Joe Walker Last College: Mississippi College, 1969 Position: Head Coach

For a coach who has been in the business for over three decades, Ole Miss head coach Joe Walker is surprisingly enthusiastic and excited. Walker, a coach with a reputation of being able to do a lot with a little, has a legacy of turning unknown high school stars into collegiate champions.

Walker has individually coached every event area in his 35 year career and has had stars in each area. Walker's smile is bigger than ever these days because in addition to being able to offer potential athletes his coaching expertise, he can now display recruits one of the elite collegiate facilities and training environments in not just the United States, but the world.

Over the last year, Ole Miss has seen the completion-of-a-beautiful track and field complex alongside one of the finest coaching office buildings around. The track complex is complimented by a state of the art indoor practice facility, training room and weight room located to its immediate north. With facilities in hand to go along with Walker's expertise in the sport, it should come as no surprise that there is no one, young or old, more excited about the Ole Miss track and field program than Walker himself.

A quick look at Walker's file and you will find someone who seemed to be born to coach. His father was a coach and Walker became one of the youngest collegiate coaches at age 23, when he was hired at Mississippi College in 1970. Since that time, Walker has produced NCAA Champions at every school he has coached, as well as having athletes in every Olympic Games from 1976 through 2000.

His expertise as a teacher and coach is well documented, which is why it should come as no surprise that he was named the 2002 USOC Track and Field Coach of the Year. He is known in the coaching profession as someone with the knack of developing talent. He has coached athletes to 44 SEC individual championships and eight SEC relay championships. Twice his relay teams have set what at the time was an SEC record.

Walker's record with team championships is equally as impressive. He has won five SEC men's team championships, finished ninth in the NCAA Men's Indoor Championships in 1991 and 10th in the 2001 edition of the NCAA Men's Indoor Championship. His men's teams have had Outdoor NCAA finishes of 13th in 1993 and 15th in 2000, which further solidifies his ability to produce teams that rank in the Top 20 nationally.

The Ole Miss women's program began in 1986, and during the 2001 season the Lady Rebels broke into the upper echelon of the SEC Indoor Championships for the first time. That feat followed an 18th place team finish at the 2000 NCAA Indoor Championships.

Often known as a long jump specialist, Walker has worked with the famous Larry Myricks, Ralph Spry and Savante' Stringfellow. Walker also produced Ole Miss' first-ever female SEC Champion and SEC record holder in long jumper Tisha Parker. Under Walker's tutelage, elite sprinter Teneeshia Jones become the first Lady Rebel to represent the United States at the World University Games in 2001 and is Ole Miss' all time leader in points scored and All-America honors.

Last season, Walker managed to keep the jump tradition going, guiding Brandon Atkinson to an eight-place finish in triple jump at the 2005 NCAA Outdoor Championships and Shantel Glass to an SEC Indoor Championship in the long jump and a second place finish in the SEC Outdoor Championships.

Antwon Hicks has also excelled under Walker during his career at Ole Miss. Hicks, a two-time NCAA Indoor 60-meter hurdle champion and semi-finalist in the 2004 USA Olympic Trials, earned six All-America honors (3 indoor, 3 outdoor) in his Rebel career. Hicks also captured both the US Junior National title, in the 110-meter hurdles and the World Junior Championship in the same event during 2002. Hicks was joined at the World Junior Championships by Lady Rebel long jumper Marquita Aldridge. Aldridge earned Verizon All-American honors by finishing second in the event at the US Junior National Championships.

In addition to Hicks having an outstanding 2005 season, Walker also coached LaToya McBride to a second place finish at the SEC Outdoor Championships in the heptathlon and a seventh place finish at the NCAA Outdoor Championships.

In 2005, the program reached a few milestones. Ole Miss saw a record number of athletes participate in the NCAA MidEast Regional and the NCAA National Championhips. The national title won by Hicks put Ole Miss among only a handful of prgrams in the nation that have produced a national champion four out of the last six years.

While Walker has coached all events at some time during his career, he currently coaches high jump, long jump, men's 110m hurdles, heptathlon and decathlon. He has individually coached five NCAA champions.

Walker is a product of Mississippi. He was an outstanding all-around high school athlete at Utica High School in Utica, Miss. He played in the Mississippi High School All-Star basketball game following his senior year and enrolled at Ole Miss as a recipient of one of the first M-Club scholarships.

As a freshman at Ole Miss, he lettered in freshman basketball. As a sophomore, he managed the varsity basketball team. Yearning to be an athlete again led Walker to transfer to Mississippi College, where he lettered in cross country, track and basketball.

Upon graduation from Mississippi College in 1969, he began his coaching career as an assistant coach in football, basketball and track at Meridian High School.

After MHS won the state track championship, Walker's alma mater called and he immediately went back to Mississippi College as the cross country and track coach.

Walker was born April 11, 1947, in Oxford, Miss. He is married to the former Faye Hall of Jackson, Miss. The couple has three sons, Joseph III, Brian and Luke.