The current USTFCCCA rankings have LSU at #2 for both men's and women's track. It sure would be nice if if they could turn the tables on Pat Henry's squads at the NCAA indoors this year!
Henry has quite a streak going over there. Not really surprising. It would be nice to re-establish ourselves as the ultimate TF power. Being a great program is nice, but what we had with Henry was much better.
Just a reminder, but LSU track dominance was established before Henry ever got to LSU. It is true that he continued and strengthened that domination. He also was recently recognized as the best NCAA recruiter in ANY sport.
He won a gazillion national titles, and still couldn't get the facility upgrades he wanted/needed done. The administration gave him little support.
Football and Basketball were kings at LSU. In the 90's LSU baseball and track became national powers and Skip Bertman and Pat Henry butted heads jockeying to be the number three sport. Henry always resented the acclaim, fan support, and salary that Bertman drew when Henry was winning more and had three time the national championships. Henry chafed even more when Betman became AD and his boss. The final straw was when Skip hired Pokey Chatman at a higher salary than Henry. So Henry walked.
And I think that should be Skip's AD legacy. A guy who couldn't get passed his ego and ran off one LSU's greatest coaches out of spite.
Don't put it all on Skip, there were two big egos at play here. Henry was neither pleasant nor cooperative with Skip before or after he became AD. Henry was resentful of women's basketball success just like he was with baseball. He never understood that the bottom line is getting fans to buy tickets. Track never measured up to the other sports in revenue production.
Ironically, Coach Shaver is getting a brand new facility as we speak. Although, what he wanted was a little more ambitious than was practical. I only know this b/c I am the civil engr on the new track project. :grin:
