Retired A&M track & field coach Pat Henry did not let the day get away during illustrious career

Walking into Pat Henry's office on the third floor of Texas A&M's E.B. Cushing Stadium is like stepping into a living college track & field museum.

One wall has team photos from each of his years at A&M. Another has several shelves lined with NCAA trophies. The third is a row of windows overlooking the state-of-the-art facility opened in April 2019 with a door leading to a balcony. Behind Henry's desk are personal items and family photos. Around the corner, there are framed letters from former presidents Bill Clinton and George W. Bush congratulating his championship teams at LSU on winning national titles. In a corner is the wooden javelin thrown by Jack Mahan, A&M's first Olympian thrown at the 1920 Summer Games in Belgium.

In the middle of room sits a circle of chairs where Henry has done his recruiting. In 22 years with the Aggies, Henry lured numerous world-class athletes that helped him win 10 national championships at A&M. On June 17, Henry announced his retirement after 54 years in coaching and 37 NCAA championships. He will turn 75 on July 22.

"I think it's important to show who you are," Henry told The Eagle inside his office last week. "I think it's important for young people to walk in and see that there's been somebody before them that's been pretty good. And they're pretty good cause they're getting to walk in the office. If they weren't good, they wouldn't be up here. And so, it's important for them to see how that all goes, and there isn't a great one that walks in here that doesn't want their picture on the wall one day or their name on the record board downstairs. That's very important to all of our athletes. ... So, my office has been fun for me for years. I enjoy when somebody walks in and you can tell a history of our sport, you can tell a history of what we've done here and what we've been able to accomplish."

Aside from the accolades and championships, longtime A&M track & field athletic trainer Saul Luna said Henry's ability to spearhead the growth of the sport at A&M is his biggest legacy. The Aggies had never won an NCAA track & field title prior to Henry's arrival. A tangible sign of Henry's impact and legacy is the track & field facilities A&M has built in the last decade.

"He wanted people to love track," Luna said. "He wanted people to take track seriously. He's a true ambassador for the sport."

A family business

Coaching is hereditary in the Henry family.

His paternal grandfather, Gwinn Henry, spent over 30 years as a college coach in football, track and basketball, including a three-year stint at New Mexico from 1934-36. Pat grew up in Albuquerque. His father, Gwinn "Bub" Henry, had a 30-year coaching career in track at New Mexico, Pat's alma mater. His twin brothers, Mark and Matt, coached together at New Mexico. His other brothers, Tim and Roben, coached at the high school level in Albuquerque.

By high school, Pat knew he wanted to join the unofficial family business and be a coach. Despite being the oldest of the five brothers, Pat is the last to retire.

"I always tell people, I'm glad my family weren't bricklayers cause I might be out there laying brick or having a brick company," Pat said.

After graduating from New Mexico in 1972, Pat became an assistant at Hobbs High School. He was promoted to head coach in 1974 and turned Hobbs into a powerhouse in New Mexico. Hobbs won five state championships during his 10-year tenure.

In 1983, Pat was hired as head coach at Blinn College. Leaving the high school level was a challenge for him. He and his wife, Gail, had become ingrained into the community. Yet, the opportunity to build a successful program at Blinn with the support of the college's president was enticing. He called Blinn a "fun job" because of the administrative support. It paid off as the Buccaneers won an indoor and outdoor junior college national titles in 1987 after finishing runner-up at the 1986 outdoor championships.

"I wanted to coach at the college level, but for those of us who came up through that generation, the natural path was to start with the younger, come up through the ranks, and then take over and then go into college coaching, if that's what you wanted to do," Pat said.

After building a championship program in four years at Blinn, the Henrys were faced with another difficult move when LSU came calling. Leaving Baton Rouge was difficult in 2004 when A&M came calling, too.

During his retirement press conference last month, Pat explained how former A&M athletic director Bill Byrne was greeted by Gail at the front door when he visited the Henrys' house in Baton Rouge while trying to finish the deal bringing Pat to Aggieland.

