Charles Oliver, or Trainer O, will go down as among the most decorated track student-athletes in Troy history, but it isn’t just his period as a student-athlete that makes Oliver deserving of a place in the first Troy University Sports Hall of Fame course.
A true champion in most sense of the word, Oliver is a part of National Competition as a collegiate player, a coach, an administrator and as a business person.
Oliver, who only started running track being a senior at Jordan High School in Columbus, Ga., gained a state championship in which season in the 400-meter sprint, but it was through a common acquaintance he popped up on the mouth of John Anderson, Troy State’s course and field mentor at the time.
Sam Nader, the actual football coach at Jordan High School, knew Anderson from their days at Auburn University and informed Anderson about a young course star in the making at Jordan that was worth taking a look at.
“I feel during his freshman year in Troy, Charlie ran the 400-meter in about 47 seconds,” said Anderson. “But the remainder, as they say, is history.”
Oliver won the 1976 NAIA National Championship in the 400-meter dash and still holds the Troy school document in the event with a blistering time of 45.74 seconds. He also put fifth at the NCAA Out of doors Championships in Austin texas, Texas, that season in the 440-yard dash.
“Records should be broken,” stated Anderson. “But I think Charlie’s record in the 400-meter is going to sit for some time.”
Oliver was also a part of a 4×400-meter relay team that will finished second with the 1973 NAIA Championships with a then-school a short time span of 3:09.9 minutes plus a 4×100-meter relay team that will set a then-school report of 41.2 seconds in 1976 with the Princeton Relays.
“Charlie had an excellent attitude,” Anderson said. “That ended up being his key to success. He’d a great attitude and that he figured out how to operate fast and win. He was just that plain and simple.”
After their career at Troy Condition, Oliver was ranked one of many top-10 in the country by Observe & Field News inside 1974, 1976 and 1980.
Oliver returned for you to Troy State in 1980 as being a graduate assistant course and field trainer, and was called the program’s head mentor a season after. Before he quit Troy State in 1988, Coach O’s teams won seven Gulf To the south Conference track finals, Oliver was named Mentor of the Year seven instances and 26 athletes won All-America honors.
Coach O’s success attracted a person’s eye of the University regarding Tennessee where he had been on the staffs in which won National Titles as a track and also field assistant trainer and as a member of the football event administration staff.
Oliver’s roots throughout Troy are still prominent these days as he currently sponsors the Coach O Cross Country Invitational and the Trainer O Track & Area Invitational each year at Troy.
He could be also a successful business person, founding Bags by simply Coach O within 1989, and is heavily involved in supporting grassroots track and also field programs for the kids. Oliver is a member of the actual Theta Phi Chapter of Kappa Alpha dog Psi Fraternity, where this individual was one of 20 brothers of the rental line that delivered the first black fraternity on the Troy State campus.
Oliver today resides in Knoxville, Tenn., in which he runs their Bags by Coach O business. Oliver and his awesome wife Jessie have two sons, Charles lll and Alexander, a daughter in regulation, Denise and a grandson, Kristian.
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