ASHLAND, Ohio – Ashland University and the world of track and field suffered a significant loss with the passing of Eagle track and field head coach and four-time United States Olympian Jud Logan on Monday. He was 62.
“Jud Logan personified our mission and vision at Ashland University,” said Ashland University President Carlos Campo. “We promise a transformative experience for students, and Jud delivered that every day in his interactions with student-athletes. His legacy at AU is extraordinary. Countless lives were touched for the better due to his unconquerable spirit and love for others.
“His passing is just shattering news for our campus and beyond, and our prayers are with the entire Logan family.”
Said Ashland Director of Athletics Al King, “Words can’t adequately capture what Jud Logan meant to this athletic department, university, city and the track and field community. He was a tower of strength physically and spiritually. He had a zest for living and greeted every day and every challenge with gusto. His teams reflected that attitude.
“Our lives have been enriched by the time we had with him.”
Logan was in his 17th season as Ashland’s head men’s and women’s track and field coach, and his 28th year with the Eagle program as a whole, starting as an assistant coach. His men’s team won three consecutive NCAA Div. II national championships – 2019 indoors and outdoors, and 2021 indoors.
The two 2019 national titles came as Logan was battling B-Cell Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia.
As a head coach, Logan’s Eagle teams earned 42 top-10 national placements, and his pupils won 59 individual national championships.
For all of the success his teams saw, Logan earned the following plaudits:
- Three-time U.S. Track & Field and Cross Country Coaches Association (USTFCCCA) Division II men’s national indoor Coach of the Year
- 2019 USTFCCCA men’s national outdoor Coach of the Year
- 2008 USTFCCCA women’s national indoor Coach of the Year
- Five-time USTFCCCA Division II men’s Great Lakes Region/Midwest Region indoor Coach of the Year
- Four-time USTFCCCA Division II men’s Great Lakes Region/Midwest Region outdoor Coach of the Year
- Six-time Great Lakes Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (GLIAC) men’s outdoor Coach of the Year
- Three-time GLIAC men’s indoor Coach of the Year
Said Malcolm Majesky, a former Eagle track and field student-athlete and current head strength and conditioning coach at Ashland, “There are no words I can put together right now to do this man's life justice. He has had such an enormous impact on so many people’s lives, and that impact will be felt for generations to come. This won’t just be felt by a town or university, this will be felt worldwide.
“He stopped being just my coach a long time ago, but he was family. We love you, Jud.”
Logan also served as Ashland’s commencement speaker at last spring’s graduation ceremony.
Prior to and during his time with Ashland, Logan was a world-class hammer thrower, having competed on four U.S. Olympic teams – 1984, 1988, 1992 and 2000. He also competed in the Pan American Games, the Goodwill Games and World Championships, and at one time, had the American record of 268 feet, 8 inches in the hammer throw. Logan was the 1987 Pan Am Games men’s hammer throw champion in Indianapolis, Ind.
Logan was a 2002 inductee in the Ohio Association of Track and Cross Country Coaches Hall of Fame and a 2015 inductee into the National Throws Coaches Association (NTCA) Thrower’s Hall of Fame.
Logan was a 1982 Kent State graduate, and a graduate of North Canton Hoover High School.
The Logan family plans to have a private service at this time. They will make an announcement about a celebration of Jud’s remarkable life at a later date.