Family, friends and colleagues gathered to remember and honor former Tennessee State University women's track coach Ed Temple.
The memorial service began Friday morning in Kean Hall Gymnasium at TSU. All classes and meetings on campus have been canceled until 2 p.m.
Temple - a longtime track coach of the Tigerbells, as well as a former head coach for the U.S. track and field Olympic team - died back on September 23. He was 89.
One hour before the service, family and friends gathered for a press conference to remember him.
"We came to this university with nothing, but we left with everything," Lucinda Williams Adams, an Olympic medalist and Tigerbelle, said. "We're saddened but we're joyful because he lived a life that we will be able to cherish for the rest of our lives."
Temple coached a team of African-American women during the Jim Crow era and before Title IX was ever a thing.
"To take a group of young black women and to make them proud, to make you proud, and make the world proud, and to instill in us, no matter what happens, you're never to give up, you're never to quit," Wyomia Tyus, Olympic gold medalist and Tigerbelle, said, adding that Temple also stressed the importance of education to the Tigerbelles during their college careers. "Your athletic ability may not open a door, but your education will open a door."
A coach, father figure, mentor, and motivator, the people who met and worked with Ed Temple said on Friday that his memory and his legacy will never be forgotten.
