Golden Lion Nation Mourns the Loss of Legendary UAPB Track & Field Coach Ulysses Grant

PINE BLUFF, AR. – The University of Arkansas at Pine Bluff men’s and women’s track and field family lost a beloved member when former coaching legend Ulysses S. Grant passed away over the weekend at the age of 94.

The legendary coach U.S. Grant accomplished something over a 33-year career that no other head coach conquered in the storied athletic history of the University of Arkansas at Pine Bluff.

“It is with a heavy heart that I make this statement on behalf of the Athletics Department at the University of Arkansas at Pine Bluff,” said Vice Chancellor of Intercollegiate Chris Robinson. “It has taken some time to process and reflect as we mourn the loss of a UAPB/AM&N Legend, Coach Ulysses S. Grant II, affectionately known as “Chief”. Coach Grant has impacted students, student athletes, co-workers, competitors and the community as a whole for over four decades. I will admit that I am blessed to have crossed his path and to have been personally influenced by him. The Athletics Department here at the University of Arkansas at Pine Bluff is in a better place because of his contributions to establishing a solid foundation. His legacy will live on for years to come.”

The highly successful coach, who was absolutely an icon in the Golden Lions’ athletic department while guiding the men’s and women’s track teams, served as the school’s longest-tenure head coach of any sport as he led UAPB’s track and field program from 1969 until 2002.

Grant, a UAPB Athletic Hall of Famer, retired from the coaching ranks after the 2002 season and also as a long-time associate professor in the Department of Health, Physical Education and Recreation.

Perhaps the most remarkable accomplishment during Grant’s lengthy career was that he produced several National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics (NAIA) All-Americans every season while the track teams established numerous school and state records.

His coaching career started at Daniel High School in Crossett, where he won district championships in 1952, 1954, 1955, and 1957 and a state ASAA championship in 1957.

He later coached at Pine Bluff Southeast, winning nine conference championships and the state ASAA championship in 1961, shortly afterward, Grant began his college coaching career in the early 1960s at his alma mater, UAPB.

In just his first year as track coach, while also serving as the football team’s defensive coordinator, the men’s team made an immediate impact with a third-place overall finish at the Southwestern Athletic Conference outdoor track and field championships in Houston. At the meet, Grant put together a quartet of sprinters in Henry Smothers, Walter Smith, Maurice Myton, and Earl Goldman that posted a 3:09.6 reading to capture the 4X400-meter relay.

The men’s sprint medley relay team continued its dominance during Grant’s first season at the helm.

The unit, composed of Smothers, Aaron Harris, Myton, and Goldman, claimed first-place honors in the event at the prestigious Drake Relays in Des Moines, Iowa, and at the National Federation indoor track championships in the old Houston Astrodome.

Grant specialized in developing 400-meter runners, and he did so with an abundance of talented Arkansas athletes throughout the 1970s that included All-Americans Louis Moss of Brinkley, Dennis Alexander of North Little Rock, James Hawkins of Crawfordsville, Rudolph Stennis of Pine Bluff, James Bunch of Cotton Plant and Gerry Matlock of Fort Smith.

One of Grant’s prize recruits, Lars Allen of San Antonio, Texas, became the state’s first long jumper to surpass 25 feet and over 50 feet in the triple jump during his senior season in 1973.

Grant formed the women’s track program in 1983, and his squads quickly became a dominant force, soaring to state and national prominence, which was evident by their overall performances – despite not having scholarship aid, no school track facility, and not much of a budget.

While UAPB was a member of the now defunct Arkansas Intercollegiate Conference for five seasons at two different time frames, the men’s team won the AIC outdoor track and field championship in 1970 and 1971 and the women’s squad captured the title four consecutive years, 1984 through 1987.

Grant was named NAIA Area Five women’s track Coach of the Year in 1987. At the AIC track and field championships that year, the Lady Lions smashed seven conference records and easily captured the AIC title.

In addition to that feat, the women’s team won the newly formed NAIA District 17 indoor track and field championship in 1991 and 1992 at Harding University in Searcy, Arkansas.

During the 1991 and 1992 seasons, the women’s track team finished 11th and 12th, respectively, at the national outdoor championships.

Led by a trio of All-American sprinters from Arkansas (Latonya Johnson of Rison, Laquita Blount of Marianna, and Terri Banks of Pine Bluff), Grant guided the women’s team in 1989 to a second-place finish at the NAIA national outdoor track and field championships in Azusa, California.

Blount and sprinter Paulette Bell of Humnoke, Arkansas, are the only female athletes in school history to earn All-American honors four straight years. In her senior season, Bell established a school and AIC record in the 200-meter dash with an eye-popping 23.6 timing at the conference championships in 1986.

Johnson is the only female track athlete in school history to win back-to-back events at a national competition as she captured the 100-meter hurdles with a 13.93 clocking in 1989 and a 13.73 reading in 1990 while battling her teammate Banks, who finished second with a 13.80 timing.

Johnson also anchored the 4X100-meter relay unit, which posted a school record 46.79 reading (that still stands today) at the NAIA national outdoor track and field championships in 1990.