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, he came up with a third-place finish. A graduate of Wayne State University in Detroit, Doherty won a second AAU national 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 then moved to the University of Pennsylvania, where he coached until 1961, also directing the Penn Relays, the first USA-USSR dual track meet and the Philadelphia Inquirer indoor meet. After retiring from coaching, Doherty excelled as a writer of instructional books, such as Modern Track and Field and Track and Field Omnibook. He was also a major contributor to the Hall of Fame Library at Butler University, which subsequently became the National Track & Field Research Collection of the Amateur Athletic Foundation of Los Angeles. An annual fellowship in Doherty's name is administered by the AAFLA.
1928 Olympics: Decathlon (3rd) 1929 AAU: Decathlon (1st)
Coach Meet director Writer