Steve Gulley - Track and Field Coach

Steve Gulley

Title:
Director of Cross Country and Track & Field
Email:
steven-gulley@utulsa.edu
Phone:
918.671.2303

	The Gulley File

	PERSONAL INFORMATION
	Hometown: Tulsa, Okla.
	Education: Northeastern State, 1983 (bachelor's in education); Baylor University, 1985 (master's degree)
	Playing Experience: 3-year letterman, Northeastern State University, 1981-83

	COACHING EXPERIENCE
	2000-present: Tulsa, head coach
	1988-2000: Baylor, assistant coach

	TULSA HIGHLIGHTS
	- Has coached 3 NCAA Champions and 48 NCAA Qualifiers in track and field - Has coached 60 overall All-Americans - Guided the women's cross country team to its first C-USA title and its first trip to the NCAA Championship in 2010 - Led the Tulsa men's cross country team to 16 conference championships - Guided both indoor track programs to school-record runner-up finishes in 2011 - Led the 2019 men's cross country team to a school-record 5th-place finish at the NCAA Championship - Led the 2007 men's cross country team to TU's first berth into the NCAA Championship - Won TU's first team conference championship in women's cross country in 2001 - Won TU's first team conference championship in men's cross country in 2003

	BAYLOR HIGHLIGHTS
	- Won six conference titles, made seven NCAA Championship appearances, had seven individual league champions, produced 18 All-Americans and three Academic All-Americans.
	Was named the Southwest Conference Coach of the Year eight times and the District IV Coach of the Year once.
	On the track & field side, Gulley helped in the development of 79 All-Americans, including 50 male All-Americans and 29 female All-Americans.

CONFERENCE CHAMPIONSHIPS

27 Team Championships
- Men's Cross Country: 16
- Women's Cross Country: 10
- Men's Indoor Track: 1
181 Individual Conference Champions
- 11 Cross Country Champions
- 170 Track & Field Event Champions
1,031 All-Conference Athletes
- 235 Cross Country Athletes
- 796 Track & Field Athletes
  - American Athletic Conference: 328
  - Conference-USA: 400
  - Western Athletic Conference: 68

NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIPS

48 National Track and Field Qualifiers
60 All-American Awards
3 Individual National Champions
- Chris O'Hare (Indoor Mile, 2012)
- Marc Scott (Outdoor 10,000m, 2017)
- Patrick Dever (Outdoor 10,000m, 2021)

COACHING AWARDS

Midwest Region Coach of the Year: 2
- 2012, 2019
Conference Coach of the Year: 27
- American Athletic Conference: 18
- Conference-USA: 7
- Western Athletic Conference: 2

Now in his 26th year as the head track & field and cross country coach at The University of Tulsa, Steve Gulley has built one of the top programs in the southwest. The men’s cross country program has become one of the nation’s best.

A native Oklahoman, Gulley has coached collegiately for 37 years with his only stints coming at Baylor University and Tulsa. He has coached 181 individual conference champions, 60 All-Americans and 19 Academic All-Americans at TU. Overall, he’s coached his teams to 16 men’s cross country conference championships, 10 women’s cross country championships and one men’s indoor track conference championship.

Nationally, Gulley has coached three individual track champions and has taken his men’s (14) and women’s (4) cross country teams to 18 NCAA Championship appearances.

Gulley served as Baylor’s head cross country coach and assistant coach for track & field before coming to Tulsa. He arrived at Baylor in 1985 as a graduate assistant coach and became the Bears’ cross country head coach in 1988. Gulley coached there until his appointment as Tulsa’s head coach for track & field and cross country in 2000.

It didn’t take long to see the direction that the Hurricane cross country and track & field program was headed upon his arrival in 2000. The Tulsa women claimed the cross country conference title in 2001 and the men followed with a Western Athletic Conference team cross country championship in 2003.

Under Gulley’s leadership, Tulsa has become the dominant cross country program in the American Athletic Conference, winning the first 10 men’s titles and four women’s crowns since joining the AAC in 2014. Under Gulley, the Golden Hurricane men have won an overall 16 conference titles and 15 titles in the last 17 seasons. The women have won 10 league titles and five of the last six under Gulley’s leadership.

Tulsa harriers have advanced to the NCAA Championships 10 times in the last nine years and placed among the top-15 five times for the men, while the women’s team has made the NCAA Championships field four times under Gulley.

Perhaps Gulley’s top coaching moment for cross country was when the Golden Hurricane men turned in the school’s best national finish of fifth place at the 2019 NCAA Cross Country Championship. The Tulsa women also turned in its best national performance of all-time that year with a 25th place finish. Both teams returned to the NCAA finals in 2020 with the men taking sixth place and the women finishing 28th.

