its baseball, football or whatever sport, Seattle Mariners first-year manager Scott Servais said of Wengers 20-year reign. Its not just the game action; its all of the other stuff. The fans dont see it, but experience really does help. I marvel at those people.I hope I get in that position.Well then, he better keep winning. ' ' '