Pat was sold on A&M, but Gail was straight with Byrne: "I'm not going."

Accompanied by former A&M athletics administrator John Thornton, Byrne sat down at the Henrys' kitchen table to convince Gail to come look at Aggieland. Byrne told The Eagle that by the time they left, they had convinced her A&M would be a great place for the Henrys.

"I really think the world of him," Bryne said. "I knew of Pat and I knew Pat for a long time. I had always kept a list of coaches I wanted to hire for particular sports and he was always at the top of my list for track & field."

A new challenge

It did not take long for Pat to build a machine at LSU.

In his first year, the Tigers won the first of 10 straight NCAA women's outdoor titles. In that first decade, the women also won seven indoor titles, including five in a row, with the men winning two outdoor titles. In 2004, the LSU men and women swept the indoor championships and finished third and second, respectively, at the outdoor championships.

Expectations had gotten so high by then that winning was not as fun anymore, though, Pat said. It became about him trying to beat the naysayers.

"Winning is very difficult, and winning again is even harder and harder," Pat said. "So, when we came here, I came because I wanted the opportunity to start over with the mentality of I wanted to build a team. I wanted to build a program, and I was at an age that I needed that kind of shot in the arm, too, to reinvigorate and get the motor turning again."

While Pat was at Blinn two decades prior, he had a couple of chances to make the short drive from Brenham to College Station and visit A&M. In his younger years, A&M came up in discussions at family dinner. It was a place the Henrys had respect for, so he was intrigued when the A&M job came open after the 2004 season. He knew the Aggies had potential if they invested in the sport and he knew he could bring a plan to be successful.

In July 2004, Pat was hired to replace Ted Nelson, who agreed to retire after 14 years as head coach and 38 total years at A&M. After his retirement was announced by Byrne, Nelson said, "We came to a mutual agreement that it was time to pass the baton to someone else and see if they could do something that I hadn't been able to do - win a national championship for Texas A&M," according to The Eagle archives.

Pat would accomplish that after four years on the job as the Aggies swept the men's and women's NCAA outdoor titles in 2009.

Winning A&M's first national championships were hard, Pat said. The Aggies did not have the proper set up to host a college meet due to the old outdoor track. Players sat on the ground during team meetings, a much different setup than the expansive team room now available on the first floor of Cushing Stadium.

"Every time you went on the track, you took part of it home with you because it was all over your shoes," Pat said. "It would be on your back, and if you laid down to do your stretching, it was all over."

After a year on the job, Bryne asked Pat if it would be better for A&M to build a new indoor or outdoor facility. Pat thought A&M could separate itself among Texas schools by building a great indoor facility. The Aggies football program was also interested in building an indoor facility at the same time, so the Gillam Indoor Track Stadium was erected and opened in January 2009.

"It was a shot in the arm," Pat said.

While he cannot recall the origin of his signature saying, "Don't let the day get away," he said it meant something when he shared it with his athletes at team meetings because it carried beyond the track.

"As a coach and as a teacher, you're trying to get the young people to understand that athletics is athletics, and it's a very important part of our lives, but there is another part of your life, too, and you got to get it done academically for you to be able to be prosperous in your life as you go on, and then in relationships and with your family, everything," Pat said. "I think that not letting the day get away from us, cause we're all blessed to have this day. We're not guaranteed tomorrow. Let's do the best we can today, and hopefully tomorrow, we'll benefit as a result."

A monster built

Relentless is the word Luna used to describe Henry.

"Every day, he shows up to work with a relentless passion," Luna said. "And the passion is for consistency. And that's what he expects from everybody every time."

Pat's relentless consistency helped turn A&M into a track & field powerhouse.

Sweeping the NCAA outdoor titles in 2009 brought a spotlight on A&M and allowed him to start recruiting at a level to maintain success. The Aggies swept outdoor titles in 2010 and 2011, too and became the first program in NCAA history to three-peat on both sides.

