Mizzou track and field announced that it is renaming its indoor track Monday. Alumnus Thomas P. Botts and his wife, Libbie Rice, made a donation to name it after his grandfather, legendary Mizzou track and field coach Tom Botts.
“This is what makes philanthropy in college athletics so meaningful," Athletic Director Laird Veatch said. "Tom, Libbie and their children, Tom and Camillle, are honoring Tom’s grandfather's extraordinary legacy while making an investment in the future of Mizzou student-athletes. Coach Botts helped establish a championship standard at Missouri, and now generations of Tigers will train and compete on a track bearing his name. We are incredibly grateful to Tom and Libbie for their generosity, belief in Mizzou and commitment to ensuring his Coach Botts’ legacy continues to inspire.”
Botts guided the Tigers from 1947-1972, helping Mizzou earn a spot at eight conference championships and the 1965 NCAA Indoor Track and Field National Championship. He coached five individual national champions, 23 All-Americans, 96 conference champions and two U.S. Olympians.
Botts was inducted into the Missouri Sports Hall of Fame in 1977, the Drake Relays Hall of Fame in 1979 and the National Track and Field Hall of Fame in 1983. Additionally, he joined the inaugural induction class into the University of Missouri Intercollegiate Athletics Hall of Fame in 1990.
The former Mizzou coach was born in 1904 on a farm near Mexico, and he attended Westminster College in Fulton. Before graduating in 1927, he competed as a hurdler. He passed away in 1999 at the age of 94.
“Coach Botts set a standard for excellence that continues to define what Mizzou track and field is all about,” Mizzou track and field coach Brett Halter said. “His legacy isn't just measured in championships and All-Americans — it's measured in the lives he impacted and the values he instilled in his athletes. That value-based leadership is what’s most impressionable on the men he coached. We are incredibly grateful to Tom Botts for this meaningful investment and for giving our student-athletes a place where they can compete every day under the name of one of the greatest coaches in Mizzou history.”
Mizzou is set to hold a naming dedication, which the public can attend, on Oct. 9 at the Hearnes Center.
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