Born May 16, 1905, Detroit, Mich. Died April 17, 1996
John Kenneth "Ken" Doherty used the skills he developed as an Olympic decathlon competitor to become one of the top track coaches in the world.
In 1928, Doherty won the Olympic Decathlon Trials and although not highly regarded at Amsterdam came up with a third-place finish. A graduate of Wayne State University in Detroit, Doherty won a second National AAU decathlon title in 1929, setting an American record. He entered coaching and from 1939 to 1948 was head coach at the University of Michigan, winning nine Big Ten team titles. He moved to the University of Pennsylvania and coached there until 1961, also directing the Penn Relays, the first USA-USSR dual track meet and the Philadelphia Inquirer indoor meet. After retiring from coaching, he continued to write and such books as "Modern Track and Field" and "Track and Field Omnibook" are considered two of the top instructional books ever published. He was also a major contributor to the Hall of Fame Library at Butler University.
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