Curtis Frye, legendary South Carolina track and field coach, announces retirement
Longtime South Carolina track and field coach Curtis Frye is retiring, the school announced Thursday.
Effective June 30, Frye’s retirement will end his 27-year tenure as the head coach of USC’s track and field and cross country programs. During that time, Frye coached 28 Olympians who won 14 Olympic medals, 60 NCAA champions and 126 SEC champions.
Frye brought USC its first team NCAA championship in any sport when his women’s track team won the 2002 NCAA outdoor title.
“It’s the end of an era,” athletic director Ray Tanner said in the school’s release. “Curtis Frye has become synonymous with Gamecock track and field for nearly 30 years.
“Curtis led his squad to the first NCAA team championship in school history and consistently mentored highly successful student-athletes who excelled both on and off the track. We wish Curtis and his wife, Wilma, all the best as they transition to the next stage of their lives.”
The university in its news release did not elaborate on the timing of Frye’s retirement announcement. That release did not include any comments or a statement from Frye.
A school spokesman told The State that Frye was on vacation and is expected to meet with the media next week to discuss his retirement.
Frye addressed the idea of retirement on Feb. 1 when he spoke alongside football coach Shane Beamer about the university signing two-sport athlete Nyckoles Harbor.
“It puts some excitement back into me,” Frye said then of signing Harbor, a five-star football player and track star. “I’m 71 years old. Retirement? People ask me that all the time. It would be hard for me to retire on this guy because this guy is generational.”
Hired in July 1996, Frye was the longest-tenured Gamecock coach on campus after the retirement of 43-year head soccer coach Mark Berson in 2021. The longest-tenured coach remaining after Frye’s retirement is equestrian coach Boo Major, who has led the program for 25 years.
Frye was inducted in the U.S. Track & Field and Cross Country Coaches Association Hall of Fame in December 2013 and is a three-time winner of the U.S. Track Coaches Association national coach of the year award. He also earned Nike Coach of the Year in 2001.
An alum of East Carolina, Frye began his coaching career as an assistant with the Pirates in 1974 and also served assistant stints with N.C. State and Florida before landing the head coaching job at South Carolina.
This story was originally published June 15, 2023 at 12:40 PM.
