Ed Nuttycombe served as the head coach for the Wisconsin men's track and field team for 30 seasons (1985-2013) and is the winningest men's track coach in Big Ten history. He was inducted into the U.S. Track & Field and Cross Country Coaches Association (USTFCCCA) Coaches Hall of Fame in 2014.
Big Ten's Best
No coach in Big Ten sports history has guided a team to more championships than the remarkable total of 26 trophies Nuttycombe's teams have collected since he took the reins to the program in 1984. In fact, since Nuttycombe took the helm, Wisconsin has won more Big Ten titles than the next three teams combined.
Nuttycombe became the winningest men's track coach in Big Ten history in 2007 when he won his 23rd title.
Since 2000, the Badgers have won 16 conference titles -- 8 indoors and 8 outdoors -- with the rest of the league combining for 10.
The latest addition to UW's trophy case came last season, when a resilient group of Badgers rallied on the final day of the 2012 Big Ten Outdoor Championships to secure the program's 13th outdoor crown under Nuttycombe in front of a packed house at UW's Dan McClimon Memorial Track.
Adding in the 2008 Big Ten indoor title, Nuttycombe's Badgers have celebrated a Big Ten championship on their home track four times during his tenure.
Combining the track team with the powerhouse UW cross country program that Nuttycombe oversees, the Badgers have dominated the Big Ten over the past three decades. The cross country team has won 25 Big Ten titles -- including an active streak of 14 straight -- since Nuttycombe took over as head track coach.
Together, the programs have combined to claim 10 Big Ten "triple crowns" by sweeping the league titles in cross country, indoor track and outdoor track in the same season.
The Badgers have claimed 165 individual Big Ten titles on the track during Nuttycombe's tenure, an average of nearly six championships per year.
Most recently, Nuttycombe has personally coached Japheth Cato to back-to-back conference crowns in the heptathlon, with Cato earning Big Ten Field Athlete of the Championship honors in 2012.
All told, Badgers have been named Athlete of the Championships at the Big Ten meet 13 different times under Nuttycombe's leadership. He also has seen 10 Badgers named Big Ten Athlete of the Year. UW athletes have claimed four Big Ten Freshman of the Year honors, including a sweep of the indoor and outdoor awards in 2011 by Cato and distance runner Reed Connor.
NCAA Success
Nuttycombe's crowning achievement came when Wisconsin became the first Big Ten school to win a national title by claiming the top spot at the 2007 NCAA Indoor Championships. It was also the first national title for a UW track program. Wisconsin crowned an individual national champion in Chris Solinsky and picked up 10 All-America honors.
In all, Nuttycombe's program has produced seven athletes that claimed a total of 11 individual national titles.
Three of those championships came in 1997 alone. That year, Reggie Torian won the 110-meter hurdles, Pascal Dobert won the 3000-meter steeplechase and James Dunkleberger claimed the decathlon.
Solinsky set the UW men's athletic record in 2007 when he claimed the fifth NCAA title of his illustrious career.
The Badgers have racked up an impressive total of 187 All-America honors during Nuttycombe's tenure. Solinsky accounted for a UW-record 11 All-America citations, while middle distance runner Craig Miller secured All-America honors at all eight NCAA championships he competed in. Matt Tegenkamp collected seven All-America awards at UW, while the trio of Jason Casiano, James Menon and Len Herring each finished as six-time All-Americans.
Coach of the Year Honors
While his teams have produced year after year on the track, observers and peers have lauded Nuttycombe's efforts with 33 coach of the year honors, including 2007 National Coach of the Year from the U.S. Track & Field and Cross Country Coaches Association (USTFCCCA).
Nuttycombe has swept the Big Ten's indoor and outdoor coaching honors eight times, including four years in a row from 2004-07. In all, Nuttycombe has been named Big Ten Coach of the Year 22 times, most recently for leading the Badgers to the league's 2013 indoor title.
He has also been honored with regional coach of the year accolades by the USTFCCCA 11 times.
Building an Elite Coaching Staff
A major strength of Nuttycombe's program is the caliber of assistant coaches he has recruited to Madison. Each of the Badgers' current assistants, Mark Guthrie, Mick Byrne and Dave Astrauskas, were highly-successful head coaches prior to signing on as assistants at UW.
A USTFCCCA Hall of Famer, Guthrie won a remarkable 22 national titles in 19 seasons as men's head coach at UW-La Crosse, Byrne built Iona College into a perennial power on the NCAA cross country stage and Astrauskas guided athletes at SIU-Edwardsville to 101 All-America honors as head coach.
Together, UW's current staff boasts 72 years of college head coaching experience.
Nuttycombe has hired three cross country coaches during his tenure at Wisconsin, and each has gone on to win a national title. Martin Smith (1985, 88), Jerry Schumacher (2005) and Byrne (2011) have all hoisted national championship trophies as head coach of the Badgers.
Nuttycombe's program has produced a number of successful coaches, including Schumacher, who heads the Oregon Track Club-Portland training group that includes a host of former Badgers who have competed at the IAAF World Championships and Olympic Games. Other coaches to come out of the UW program are Oklahoma head coach Martin Smith, Oklahoma assistant Jeremy Fischer, Oklahoma State assistant Bobby Lockhart and Dallas Mavericks strength and conditioning coach Robert Hackett.
