Position: Head Coach
Alma Mater: Notre Dame '76, MA St. John's '89
Coach Jim Hurt begins his 25th year coaching cross country
and track and field at St. John's University and his 19th year
as head coach of the program.
Since becoming head coach in 1988, Hurt's teams have made an
impact at the national, regional and conference levels. His squads
have scored in 11 NCAA Championships and 12 USA National
Championships while winning 17 Metropolitan Conference titles.
Under the leadership of Coach Hurt, Red Storm teams have recorded
two runner-up finishes at the IC4A/ECAC Eastern Championships and
the BIG EAST Championships. In 1996, the men's cross country team
placed 17th in the NCAA Championships.
Individually, St. John's athletes have competed in every major
track and field competition in the world including: the 2000 Sydney
Olympic Games, the 1996 Atlanta Olympics, World Championships in
Sweden, Japan, Ireland, Poland, Canada, and Spain; Pan American
Games in Canada & Argentina, World Student Games in Spain and
the Caribbean Games in Barbados and Guatemala. Red Storm athletes
have won 18 individual national titles since 1988, producing 12 USA
Champions, two Irish national champions, a Jamaican national
champion, a Dominican Republic national champion and a Caribbean
champion. Since 1991, Hurt's teams have produced 15 NCAA
All-Americans and 14 individuals who have competed in the Olympic
trials.
Hurt has kept St. John's committed to a total team philosophy
that recruits and develops quality athletes in all event areas. He
utilizes a national schedule that has Red Storm teams competing
across the country at top venues that afford the highest levels of
competition. Historic Van Cortland Park is the home for the cross
country team while the world class facility at the 168th Street
Armory is home for indoor practice and competitions. Meanwhile, the
outdoor team uses DaSilva Memorial Field on the Queens campus,
which boasts a state-of-the art 400m oval.
During Hurt's 20-year tenure of coaching the middle and long
distance runners, he has produced 15 NCAA qualifying performers as
well as NCAA All-American cross country runner Bob Reid, 3K
All-American Chris Fogarazzo, 5k and 10k All-Americans Chris Graff
and John Honnerkamp, who was the youngest semi-finalist at the 1996
USA Olympic Trials andsixth place finisher at the USA Indoor
Nationals in the 800 meters. Thirteen of Coach Hurt's 4 x 800m,
Distance Medley, and 4 x 1500m relay teams have ranked in the top
ten nationally, 66 of Hurt's distance runners have won ALL-EAST
recognition. Hurt's athletes have also won BIG EAST titles in the
800m, mile, 3k steeple chase and 10,000m. Since 1982, 44 school
records have been established in the distance events under Coach
Hurt's guidance.
Hurt's student-athletes have excelled in the classroom as well
as in the athletic arena. 3,000m NCAA All-American Chris Fogarazzo
won NCAA & BIG EAST post-graduate scholarships while Georgina
Bendana & Te-Mika Warner, from Harvard Law School, also won BIG
EAST post-graduate scholarships in recent years. St. John's has had
three individuals and the entire 2000 women's team named to the
Academic All-American cross country team and 27 Red Storm track and
field athletes were named to the Big East Academic team in
2001.
Hurt was a prep All-American in 1972 clocking a 4:10 mile at
Proviso West High School in Hillside, Illinois. At the University
of Notre Dame he captained the cross country and track and field
teams and established school records in the 3 mile run and 4 x 1
mile relay. Following graduation in 1976, Hurt competed for the
University of Chicago Track Club and the Oregon Track Club. After
attending graduate school at the University of Oregon, Hurt served
three years as head track and field coach at Jesuit High School in
Portland, Ore. In 1982, Hurt moved to St. John's to become the
cross country and assistant track and field coach.
Hurt is the secretary-treasurer of the IC4A Coaches Association
and was once president of the BIG EAST Coaches Association. In 1995
he served as distance coach for the East team at the USOC Sports
Festival in Colorado Springs, Colo. Hurt and his staff were also
named Staff of the Year in the BIG EAST Conference. In 1996 he was
named NCAA Region II Cross Country Coach of the Year.
In 1989, Hurt earned his Master's degree in Government and
Politics from St. John's. He resides with his wife Ann, daughters
Kathleen and Cynthia and son James in Glen Cove, N.Y.