Pat Henry has built an unflappable legacy at Texas A&M. His coaching résumé is unmatched, with 37 NCAA national championships, 90 Olympians produced, and more than 170 individual national champions coached. So when he announced his retirement on June 17 after 22 successful seasons, one thing was clear: replacing him would be a mammoth task. Texas A&M did not think small. Instead, it hired an Olympic gold medalist and former “World’s Fastest Man” as the program’s 20th head coach.

The university announced the appointment in a press release, confirming Leroy Burrell as the new head of its track and field program. The release also included a statement from Texas A&M Director of Athletics Trev Alberts.

“We are excited to welcome Leroy and his family to Aggieland,” Alberts said in a press release. “He is an outstanding leader that has achieved championship-level success everywhere he has been. He has developed elite athletes who have won on both the national and international stages.

An Olympic gold medalist and national champion himself, he has a strong understanding of what it takes to compete at the highest level. We are confident he will continue to build on the great success and tradition of our track & field program.”

Burrell’s track career speaks for itself. He set the 100m world record twice, first running 9.90 in June 1991 before reclaiming the crown three years later with a blistering 9.85. He held the record until Donovan Bailey lowered it to 9.84 at the 1996 Olympics in Atlanta. Beyond the record books, Burrell also won Olympic gold in the 4x100m relay at the 1992 Barcelona Games, along with two World Championship gold medals and a silver in the 100m. And when his racing days came to an end, he carried that success into coaching.

The 59-year-old returned to his alma mater, Houston, where he spent 23 seasons and won an incredible 44 conference titles. Along the way, he developed 266 All-Americans, coached 19 individual national champions and 376 individual conference champions across his time at Houston and Auburn. After building one of the nation’s top programs, he took on a new challenge at Auburn in 2022. It did not take long for that move to pay off.

Burrell concluded his highly impactful tenure at Auburn by leading the program to four top-five NCAA team finishes, highlighted by a national runner-up finish outdoors in 2024. His athletes completely rewrote the history books in 2026, capturing four individual national titles and shattering records along the way. That included Ja’Kobe Tharp’s collegiate-record 12.75 seconds in the 110m hurdles, alongside Kayinsola Ajayi’s 6.45 seconds to tie the collegiate indoor 60m record.

Burrell now inherits one of the most successful programs in NCAA history, one shaped by Henry over the last 22 seasons. In his final season, he did not win an NCAA national championship as he did in 2025. The men’s team placed 11th, while the women’s team finished 18th. Four days later, he resigned.

Before handing over the reins to Burrell, the legendary coach, who first joined the program in 2004, reflected on bringing his remarkable career to a close.

Pat Henry reflects on the end of a storied coaching career

Few NCAA head coaches have done as much for a single college as Henry has. The veteran arrived at Texas A&M in 2004 after stints with LSU and Blinn College, hoping to turn the program into a super-school. That’s exactly what he did.

Things did not end on quite the same note in 2026, with the men’s team finishing 11th in the NCAA standings behind Auburn. Even so, Henry’s 10 titles at Texas A&M, alongside his 27 at LSU, made him the only coach in NCAA history to reach double figures with two schools. After an incredible 54 years in coaching, Henry decided it was time to pass the torch.

“It’s very difficult to talk about 54 years of coaching, but I can talk about the best 22 years,” Henry said. “I have been truly blessed to be the coach here at Texas A&M. Our 10 National Championships and 19 final four finishes are a big part of my 22 years, but being a part of Texas A&M has made it the best years of my career. This is a special place with many wonderful people.

The athletes Henry coached at Texas A&M — including legendary Aggie stars like Athing Mu, Fred Kerley, and Demetrius Pinder — are among the most decorated in history. During his tenure in College Station, his former athletes went on to secure 15 total Olympic medals, including seven gold medals. Despite this, the veteran credited the college and his staff for the success, while believing that coaches can only do so much unless the athletes themselves have the desire to be great

“The success of our program is about our ability as a staff to recruit great talent. But great talent is never happy unless they get better,” he added. “The ability to help an athlete get better is about having a great staff, a staff dedicated to being the best. I have had great assistants who work hard and smart. We have been cohesive in our message.” 

Henry leaves behind one of the most successful coaching legacies in NCAA track and field, while Leroy Burrell arrives with a résumé that suggests Texas A&M’s ambitions are not changing. The challenge now is turning one era of sustained success into another.