HICKORY, N.C. - Director of Cross Country and Track & Field Coach
Bob Braman has been inducted into the USTFCCCA Hall of Fame.
Braman, who originally retired in 2024, un-retired earlier this year to join the staff here at Lenoir-Rhyne. His retirement at the end of the 2024 track & field season was rightfully seen as the culmination of 41 combined coaching years at a pair of programs in his native state of Florida – 24 at Florida State after 17 at South Florida.
Under his leadership, the Seminoles twice won men's team titles at the NCAA DI Outdoor Track & Field Championships (2006, 2008) and finished on the national track & field podium 13 times combining men's and women's indoors and outdoors. His track & field teams won the ACC 35 times combining men's and women's indoor and outdoor, including sweeping the men's indoor and outdoor crowns six years (2005-10) and once on the women's side (2014).
In cross country, Braman led the FSU men's teams to five South Region team titles and laid the foundation for the women's program, which he directed from 2000-06 that included the first NCAA appearances in Seminole history (2002, '03 and '06). He was instrumental in developing the cross country course at Apalachee Regional Park that opened in 2012 and held the NCAA DI championships in 2021.
His men's track & field programs won the John McDonnell NCAA Division I Men's Program of the Year award in 2010-11 and 2011-12. He is one of a handful of coaches to have two athletes in The Bowerman, collegiate track & field's highest honor (Ngoni Makusha in 2011 and Trey Cunningham in 2022).
His squads were impressive in the classroom as well, with the 2010 men's cross country and 2011 men's outdoor track & field teams both being named USTFCCCA National Scholar Teams of the Year. Three of his athletes were named USTFCCCA National Scholar Athletes of the Year – Kim Williams (2009 outdoor women's field), Colleen Quigley (2015 outdoor women's track) and Cunningham (2022 indoor men's track).
His coaching honors include three consecutive USTFCCCA NCAA Division I men's outdoor track & field National Coach of the Year awards (2006-08). Across all sports, he has been named NCAA Division I South Region Coach of the Year 18 times and conference Coach of the Year 35 times (27 ACC, 6 Metro, 2 Conference USA). He was inducted into the Track & Field Hall of Fame of Florida in 2009 and the Florida State Athletics Hall of Fame in 2025.