Gulley has coached a total of 10 athletes to 15 All-America honors for cross country at Tulsa, including 9 men (14 times) and one woman (one time). He was named the Midwest Region Coach of the Year twice, coming in 2012 and 2019.

It’s not only the cross country program that has prospered under Gulley’s leadership, but the track & field program has risen to a higher level as well. The Hurricane has had 37 top-5 finishes at the conference track & field championships, while 164 athletes have made NCAA regional competition and 38 of those athletes advanced to the NCAA Championship in a total of 60 events. Gulley has coached 45 All-Americans in track during his Tulsa tenure.

Gulley has led the men’s team to 13 top-four conference finishes for indoor track and have placed among the top-3 five times during the outdoor season.

In 2017, the men turned in an 11th place finish at the NCAA Cross Country Championships, 13th place at the NCAA Indoor Championships, and a 14th place tally at the NCAA Outdoor Championships. Tulsa’s success that year saw the men end the season as the USTFCCCA’s Fourth-Ranked Program of the Year, the highest ever ranking for the Hurricane.

En route to the school’s best-ever cross country finish with their fifth-place performance in the NCAA Championship in 2019, the Hurricane men also dominated at the AAC Championship and Midwest Regional that year. The Tulsa men won both events, while the women captured its third league crown and had its best regional performance with a second-place finish. Patrick Dever and Peter Lynch finished among the top-15 national finishers, thus earning All-America accolades.

A year later, Dever and Lynch repeated as All-Americans and were joined by Isaac Akers as the trio led Tulsa to its sixth-place NCAA performance.

Other benchmark moments during Gulley’s tenure are numerous. The school’s first NCAA Championship appearance for the men in 2007, while that same year Alex Becker became the school’s first cross country All-American when she finished in 15th place at the national event, running as an individual. A year later, the Tulsa men harriers won its second league title which began a string of 11 conference crowns in 12 seasons. Scott Beattie became Tulsa’s first male cross country athlete to earn All-America status in 2008 and was also named the Conference USA Male Cross Country Athlete of the Year after winning the individual title at the league meet.

In 2008-09, Gulley sent a total of seven athletes to the NCAA Indoor and Outdoor Championships after Hurricane individuals won eight C-USA crowns. Becker, Beattie and Mark Davidson went on to earn All-America accolades.

Chris O’Hare made his mark on the Tulsa program finishing as the runner-up at the 2011 NCAA Indoor Championships in the mile run and a year later becoming Tulsa’s first NCAA Champion when he clocked a facility record 4:01.66 in the mile at the 2012 meet.

Tulsa added its second national champion when Marc Scott pulled away down the stretch to win the 10,000-meters at the 2017 NCAA Outdoor Track & Field Championships with a time of 29:01.54. Two nights later Scott placed fourth in the 5,000m to pick up his ninth All-America honor.

TU’s third individual national champion came in 2020, when Gulley coached Patrick Dever to a 27:41.87 finish to claim the 10,000-meter run title at the NCAA Outdoor Track & Field Championships.

Ben Preisner highlighted the 2018-19 track & field season when he became a three-peat conference champion in the 5,000m run and also defended his 3,000m title at the American Athletic Conference Championships.

At Baylor, Gulley produced one of the school’s most successful athletic programs in his 12 seasons as head coach for cross country. His teams won six conference titles, made seven NCAA Championship appearances, had seven individual league champions, produced 18 All-Americans and three Academic All-Americans.

Baylor’s women captured the school’s first-ever Southwest Conference title in 1990. In 1992, Gulley’s runners once again found themselves among the elite when both the men’s and women’s teams won SWC titles, making him the first coach in conference history to win both championships in the same season.

Of the Baylor women’s seven NCAA appearances, their best came in 1998 with an eighth- place performance. His women’s teams also placed 10th (1991), 17th (1992), 18th (1990, ’92) and 22nd (1989, ’94).

Gulley was named the Southwest Conference Coach of the Year eight times and the District IV Coach of the Year once.

On the track & field side, Gulley helped in the development of 79 All-Americans, including 50 male All-Americans and 29 female All-Americans. He coached 14 top-10 finishers at the NCAA Championships on the men’s side with two more top-10 finishers for the women. There were three times that Gulley coached three-sport All-Americans in cross country, indoor and outdoor track & field.

Gulley earned his bachelor’s degree in education from Northeastern (Okla.) State, where he earned three letters on the track & field squad. His son, Taylor, has served as a Tulsa assistant coach since 2012.

Gulley and his wife, Leigh, have four children: Taylor, Austin, Sam and Lilly.