Residence Sacramento, California Name Jim Hunt | Role Coach | |
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Known for Coaching Long Distance, Cross Country, Track and Field | ||
Jim Hunt is the renowned former head cross-country and track and field coach at Humboldt State University, where he coached from 1965 until his retirement in 2008. His cross-country team won the 1980 NCAA Division II National Championships and his teams regularly finished in the top ten at NCAA Nationals, producing 64 All-Americans and eleven National Champions. He coached numerous distance greats including Gary Tuttle, Bill Scobey, Danny Grimes, Chuck Smead and 1984 US Olympic marathon trials winner Mark Conover, his most accomplished protégé. Hunt is well respected nationally as a coach and innovator of new training methods. He continues coaching to this day, and has produced a video "Training the Neurological Aspects of Distance Running" used by coaches across the United States.
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Education
Hunt graduated from Wayne State University in Michigan in 1949. He later earned his master's degree from Chico State University.
Career
Hunt coached at Humboldt State University from 1966 until retiring in 2008. He coached the UC Davis Aggie men’s cross country program from 1989 to 1992, and returned for another stint in 2000. He left UC Davis to coach the track and cross country programs at nearby Sierra College in Rocklin, California, before returning to UC Davis, where he is currently an assistant coach. Hunt has also served as the USA Track & Field Men’s Development distance and middle distance coach from 1981 to 1992. He was a coach at the US West Team Sports Festival in 1981. He is currently the international director of distance running and race walking for Special Olympics International. In July 2000, Hunt served as the coordinator of the Masters, Disabled and Special Olympic Events at the Olympic Track and Field Trials in Sacramento, California. He is currently the cross country coach at UC Davis.
Hunt was inducted into the Humboldt State Hall of Fame in 1993.
Running videos
Along with two HSU cinema students (Dean Munroe and David Phillips), Coach Hunt co-produced "The Harriers", an award winning 25-minute black and white film at Humboldt State University in 1968. The film featured some of HSU's best cross country athletes, including Gary Tuttle. The picture created an impressionistic view of cross country in a variety of settings including a lone runner jogging through a herd of elk, the team disappearing into the fog of a giant redwood forest, and sprinters at Clam Beach (determining HSU's seventh man for the nationals). Set to music without narration, the film was used frequently by Hunt to motivate and encourage runners at his training camps.
Produced in 2000, "Training the Neurological Aspects" is a 19-minute instructional video hosted by Hunt. The video covers neurological training techniques that focus on training to run faster without injury.