Hands-On Coach
Nuttycombe is a hands-on coach, leading the UW sprint hurdlers, jumpers and multi-event athletes, while also previously coaching the sprints.
Some of Nuttycombe's best work has come in the multi-events, where he has established a reputation as one of the nation's top event coaches. His most recent success story is Japheth Cato, who claimed back-to-back Big Ten titles in the heptathlon in 2011 and 2012 and earned All-America honors as the runner-up at the 2012 NCAA Indoor Championships.
One of just three collegians to top the 6,000-point plateau multiple times, Cato owns the top four heptathlon performances in Big Ten history.
Nuttycombe also mentored Joe Detmer, a two-time Big Ten champion who finished runner-up in the decathlon at the 2007 NCAA Outdoor Championships and previously held the world record in the heptathlon 1000 meters. Detmer has gone on to compete internationally for the U.S., leading the Americans to four straight wins in the Thorpe Cup decathlon competition. He finished third at the 2010 USA Outdoor Championships and was fourth at the 2012 USA Olympic Trials. In addition, Detmer holds the world record in the double decathlon.
David Grzesiak also flourished under Nuttycombe's direction, scoring seven top-five finishes in Big Ten competition between the indoor heptathlon and outdoor heptathlon. Grzesiak qualified for three NCAA championships, earning second-team All-America honors in the heptathlon in 2012, and also was a qualifier to the 2012 USA Olympic Trials.
In addition, Nuttycombe has coached 11 indoor and outdoor Big Ten hurdles champions in the last 16 years and mentored Reggie Torian, the 1997 NCAA outdoor 110 hurdles champion who still holds the collegiate record in the indoor 60 hurdles at 7.47.
Beyond the multi-events and hurdles, Nuttycombe coached Demi Omole to four consecutive titles in the Big Ten outdoor 100 meters and two titles in the indoor 60 meters. Omole wrapped up his career as an 11-time Big Ten champion and a six-time All-American.
Wisconsin won the Big Ten title in the 4x100-meter relay in four consecutive seasons from 2004-07.
Other success stories include:
- Paul Check: 2005 Big Ten outdoor champion in the 110-meter hurdles
- Dan Murray: 2002 Big Ten Outdoor champion at 800 meters, four-time All-American
- T.J. Nelson: 2000 and 2001 Big Ten indoor champion in the 60-meter hurdles, 2001 Big Ten outdoor champion in the 110-meter hurdles, two-time All-American
- Michael Bennett: 2000 Big Ten Indoor and outdoor sprint champion; two-time All-American
Walk-On Tradition
One strength of Nuttycombe's teams has always been developing athletes over the course of their careers. This is abundantly clear when looking at the accomplishments of a number of athletes that began their careers at Wisconsin as walk-ons.
- Joe Detmer: Two-time Big Ten champion, five-time All-American
- Greg Gill: Two-time Big Ten decathlon champion, 1998 All-American in decathlon
- Louis Hinshaw: 1994 All-American, 1994 Big Ten decathlon champion
- Zach Beth: 2011 All-American, three-time NCAA qualifier, seven-time Big Ten scorer
- Robert Dehn: School record-holder in javelin, 2009 NCAA Mideast Regional champion
- Brent Boettcher: 2003 Big Ten high jump champion
- Shawn Peters: Three-time Big Ten champion in the sprints
Academic Honors
Nuttycombe has produced not only athletically talented squads, but academically gifted ones as well.
Badger athletes have been named Capital One Academic All-America 19 times, with two-time selection Elliot Krause the most recent selection in 2011 and 2012. Jack Bolas was also a back-to-back pick in 2009 and 2010. The trio of Nathan Brown, Joe Detmer and Tim Nelson were each honored in 2007, while Brown and Detmer were also honored in 2005 and 2006.
Brown was named the nation's top student-athlete in track and field when earned 2006 Capital One Academic All-America of the Year honors.
UW athletes also have earned 24 USTFCCCA All-Academic awards since 2009.
Since the inception of the Academic All-Big Ten team in 1986, Wisconsin track athletes have been awarded the honor 291 times. The Badgers placed at least 10 student-athletes on the Academic All-Big Ten teams in each of the last 17 years.
A Former Athlete
A 1977 graduate in physical education from Virginia Tech, Nuttycombe was a four-year letterwinner in track for the Hokies. While at Tech, the Richmond, Va., native won six Virginia collegiate pole vault titles, with a career best of 16-3. He was also a five-time Virginia AAU decathlon champion, with a personal-best of more than 7,100 points.
Before coming to Wisconsin as an assistant coach in 1980, Nuttycombe served as an assistant track coach at Northern Illinois while earning his master's degree in exercise physiology.
Ed and his wife, Diane, reside in Madison and have two children, Kent and Carolyn (Mrs. David U'ren), and three grandchildren, Falcon Nuttycombe and Charlie and Teddy U'ren.
