WORLD ATHLETICS

Bershawn "Batman" Jackson, a St. Augustine's alumnus who earned gold in the 400 meter hurdles at the IAAF World Championships and bronze in the Olympics, is the Falcons' new men's track and field head coach. Elizabeth “Liz” Gary was named women's head coach, a first at St. Augustine's. The Falcons have won 29 NCAA men's championships while the women have 10 titles.

Bershawn “Batman” Jackson still looked in shock.

Jackson’s eyes were bulging as if to say, “Who me?” at St. Augustine’s quickly called press conference last week. Standing in front of a packed room and almost certainly feeling the weight of the man whose shoes he’s about to fill must have been overwhelming.

“Didn’t think I was going to do it. I had to pray on it and talk to myself and say is this the right decision,” Jackson said.

Jackson credits St. Aug’s and track and field for saving his life and making him the man he is today.

At 5-foot-7, Jackson says he was told he was too short to compete in the 400-meter hurdles. His strides between the hurdles, they said, would be more in line with women running hurdles instead of men.

But he had a legendary college coach that believed in him and his dreams.

Jackson won NCAA national championships in the 400-meter dash, as a part of the Falcons’ famous 4x400-meter relay squads and, yes, in the 400 hurdles. He still holds the NCAA Division II national record in the event (48.48).

He parlayed his collegiate career into a stellar professional one: winning gold in the hurdles at the 2005 Helsinki World Championships, a bronze at the 2008 Beijing Olympics and much more. He returned to SAU in 2010 to obtain his degree, becoming the first in his family to do so. Jackson was inducted into the 2016 U.S. Track & Field Hall of Fame.
Now, he’s getting ready to run an even bigger race.

“My ultimate goal is to take the torch from coach [George] Williams and continue this legacy. …Bring back some more national titles to St. Augustine’s University,” he said.

Jackson takes over a men’s program that has won 29 of SAU’s 39 DII championships. But he will be in rebuilding mode. For the first time that ANYBODY can remember, the men did not win a team medal at the 2021 CIAA cross country championships or the CIAA indoor track and field championships.

SAU had either won or tied for first in indoor track every year since the 1997-98 season. That made more news than the actual winners.

Separate but not equal
And speaking of firsts, Elizabeth “Liz” Gary is the first head female track coach in the modern era. Coach Williams had female assistants, but he was always the head coach.

Gary is also a Falcon grad and the first in her family to earn a degree. She was a long-distance runner in the 800 meters and 1500 meters and won several CIAA championships.
And, like Jackson, she, too, didn’t expect to be at the podium. A championship high school track coach right up the street at Southeast Raleigh High (15 state championships), Gary only wanted to volunteer at her alma mater.

The Lady Falcons, winners of 10 DII national titles, also didn’t medal at the CIAA cross country championships or the indoor track championships.

But athletic director David Bowser had other ideas. “AD Bowser asked for a resume and some other things, and I said, ‘why am I giving a resume to be a volunteer?’ But you never know the plans that God has for you, and He will always put you exactly where you need to be,” she said.

Nowhere but up
North Carolina State alumnus Clarence “Chucky” Brown has nowhere to go but up.

Men’s basketball hasn’t had a winning season since 2012-13, and never advanced to the tournament semifinals under former coach MarQus Johnson.
Good players don’t always make good coaches, but even Brown can’t mess this one up.

Bonitta Best is sports editor at The Triangle Tribune in Durham.

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