Go Bears!
GO Bears!
Go Bears!


 Danny Brabham
Danny Brabham
Position:
Assistant Head Coach
Experience:
22nd season
Alma Mater:
Baylor (1973)
Email Coach Brabham at Dan_Brabham@baylor.edu

Danny Brabham, one of the all-time great long jumpers in Southwest Conference history, is in his 23rd year on the Baylor track coaching staff with a total of 39 years of experience on a variety of levels.

His main coaching duties at Baylor are with the throws and multi events. Brabham handles many of the day-to-day duties involved with the Baylor track and field program and also served as Michael Johnson's strength coach. Currently, he is working with Olympic Gold medalists and World Champions Jeremy Wariner, Darold Williamson and Reggie Witherspoon as their personal strength coach.

Over the years, Brabham has coached 37 All-Americans and 32 school record holders, including five-time All-American April Holliness and two-time All-American Chris Gillis. Holliness won a Midwest Regional title in the long jump, while Gillis twice finished as the national runner-up in the long jump and ranks second behind Brabham on Baylor's all-time long jump list.

Over the past two seasons, Skylar White and Nick Lyons have flourished under Brabham's tutelage with White setting shot put records a total of 10 times and Lyons breaking his own javelin record five times. In White's two seasons, she has earned All-America honors twice in the shot put to become the first Baylor female All-American in a throwing event. She has also earned all-Big 12 honors six times in the shot put and discus. Lyons, on the other hand, ranked in the top-three in the NCAA in the javelin in 2011 with his latest school record toss of 257-2 to win the Michael Johnson/Dr Pepper Classic. Lyons earned sixth-place conference finish for all-Big 12 honors.

In 2009, Brabham coached freshman multi-event athlete Eric Bostick to a new school record in the indoor heptathlon. Bostick scored 4,364 points at the Big 12 Indoor Championships. In the javelin, Lyons broke the school record for the first time with a toss of 218-05.

During the 2008 season, Kaleigh Teel improved on her own school record in the pole vault, increasing her school mark by nearly six inches. In addition, Teel regionally qualified for the first time in her career. Brittany Devereaux ended her career as one of the best throwers in Baylor history, improving on her hammer school record in 2008.

His coaching paid off during the 2007 indoor and outdoor track and field seasons, as Brabham's charges set seven new school records. Teel set indoor and outdoor records in the pole vault, with the indoor height nearly a foot higher than the previous record, and the outdoor record tying a mark set in 2000. Devereaux improved on her own school record during the indoor season in the 20-lb weight throw, and set new school marks in both the discus and hammer throws. The junior broke the six-year-old hammer throw record by more than 10 feet. In addition, Chris Cardwell set new Baylor records in the hammer throw and weight throw.

Devereaux also had an outstanding sophomore campaign in 2006 as she earned all-region and all-conference honors in the discus. In addition, not only did Devereaux break a 30-year-old school record in the event, she proceeded to post the top 10 marks in school history.

Jordan Willmann was a two-time All-American in the pentathlon and heptathlon and finished second at the 2004 Big 12 Outdoor Championship. She had a breakout season as a junior, earning All-America honors by placing fifth at the NCAA Championships in the heptathlon, the highest finish by a Baylor heptathlete. Willmann set the school record in the event, then broke it twice more.

Brabham has also coached other standout athletes such as All-American vaulters Bill Payne, Jim Autenreith and Kurt Hanna, and NCAA champion triple jumper Stacey Bowers, who has become an integral part of the Baylor coaching staff herself. An eight-time All-American, Bowers became the Bears' first female athlete to claim a United States Championship in 1999 in the triple jump and held the nation's top ranking in the event that season. She was Baylor's first female athlete to become a member of a U.S. National team, competing in the 1998 Goodwill Games and as a result of winning the 1999 U.S. championship in the triple jump, continued her success as a member of the 1999 World Championship team that competed in Seville, Spain.

Brabham also enjoyed success with long jumpers recently as April Holliness earned five All-America honors for her career, the only Baylor female All-American in the event. In 2004, Holliness claimed the NCAA Midwest Regional title, finished third at the NCAA Outdoor Championships and 10th at the NCAA Indoor Championships. Chris Gillis emerged as a one of the nation's top long jumpers, twice earning All-America finishes and a pair of runner-up finishes at the NCAA Midwest Regional. In 2006, Gillis also posted a mark that ranks him second behind Brabham on Baylor's all-time list.

Brabham has seen his hurdlers establish themselves as a key part of the Baylor track program. In recent years, Brabham has worked specifically with All-American hurdlers Jeff Jackson, John McAfee, Michael Smith and Bayano Kamani, the 1999 and 2001 NCAA Outdoor champion in the 400-meter hurdles. In 2000, heptathlete Kerry O'Bric finished sixth at the NCAA Outdoor Championships.

During his tenure at Baylor Brabham has coached 35 All-American athletes. In 2001, he coached the only two intermediate hurdlers in NCAA history to obtain a 1-2 finish at the NCAA Outdoor Championships when Bayano Kamani and Michael Smith earned that honor. Athletes that Brabham has coached currently hold 30 school records for both men and women, indoor and outdoor.

Brabham, a 1973 Baylor graduate and 1992 inductee into the Baylor Athletic Hall of Fame, became the school's first NCAA track All-American in 1971 when he finished second at the NCAA Indoor Championships. That same outdoor season he was ranked No. 1 in the U.S. The previous year, Brabham won the U.S. Track & Field Federation national indoor long jump title. In 1973, he was sixth at the NCAA Outdoor nationals and 10th in the World Games. He won the SWC long jump title in 1972 and 1973, setting conference records both years. His senior year he set a conference best of 26-9 1/2, a mark which was just three inches off Ralph Boston's collegiate record. His leap still stands as the Baylor school record.

Other major titles Brabham won included the 1971 Texas Relays and the 1971, '72 and '73 Kansas Relays crowns. He was voted Baylor's Outstanding Track Man four consecutive years and was voted Baylor's Outstanding Athlete in 1971.

As a high school competitor in Roswell, N.M., Brabham won state titles in the long jump and pole vault, establishing state records for both in the process. Clyde Hart has called Brabham the most versatile athlete he's coached. Brabham excelled in the sprints, relays, high jump, hurdles and pole vault while also being one of the world's best long jumpers.

Brabham came to Baylor from Hobbs [N.M.] High School where he was head track and cross country coach for four years. He previously spent four years at Georgetown [Texas] High, three at Goddard [N.M.] High and four at Odessa [Texas] Junior High. "One of my goals was to coach on the collegiate level," Brabham said. "I think I have a lot to offer collegiate student-athletes. Due to the fact that I competed in virtually every event while at Baylor, I have an edge on knowing how each event is supposed to take place."

Brabham and his wife, Debbie, have two children: Brian, an education specialist for the Region 12 Education Service Center in Waco, and Heather, a homemaker in Waco, and five grandchildren: Tommy and Tori Brabham and Brady, Neeley and Cami Farnum.