Barbara Jacket
{{Short description|American track and field coach (1934–2022)}}
{{Use mdy dates|date=January 2022}}
{{Infobox college coach
| name = Barbara Jacket
| image = Barbara Jacket.jpg
| alt =
| caption =
| contract =
| birth_date = {{Birth date|1934|12|26}}
| birth_place = Port Arthur, Texas, U.S.
| death_date = {{Death date and age|2022|1|6|1934|12|26}}
| death_place = Richmond, Texas, U.S.
| alma_mater =
| coach_years1 = 1965–1991
| coach_team1 = Prairie View A&M
| admin_years1 = 1990–1995
| admin_team1 = Prairie View A&M
}}
Barbara J. Jacket (December 26, 1934 – January 6, 2022) was an American track and field coach. She was the women's track and field head coach for Prairie View A&M from 1965 to 1991. While with the university, Jacket won ten National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics titles and was promoted to athletic director in 1990. Apart from college athletics, Jacket was the head coach at the 1992 Summer Olympics for the American women's track and field competitors. Her position made her the second African-American woman to become an Olympic head coach for the United States. Additional events where Jacket coached the women's track and field team for the United States were the 1987 World Championships in Athletics and 1991 World Championships in Athletics. Jacket was inducted into the International Women's Sports Hall of Fame in 1995.
Early life and education
Jacket was born in Port Arthur, Texas, on December 26, 1934, and had two siblings.{{cite web |title=Barbara Jacket |url=https://www.museumofthegulfcoast.org/barbara-jacket |website=Museum of the Gulf Coast |access-date=13 February 2019}} Growing up, Jacket played several sports including softball and track and field.{{cite news |author1=PA News |title=Olympic trailblazer from Port Arthur dies at 87 |url=https://www.panews.com/2022/01/07/olympic-trailblazer-from-port-arthur-dies-at-87/ |access-date=January 7, 2022 |work=Port Arthur News |date=January 7, 2022}} For her post-secondary education, Jacket went to Tuskegee University with a basketball scholarship and studied physical education for a Bachelor of Science in 1958. She later received a Master of Education at Prairie View A&M University in 1968.{{cite web |title=The Women of Prairie View: Barbara Jacket |url=https://www.pvamu.edu/blog/the-women-of-prairie-view-barbara-jacket/ |website=Prairie View A&M University |date=July 24, 2017 |access-date=January 7, 2022}}
Career
Jacket began her coaching career teaching basketball in Eufaula, Alabama, and Port Arthur, Texas, before joining Prairie View A&M as a swimming instructor in 1964. The following year, Jacket established the Prairie View A&M Panthers and Lady Panthers track and field team in 1965 as their head coach. During her coaching tenure with Prairie View A&M until 1991, Jacket was the winning coach of ten National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics championships and fourteen Southwestern Athletic Conference titles in track and field.{{cite news |last1=Murrell |first1=I.C. |title=Reception honoring track coaching great Jacket set for Saturday in Richmond |url=https://www.panews.com/2018/01/18/reception-honoring-track-coaching-great-jacket-set-for-saturday-in-richmond/ |access-date=13 February 2019 |work=Port Arthur News |date=18 January 2018}}
Outside of college athletics, Jacket was an assistant coach for the United States women's national track and field team during the 1979 Pan American Games.{{cite web |title=Women's track & field pioneer Barbara Jacket dies |url=https://www.usatf.org/news/2022/women-s-track-field-pioneer-barbara-jacket-dies |website=USA Track & Field |access-date=January 7, 2022 |date=January 7, 2022}} As a head coach, she was on the women's track and field team which competed at the 1975 World University Games, 1987 World Championships in Athletics and 1991 World Championships in Athletics for the United States.{{cite encyclopedia |last=Hine |first=Darlene Clark |encyclopedia=Black Women in America |volume=2 |isbn=9780195156775 |publisher=Oxford University Press |title=Jacket, Barbara J. |page=113 |date=2005}} Her 1992 Summer Olympics head coach appointment made Jacket the second African-American woman to hold this position for the United States.{{cite book |last1=Pierce |first1=PJ |title="Let Me Tell You what I've Learned": Texas Wisewomen Speak |date=2003 |publisher=University of Texas Press |isbn=0292765932 |page=[https://archive.org/details/letmetellyouwhat00pier/page/126 126] |url=https://archive.org/details/letmetellyouwhat00pier |url-access=registration |access-date=18 February 2019}} Apart from coaching, Jacket was the athletic director for Prairie View A&M from 1990 to 1995 and taught health for the university during the 2000s.{{cite news |title=Former PVAMU coach inducted into hall of fame |url=https://www.chron.com/neighborhood/article/Former-PVAMU-coach-inducted-into-hall-of-fame-9952413.php |access-date=18 February 2019 |work=Houston Chronicle |date=13 December 2001}} Jacket ended her career with Prairie View A&M in 2010 upon retirement.{{cite news |last1=Du Four |first1=Linda |title=Prairie View honors Jacket upon her retirement |url=https://www.chron.com/neighborhood/article/Prairie-View-honors-Jacket-upon-her-retirement-9401558.php |access-date=13 February 2019 |work=Houston Chronicle |date=15 June 2010}}
Personal life and death
Jacket was arrested in 1990 on the charges of document fraud and misconduct.{{cite news |title=Olympic Women's Track Coach Arrested |url=https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1990-10-18-sp-3640-story.html |access-date=13 February 2019 |work=Los Angeles Times |date=18 October 1990}} She died in Richmond, Texas, on January 6, 2022, at the age of 87.
Awards and honors
She was inducted into the Prairie View A&M University Sports Hall Of Fame in 1992.{{cite web |title=Barbara Jacket (1992) |url=https://pvpanthers.com/hof.aspx?hof=62 |website=Prairie View A&M University |access-date=18 February 2019}} Additionally, Jacket was named into the International Women's Sports Hall of Fame in 1995 and the U.S. Track & Field and Cross Country Coaches Association hall of fame in 2001.{{cite web |title=International Women's Sports Hall of Fame |url=https://www.womenssportsfoundation.org/programs/awards/international-womens-sports-hall-fame/ |website=Women's Sports Foundation |access-date=13 February 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170305183054/https://www.womenssportsfoundation.org/programs/awards/international-womens-sports-hall-fame/ |archive-date=5 March 2017 |url-status=dead }}{{cite web |title=Barbara Jacket, USTFCCCA Class of 2001 |url=http://www.ustfccca.org/ustfccca-hall-of-fame/ustfccca-hall-of-fame-class-of-2001/barbara-jacket-ustfccca-class-of-2001 |website=U.S. Track & Field and Cross Country Coaches Association |access-date=18 February 2019 |date=25 January 2017}}
References
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{{Prairie View A&M Panthers and Lady Panthers athletic director navbox}}
{{Footer USA Track & Field 1992 Summer Olympics}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Jacket, Barbara}}
Category:20th-century African-American sportswomen
Category:20th-century American sportswomen
Category:African-American college athletic directors in the United States
Category:Olympic coaches for the United States
Category:Prairie View A&M Panthers and Lady Panthers athletic directors
Category:Prairie View A&M Panthers and Lady Panthers track and field coaches
Category:Prairie View A&M University alumni
Category:Sportspeople from Port Arthur, Texas
Category:Tuskegee University alumni
Category:Women college athletic directors in the United States