|
Tony Waldrop
Tony Waldrop (December 29, 1951 – December 3, 2022) was an American academic administrator, researcher, and athlete.[1][2] In 2014, he became the third president of the University of South Alabama.[1][2] Early lifeWaldrop was born in Columbus, North Carolina.[3][4] In high school, he was the state champion in the half mile.[5] Waldrop attended the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (UNC) where he was a Morehead-Cain Scholar and served on the track team.[3][1] He graduated in 1974 with a B.A. in political science as a Top Five NCAA Student Athlete.[3] In 1980, he received a MA in physical education from UNC, followed by a Ph.D. in cellular and molecular physiology in 1981.[3][5] He received postdoctoral training at the Harry S. Moss Heart Center at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center.[3] Track CareerWhen he was a freshman member of UNC's track team, he had never run more than seven miles in one session.[5] Nevertheless, he followed the coaching staff's instruction to run ten miles in the morning and ten miles in the evening.[5] After a week, his arches collapsed and he was on crutches.[5] Waldrop was a six-time Atlantic Coast Conference winner and six-time All-American while at the University of North Carolina.[3][4] He set the world indoor record (3:55.0) in the mile in 1974.[3] He won two NCAA championships: the indoor 1,000 yards in 1973 and the indoor mile in 1974.[3][4] Waldrop ran the mile in 3:53.2 for a win at the Penn Relays in 1974.[4][6] He was on the cover ofTrack and Field News in both March and May 1974; the latter feature him at the Penn Relays.[7][6] He also was the first man to break the 4-minute mile in the Wanamaker Mile at the Millrose Games in 1974.[8][4] In 1975, he became the assistant track coach at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.[6] That same year, he won the gold medal at the 1975 Pan American Games in Mexico City for the 1500 meters.[6] He retired from track after the 1976 indoor season.[6][9] Waldrop said, "It was a really easy decision to decide to hang up the shoes and get on with the rest of my life. I never regretted the decision [to retire during the Olympic year], maybe there were one or two seconds of momentarily regret when I watched the 1500m at the Olympics... I accomplished a lot more in track than I ever imagined I would. There were a lot more things I wanted to do with my life…"[6] Waldrop went to the U.S. Olympic trials in 1972—he said the pressure was so great that it wasn't fun.[6] As a result, making the Olympic team after college was "never an overwhelming goal."[6] Academic CareerFrom 1982 to 1986, Waldrop was a research fellow at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center.[3] He was a recipient of the National Institutes of Health Postdoctoral Fellowship.[1] While at Texas, he also taught respiration and physiology for medical and health science students.[3] Waldrop was a professor of molecular and integrative physiology at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, teaching undergraduate, graduate, and medical students.[3] He was promoted to vice chancellor for research at Illinois.[3][4] Waldrop became vice chancellor for research and graduate studies at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in 2001.[3] There, he oversaw $577 million in research funding, annually.[6] In August 2010, he became provost and executive vice president at the University of Central Florida.[10] In 2014, he became the third president of the University of South Alabama.[1] Personal life and deathWaldrop married Julee Briscoe of Chapel Hill, the daughter of Vic Briscoe who was a University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill professor of physics.[3] She also attended UNC and ran track.[3] They have two sons, Cabe and Dallas.[3] On December 3, 2022, following a lengthy illness, Waldrop died at his home in Chapel Hill, North Carolina, at the age of 70.[11][12] Awards and honors
References
External sources
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
