Former Southeast Missouri State track and field coach Joey Haines died at age 76 on Tuesday.
Haines spent 26 years caching the Redhawks, retiring in 2008. He oversaw the move from Division II to Division II and earned honors at both levels.
His men's and women's teams won a total of 24 MIAA titles in indoor and outdoor track and field while at Division II.
Haines led his men's team to the 1985 NCAA Division II indoor team title in the inaugural season of the sport. Southeast Missouri finished as runner-up in 1991--its final year in Division II.
His men's team recorded five top-four indoor finishes and a pair of national runner-up showings at the NCAA Division II Outdoor Championships while claiming 17 individual titles between the two seasons. The women's teams were equally successful on the national level with three finishes among the top four teams indoors and a fourth-place finish outdoors in 1991, powered by 10 national champions along the way.
Southeast joined NCAA Division I and the Ohio Valley Conference and the success followed.
The men's teams won six OVC titles between indoor and outdoor since 1995 with more than 100 conference champions, including a national indoor champion at 5000 meters in 1994.
His women's programs racked up 14 OVC team crowns with another 100-plus conference champions.
Of those more than 200 combined conference titles, 17 came in the javelin, the event in which Haines specialized while a student-athlete competing at Lipscomb in the 1960s.
Haines was named OVC Coach of the Year 20 times during his career. He was the NCAA Division II National Coach of the Year in 1985, the NCAA Division I Regional Coach of the Year in 1998, MIAA Coach of the Year six times and Missouri Track & Field Cross Country Coaches Association Coach of the Year six times.
He was inducted into the Missouri Track & Cross Country Coaches Association Hall of Fame in 2002. Haines joined the SEMO Athletics Hall of Fame in 2018 and was a member of the Class of 2014 United States Track & Field and Cross Country Coaches Association Hall of Fame member.
Haines started his coaching career at Lipscomb as an assistant and was the head coach from 1971-78. The Columbus, Georgia native then went to Austin Peay from 1978-82 before arriving in Cape Girardeau in July of 1982.
Memorial gifts can be made to the Jane Haines Endowed Scholarship for Women's Track at SEMO. Gifts via credit card can be made online. Please include "Jane Haines Endowed Scholarship" in the comment box.
Additionally, checks can be made payable to the SEMO Foundation Jane Haines Endowed Scholarship and mailed to SEMO Athletics One University Plaza MS 0200 Cape Girardeau, MO 63701.