University of Tennessee Athletics
SPORTS ILLUSTRATED INCLUDES CLARK FAMILY AMONG NEW JERSEY SPORTS NOTABLES
August 19, 2003 | Women's Cross Country
Aug. 19, 2003
KNOXVILLE, Tenn.
University of Tennessee Head Track & Field and Cross Country Coach J.J. Clark and his very athletic family have been included in Sports Illustrated's 50th Anniversary Sports In America series. On page 37 of the August 18 issue, which highlights great people and places in the history of New Jersey sports, entry No. 9 in a 15-subject list of "Who & Where" in Garden State sports history is "The Clark Family."
The listing reads..."The track clan from Maplewood includes sisters Hazel and Joetta and sister-in-law Jearl Miles-Clark, all of whom made the 2000 Olympic team at 800 meters while being coached by Hazel and Joetta's brother, J.J."
J.J. Clark, who directs UT's track & field and cross country programs, also continues to coach Jearl and Hazel. In fact, Jearl won her third U.S. outdoor title in the 800 meters in June, that coming a year after she won her fourth national outdoor 400-meter crown at the same event. She is aiming to match Joetta's mark of four Olympiads, with the goal of Athens 2004 looming on the horizon. Miles-Clark won gold with the U.S. 4x400m relay team in 1996 and 2000 and earned a silver on that relay in 1992.
The trio of Clark runners made history back in 2000 when they finished one-two-three at the U.S. Olympic Trials in Sacramento, Calif., and went on to represent their country at the Games in Sydney, Australia. Joetta, a Lady Vol Hall of Famer who leaned at the finish line at the Olympic Trials to earn a spot on Team Red, White & Blue, retired shortly after making her school-record fourth Olympic appearance.
"It is wonderful to see that Sports Illustrated, which is recognized as one of the leading sports publications, realized the magnitude of what happened in 2000 and that it was something we may never see again," J.J. Clark said. "As I have traveled throughout the country, many people have shared how much that accomplishment touched their hearts and moved them.
"Football, basketball and baseball are the dominant sports in the media in our country, so sometimes track & field endeavors are overlooked. It is very gratifying to me that a publication such as this realized how historic of an occasion we all were witnessing."