"We got it started quick, and we got it started with a young group of freshmen that were sophomores and then were juniors and seniors, and that's the way you wanted it to grow," Pat said.

Luna recalled how one year during a meet at Baylor, athletes could barely see in front of them because it was raining so hard and there was a large puddle at the finish line. The meet had not been stopped, but some teams packed up and left. Pat had a different message to his team, "We're gonna run."

On the bus ride home from Waco, Luna asked him why the Aggies kept running. The veteran coach said he had been to an NCAA championship meet where that exact scenario played out and he wanted his team to be ready for anything and everything.

"That speaks to his ability to see things before they happen," Luna said. "And so he said, ‘I always want the team to be ready.' He goes, ‘And they're gonna have a heck of a story to tell when this is over.'"

Luna said Pat scheduled A&M's seasons to grow in difficulty as the spring progressed. He was not scared to go and face the nation's best on their home tracks and sought out the best competition. The Aggies also won men's outdoor titles in 2013 and 2025 with a men's indoor title in 2017 and women's outdoor titles in 2011 and 2014.

"His mission was always to prepare the team," Luna said. "To have and to get everybody ready to have a great day."

Luna, A&M Class of 1999, was a student trainer for the A&M track & field and cross country teams for the 1996-97 school year. He would see Pat at meets and took note of LSU's success. While serving as head athletic trainer at Corpus Christi Carroll High School in 2003, Luna found a magazine with Pat on the cover and a short story inside. Luna kept the magazine and even prayed for an opportunity to work for him. In August 2006, he was hired at A&M.

If Nick Saban is regarded as one of the greatest college football coaches in history, Luna said working for Pat was like working for the Nick Saban of track & field.

"It truly has been not a dream come true, but a prayer come true for me," Luna said.

A passing of the baton

Soon, Pat's office will have a different man behind the desk - Leroy Burrell, who was hired by A&M on Sunday from Auburn to be his successor.

Burrell is a former world-class sprinter who won a gold medal at the 1992 Summer Olympics in Barcelona for the United States after a standout college career at the University of Houston. He spent 23 years as head coach of his alma mater from 1999-2022 before serving as head coach at Auburn the last four seasons, leading the Tigers to four top five finishes at the NCAA championships.

During his introductory press conference on Tuesday, Burrell called Pat "the legend, the G.O.A.T. [the greatest of all time]" and "the coach of coaches." He joked his only regret is that Pat did not get to LSU in time to recruit and coach him. Burrell added it will be difficult to match what Pat accomplished, but is eager to deliver.

"This program is rooted in greatness, and a lot of that was planted, watered and fertilized by Coach Henry and his fantastic family," Burrell said. "And I certainly hope that I, as the head track & field coach at Texas A&M, will have the opportunity and ability to bring my family to the fray and to the fold and work toward the continued greatness."

Many phone calls have come for Pat since he announced his retirement after coaching thousands of athletes over five-plus decades.

Health factored into his decision to retire. He has had back issues for the last few years and has already gone through one surgery with another scheduled for next week to complete what the first one sought to do.

"That's something I'm really looking forward to getting done," Pat said. "That changes the way you think about lots of things when you're not hurting all the time."

Pat is expected to still be involved with the program in an advisory position. He has no plans of moving away from Aggieland, either, but is also planning to do things his wife would like to do. Pat said he is looking forward to spending that time with her away from the track.

"I've been dragging her around for 50-plus years, but she's a track lady," he said. "She knows what's going on, and she's been an integral part of it."

While Pat's time coaching is complete, the impact he has had on the A&M program and the national college track world will live on in the years to come as evidenced by the photos and trophies that filled his office.

"It's about having a team," Pat said, "And those were the kind of programs I wanted."

Eagle sports reporter Jake Weese contributed to the reporting of this story.

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