Ken Foreman, Seattle Pacific coaching great, dead at 96

SEATTLE (AP) — Ken Foreman, the longtime Seattle Pacific track coach who was the head women's coach of the 1980 U.S. Olympic team that boycotted the Moscow Games, died Sunday. He was 96.

During his five decades at Seattle Pacific, Foreman also coached cross country and basketball, was athletic director and led the effort to build Royal Brougham Pavilion.

After missing out on chance to direct the U.S. women in Moscow, Foreman led the U.S. teams in the 1983 World Championships and 1986 Goodwill Games.

Selected the National Coach of the Year in 2000, he was a charter member of the Falcons Hall of Fame in 2003. He also was a member of numerous other Halls of Fame, including USA Track & Field, the U.S. Track & Field and Cross Country Coaches Association and the Washington State Track & Field Coaches Association.

From Seattle Pacific:

Born on August 29, 1922, Foreman was a college All-American at the University of Southern California as a gymnast and track and field thrower. The 25-foot rope climb was a men's gymnastics event at the time and Foreman established an NCAA record on that apparatus and won two national championships before graduating in 1949.
 
Previously, as a high schooler in 1940, he became the interscholastic world record holder on the rope climb. After the outbreak of World War II, Foreman enlisted with the Coast Guard and served in the Pacific theater.
 
Foreman earned a doctorate at USC and the exercise physiologist worked extensively in the development of field tests to identify individuals having significant athletic potential.
 
Plans for a memorial service at Seattle Pacific will be announced at a later date.

Read more about his life and legacy here.