OBU Track Icon Glen Stone Passes

SHAWNEE – Oklahoma Baptist track icon Glen Stone passed away Tuesday, March 6, after a battle with lung cancer.
 
"Coach Stone was a great coach and an even better man," said OBU director of athletics Robert Davenport. "The world of track and field, as well as OBU, lost a remarkable individual who made a difference in a great many lives."
 
His passing left an impact at OBU.
 
"Glen was an OBU man (graduate) originally and had spent many years at Eastern Oklahoma Junior College where he had enormous success," said Dr. Norris Russell, who hired Stone in 1991. "He came to coach track and field at OBU at a time when our track and field program needed a steady hand and he was the perfect fit for the job at the time.  He was a "hard worker" and a "straight shooter" and his athletes responded to that.  He worked hard at both recruiting and developing good athletes and OBU track and field has been and continues to be a very successful sport at OBU any many ways thanks to Glenn Stone.  
 
Stone was inducted into the OBU Athletic Hall of Fame as a track athlete in 1981; a few years after his induction he became OBU's track and field coach, earning even more distinction in his contributions to the OBU athletic program from 1991-96.

"Losing Glen Stone is hard, but Coach Stone did such a complete job of modeling leadership that his influence and passion for people will still go on strong from the hundreds of people in all walks of life that he has touched," said  OBU Track Coach Ford Mastin. "He was confident, strong, and gifted, but he was also humble and leaned on the Lord's provision for all aspects of his life. He was a winner because he cared so much and served those that needed his Godly guidance."
 
As an OBU athlete, Stone ran the 100- and 220-yard dashes and the 440- and 880-yard relays. In 1955 he was conference champion in the 100 with a time of 9.9 and the 220 with a time of 21.8.

He repeated as league champion in 1956 with a 10.0 in the 100 and a 22.0 in the 220 and was a member of the winning 880 relay team in a time of 1:27.0, a school record at that time. He was the outstanding athlete of the 1956 conference meet with 15.5 points. While at OBU, he ran a wind-aided 9.6 in the 100 and a 21.2 in a straight-away 220.

Stone was a very successful coach at Oklahoma's Eastern State College where his teams won 10 national championships and he won six coach of the year awards.

Stone, a member of the NJCAA Track Hall of Fame and the Oklahoma Track Coaches Association Hall of Fame, coached OBU's track and cross country programs from 1991-96. In the NAIA national indoor meet, his teams finished second in 1996, third in 1994, and fourth in 1993. In the outdoor meet, his teams placed third in 1994 and fifth in 1992. He was selected as NAIA Coach of the Year in men's outdoor track in 1994.
 
Funeral services are scheduled for 2 p.m., Tuesday, in McAlester.