Chuck Rohe, who was a Tennessee track and field coaching legend, dies at 92

Chuck Rohe, a Tennessee track and field coaching legend, has died. He was 92.

Rohe died on Tuesday in Ocoee, Florida.

Born in suburban Chicago, Rohe played football and ran track at Southern Miss. His storied coaching career began as a coach at Hattiesburg (Mississippi) High School in 1955 and 1956, directing both the junior varsity basketball and varsity track and field teams to state championships.

In 1957, he was hired by Furman as an assistant football coach as well as the track and cross country coach.

He led the Paladins their first-ever Southern Conference championship in any sport in 1961, leading the men's squad to a conference title. Under his watch, Furman won indoor track championships in 1961 and 1962, a cross country title in 1961 and an outdoor title in 1962.

Rohe was hired at Tennessee in 1963, embarking on one of the most impressive careers in school history, regardless of sport.

The Vols won 21 consecutive SEC titles across cross country, indoor and outdoor track and field in his nine years with the Vols. His squads boasted a 130-18-2 dual meet record and finished top five in the NCAA six times.

SEC track titles don’t tell the whole story on Rohe.

He wore another important hat — recruiting for Doug Dickey’s football program starting in 1965.

Rohe realized what track speed could do for football. So did Dickey. With Rohe in the lead, the Vols were able to sign athletes like Richmond Flowers, who would star in both sports.

“We started the reputation for Wide Receiver U., all the fast receivers we had for many years,” Rohe told Knox News in 2014.

“That’s not done much now but back in those days, it was great.”

Flowers told Knox News, “I wouldn’t have come to Tennessee it wasn’t for Chuck Rohe. It was 51 percent Coach Rohe, 49 percent Coach Dickey.”

The first black athletes wouldn’t have come either. Rohe worked on athletic director Robert Woodruff to integrate UT sports.

In the fall of 1967, Audry Hardy, James Craig and a football recruit, Lester McClain, broke the barrier.

Hardy, from Memphis, remembers his final race at the state high school track meet, the mile relay. He swept up from the rear on his anchor leg, passing every runner ahead of him only to get edged at the finish.

“Coach Rohe walked right past the guy that nipped me out,” Hardy said, “put his arms around me and said, ‘How would like to come to the University of Tennessee?’

“That was a changing point in my whole life.”

It wasn’t just fast receivers that helped UT excel. Chip Kell, an All-American guard, was a shot-put star. Kicker Karl Kremser was a high jumper.

In 1967, Rohe was named the United States Track & Field Coach of the Year. He was also the NCAA representative on the United States Olympic Committee from 1968-76.

In 1982, he began a career with Florida Citrus Sports, the organization responsible for the Florida Citrus Bowl. He served as the executive director, establishing a partnership in which the runner-up in college football's Big 10 conference would play the top SEC team not participating in the Bowl Championship series would play annually.

He also expanded the stadium to 70,000 seats. It hosted the national championship game between Georgia Tech and Nebraska in 1991.

Rohe was inducted into the Tennessee Sports Hall of Fame in 1995, the Southern Mississippi Sports Hall of Fame in 2002, the Greater Knoxville Sports Hall of Fame in 2002, U.S. Track & Field and Cross Country Coaches Association (USTFCCCA) Hall of Fame in 2009, the Furman Sports Hall of Fame in 2011 and the Florida Sports Hall of Fame in 2019.

His last visit to Knoxville was in April 2023 when he was inducted into the University of Tennessee Athletics Hall of Fame.

Funeral arrangements are pending.

Phil Kaplan contributed to this story.

This article originally appeared on Knoxville News Sentinel: Chuck Rohe, a Tennessee track and field coaching legend, dies at 92