Legendary Duke cross country, track and field coach Al Buehler has died. He was 92
Duke athletics has lost one of its icons. Longtime track and field coach Al Buehler has died, his family announced Tuesday.
Buehler, 92, died with his wife, Delaina, by his side at The Forest at Duke Retirement Community in Durham last Thursday.
After being hired in 1955 by athletics director Eddie Cameron, Buehler coached cross country and also became track and field head coach in 1964, coaching until 2000. Also the head of the school’s physical education department, he remained active, teaching classes until 2015, at age 84.
“To me, there really has been no greater person who has represented our university,” Mike Krzyzewski, Duke’s retired men’s basketball coach and current university ambassador, told the News & Observer.
In the community, he defied the segregated South by organizing integrated practices with athletes from Duke and N.C. Central. He was an early advocate for women’s sports at Duke, giving up scholarships from the men’s team to get Duke’s women’s track and field program started in the 1970s following the passage of Title IX.
Internationally, he coached U.S. Olympic teams in 1972 and 1984, and was a team manager at the 1988 games. Teaming with N.C. Central coach LeRoy Walker, who later became the U.S. Olympic Committee’s first black president, Buehler was instrumental in bringing several top track and field meets to Duke’s Wallace Wade Stadium in the 1970s.
While attending the 1968 Olympics in Mexico City, Buehler drove John Carlos and Tommie Smith to the airport when they hurriedly had to leave Mexico City after their medal-stand protest caused an international furor. Carlos referred to Buehler from that day forward as ‘Coach Cool Cat.’
“Al Buehler was literally a GIANT within both the domestic and global track and field community,” Kevin White, Duke’s athletics director from 2008-2021, wrote in a text message to the News & Observer. “As a recovering yesteryear college track coach, first hand, I witnessed the dramatic racial/social impact per the unbelievable/peerless partnership between Coach Al Buehler and Dr. Leroy Walker, perhaps they were the original “Butch Cassidy and the SunDance Kid!”
Among the meets they brought to Wallace Wade Stadium was the 1971 Pan Africa-USA International Track Meet, the first international track event held in North Carolina or the Southeast United States. It drew crowds of 52,000.
In the midst of the Cold War, Buehler and Walker also organized the 1974 USA-Soviet Union Meet at Wallace Wade.
In addition to those international meets, Duke hosted the NCAA Championships at Wallace Wade Stadium in 1990 and 2000.
A college track athlete at Maryland before coming to Durham, Buehler led Duke’s teams to six ACC cross-country championships while also coaching seven Penn Relays champions and five Olympians.
He was elected to N.C. Sports Hall of Fame in 1989, the Duke Athletics Hall of Fame in 2001 and the United States Track Coaches Association Hall of Fame in 2003.
“Al was truly a renowned sport scientist, biomechanics expert, a global coaching figure, and an exceedingly outstanding track and field coach,” White said.
In 2000, Duke named the popular running trail around the Washington Duke Inn and Golf Club on the school’s West Campus in his honor.
In retirement from coaching, Krzyzewski regularly walks on the Al Buehler Trail. He said he often takes a second to admire Buehler’s commemorative plaque.
“I always take a look at the plaque and just say thank God for for coach Buehler,” Krzyzewski said. “He never wanted a spotlight. Like ever. He just had so much common sense. A good man. He’s a really good man.”
Two of his former students, basketball star Grant Hill and Emmy-nominated television producer Amy Unell, produced a book and documentary on Buehler’s life, “Starting at the Finish Line.”
“He was obviously an amazing coach,” Krzyzewski said, “but he was a teacher. Everyone wanted to be in his class. I would call him not just a teacher for students, but he was a teacher for coaches. He was a coach’s coach.”
A memorial service for Buehler will be held at Duke Memorial United Methodist Church on Jan. 28 at 2 p.m. in the sanctuary. It will also be streamed online.
Memorial donations may be made to the Al Buehler Athletic Endowment Fund at Duke athletics by calling (919) 613-7575, to the The Salvation Army of Durham or the charity of the donors’ choosing.
This story was originally published January 10, 2023 at 1:49 PM with the headline "Legendary Duke cross country, track and field coach Al Buehler has died. He was 92."