ATHENS, Ohio – Ohio University cross country and track and field coach Elmore Banton received a warm sendoff Saturday night during his retirement dinner at Baker University Center. With former university president Vernon Alden and legendary coach Stan Huntsman – as well as numerous Bobcat student-athletets past and present – in attendance, Banton gave an emotional farewell to the program he has led for 23 years.

“I have had a wonderful experience at Ohio University,” said Banton, who won the NCAA cross country title as a Bobcat in 1964 and who became the university’s first African-American head coach in 1980. “I have loved every single minute of being at Ohio University. When I first came down here as a freshman, I saw Ray Fleming, Bill Heller and Barry Sugden and I said I’m down here with greatness.”

“All I wanted was to run with those guys,” he continued. “I never thought about being a national champion. I just wanted to be good enough to run with those guys and they made me a better runner.”

Although Banton was a two-time All-American and he coached the Bobcats to 10 Mid-American Conference titles and won 20 coach-of-the-year awards, his most memorable achievement happened off the track.

“The most important thing that happened to me here at Ohio University was meeting Mary,” said Banton about his wife, a schoolteacher in Medina. “She came along and really changed me. I finally decided it’s time to leave Athens and go live with her again.”

“Since that time when I made up my mind to retire, I’ve heard from so many people,” he said. “I’ve received some great e-mails from kids I coached and from some who I had almost forgotten about telling me how much I influenced them. Until the last two months, I had never even given it a thought and it’s been real nice reading the messages and cards.”

Banton said the first thing he did after making the decision to retire was talk to his team, a group he described as very young and very talented.

“We’ve got some talent out there that is unbelievable,” said Banton about his 2003 Bobcats. “We’ve got some great kids and all they’ve done this year is make it easy for me because they’ve worked so hard. I’m not taking anything away from the teams I’ve had because I’ve had some great kids… great teams… great athletes, but this group has really made it easy for me to kind of slide out the door by doing everything I asked of them with no complaints.”

Banton concluded the night in true bleed-green fashion… by leading the room in singing “Stand Up and Cheer,” Ohio’s fight song. Prior to Banton’s closing remarks, however, several speakers paid tribute to the Ohio Athletics Hall of Famer.

“I would always go to the track early but I would never, ever beat Elmore to practice,” said Huntsman, whose Bobcat teams placed at the NCAA Championships 10 times during his 14-year tenure at Ohio from 1956-70. “Every time I think of Elmore, I think of that kid who was uninhibited and anxious to get to work.”

After putting the crowd in stitches with his stories about encountering a sign at the campus library (bearing his name) that read “No more drinks in Alden” and about once being introduced as a warm athletic supporter, Alden recalled his early days as the university’s president.

“Shortly after I came here, Mo Banton won the national cross country title and that was a big thrill for me,” said Alden. “Here in the state of Ohio, at Ohio University, we had the number one cross country runner in the country and I was very proud of you, Elmore, and of course I’ve been proud of you ever since. You’ve done a fantastic job as a coach and we are grateful to you for the many championships and honors you have brought to Ohio.”

Shannan Ritchie and Kris Parks, who ran for Banton in the late 1980s and early 1990s, respectively, reminisced about their former coach’s simple and direct approach to running and his affinity for a certain fast food chain.

“One time I asked Coach, ‘What’s the best way to run a good race?’,” said Ritchie, a two-time All-American in cross country, “and I got the typical but simple Coach answer: ‘Go out hard, work the middle and kick it in.’ And I think that’s exactly the way Coach ran. Regardless of how bad you were doing in a race or how bad you looked or how bad you felt, Coach always believed you could pass five more runners.”

As Mark Wilson, Ohio’s associate director of athletics for external affairs, presented Banton with an Ohio University rocking chair as a small token of the athletic department’s appreciation, he reminded those in attendance of Banton’s three favorite teams: “First and foremost, the Green and White. Second, whoever is playing Miami. And third, whoever is playing Ohio State.”

Banton will coach his final meet this weekend as the Bobcats head to Mt. Pleasant, Mich., for the MAC Championships. All results will be posted here at ohiobobcats.com. To see a photo gallery of Banton’s retirement reception and dinner, please CLICK HERE!