USATF Mourns Loss of Coaching Legend Frank "Gags" Gagliano

Francis X. "Frank" Gagliano, long one of the nation's top middle distance coaches and a mentor to scores of Olympic and World Championships athletes, died Oct. 25 after a lengthy illness. He was 89.
 
Born March 20, 1937, in the Bronx, Gagliano might never have become a track and field luminary if not for a fork in the road at the beginning of his coaching journey. After a storied football career at Mt. St. Michael High School in New York City, Gagliano took his talents to the University of Richmond, where he became one of the leading quarterbacks in the Southern Conference for the Spiders.
 
Signed by the Hamilton Tiger-Cats of the Canadian Football League, Gagliano battled for a spot on the CFL club's roster but was waived in 1960 after seeing action on the team's London Lords farm club.
 
Heading back home, Gagliano pursued a football coaching job at Roselle (New Jersey) Catholic High School, but the school didn't yet have a team. The school's administration instead asked him to head up the track and field team in anticipation of the creation of a football squad. That never happened, and as they say, the rest was history.
 
"I was a football player in college," Gagliano told the Newark Star-Ledger in 1965. "I fooled around a little on my own with the javelin. But I never competed in track. But they needed a track coach at Roselle Catholic, so I started reading about track."
 
Educating himself on the finer points of the sport along the way, Gagliano established a powerhouse high school track and field program in his nine years at Roselle Catholic, capturing numerous state non-public school relay titles and enjoying unheard of success at the Penn Relays, including a pair of victories at the 1965 edition.
 
Gagliano was hired as an assistant coach at Manhattan College in 1969 and helped the Jaspers to national success in his five years at the New York City school. Working under another legend, head coach Fred Dwyer, Gagliano helped guide the school to its first NCAA title in any sport as Manhattan took the 1973 NCAA Indoor Championships men's team trophy. His distance medley relay set a world record at the NCAA indoor meet, and the school also claimed an American record in the 4 x Mile relay during his tenure.
 
In 1974 Gagliano was hired by Rutgers University's long-time head coach, Les Wallack, and the two produced some stellar men's teams at the Newark school. Wallack told the Central New Jersey Home News in 1980, "Gags is the backbone of this team. His super personality with the guys and his ability and knowledge of track has helped this team become what it is today... He's always there when you need him. I think sometimes he doesn't even go home; he just sleeps at the track."
 
After being promoted to the head spot as Coordinator of Track and Field and Cross Country for men and women at Rutgers in 1983, Gagliano was lured away by Georgetown University in September of that year, beginning what would be one of the great coaching stints in any sport at the D.C. school.
 
During his 16 years at the helm of the Georgetown program, Gagliano's charges earned 140 All-America awards to go with 10 IC4A team titles and 23 Big East team crowns. His athletes won seven individual NCAA event titles and five of them became Olympians. Earning eight Penn Relays Championship of America wheels, the Georgetown squad also set 46 school records and nabbed a world record in the distance medley.
 
Branching out from his collegiate duties, Gagliano was named the head men's coach for Team USA at the 1993 World University Games in Buffalo, and he was selected to be an assistant coach for Team USATF at the 1997 IAAF World Championships in Athens, Greece. He founded the Reebok Enclave post-collegiate training group and coached the team's athletes from 1993-2001.
 
Moving west in 2001, Gagliano coached for five years with the Nike Farm Team in Palo Alto, California, and then in 2006 moved to Eugene to work with the Oregon Track Club. Results came quickly in TrackTown, highlighted by Nick Symmonds winning the 2008 Olympic Trials men's 800 in front of a roaring crowd.
 
After losing his daughter-in-law to cancer in 2009, Gagliano and his wife, Robbie, headed back east and moved in across the street from their son and two granddaughters. Continuing to coach, he established the New Jersey-New York Track Club and helped numerous runners to top finishes at the USATF Championships.
 
Gagliano was honored at this year's Toyota USATF Outdoor Championships at Icahn Stadium as the men's 800 event was named after him. A true track and field legend, Gagliano told the The Hoya (Georgetown University's newspaper), "I'm the guy that just coaches, and the athletes mean everything to me, everything. I’m very happy that I was successful in the coaching profession.”
 
Gagliano is survived by Roberta, his wife of 65 years, four children — Ralph, Diane, Nancy, and David — and numerous grandchildren. Services are pending.