Henry, Diemer Selected to USTFCCCA Coaches Hall of Fame Class of 2025
9/9/2025 2:50:00 PM | Men's Track & Field, Women's Track & Field
NEW ORLEANS, La. -- The U.S. Track & Field and Cross Country Coaches Association announced Tuesday (Sept. 9) that James Henry, former athlete and coach of the University of Michigan track and field team, and alum Brian Diemer will be inducted into the organization's Coaches Hall of Fame Class of 2025.
Henry is the fourth Michigan coach to be inducted into the Hall of Fame, joining Keene Fitzpatrick, Ken Doherty and Don Canham.
Hired as the first Black head coach of a Michigan varsity athletics team in 1985 after four years as a U-M sprints and jumps assistant coach, Henry became the winningest women's track and field coach in Big Ten history in 33 years at the helm of the women's track and field program. He spent another four seasons sharing head coach duties with Jerry Clayton for the combined men's and women's program and served as an assistant coach under director of track and field/cross country Kevin Sullivan in 2021-22.
Among all University of Michigan head coaches in school history, only wrestling's Cliff Keen (42 years) and softball's Carol Hutchins (39 years) are longer-tenured.
Under his leadership, the Wolverines won a Big Ten-record 16 team titles between the indoor and outdoor seasons and earned a pair of third-place NCAA Championships finishes among eight national top-10 team showings. He was 13 times named the Big Ten Coach of the Year and was named the Great Lakes Regional Coach of the Year six times.
After leading the Michigan women to their first-ever Big Ten Outdoor Championships team title in 1993, the Wolverines were a regular fixture at or near the top of the leaderboard. Of his 16 Big Ten team titles, 10 came in years when Michigan swept both the indoor and outdoor crowns -- 1994, 1998, 2002, 2003 and 2016.
Michigan achieved its high-water mark in NCAA Championships competition during a five-year streak from 2005-09. Under his guidance, the Wolverines racked up nine top-15 finishes, including a string of four straight top-10 showings in 2007 and 2008 that included third-place finishes at the 2007 NCAA Outdoor Championships and 2008 NCAA Indoor Championships.
Three among those student-athletes who he directly coached -- Nicole Forrester, Tiffany (Ofili) Porter and Cindy (Ofili) Sember -- went on to compete at a combined six Olympic Games, with six additional Olympic appearances from student-athletes from other event groups.
During his time at Michigan, 11 women earned the Big Ten Medal of Honor in recognition of their accomplishments in competition, in the classroom and in the community. The Wolverines accumulated three Academic All-America of the Year honors, 20 Academic All-America honors, 111 USTFCCCA All-Academic honors, 147 Big Ten Distinguished Scholar honors and more than 600 Big Ten All-Academic honors.
Before assuming head coaching duties, Henry was an assistant coach from 1981-84 and a standout jumper for the Wolverines from 1977-80. He helped the Wolverines to three team titles during his undergraduate competition career and won the 1980 outdoor Big Ten long jump title. To this day, he still ranks No. 4 on the all-time U-M long jump list indoors and No. 7 on the outdoor list.
Diemer served as cross country coach at Calvin from 1986-2022, adding the role of distance coach for the men's and women's track and field teams starting in 1987 and head coach of the women's cross country team beginning in 2006.
After finishing a close runner-up to Hope College in 1986, Calvin won its first MIAA cross country crown under Diemer in 1987 before putting together a streak of 34 consecutive MIAA titles from 1987 to 2021. Eight of the years saw the Knights score a perfect 15 points, including six between 2000 and 2010.
Diemer led the men's cross country team to four national titles in seven years and finished runner-up in the other three. The Knights dominated in 2003, earning an 80-point triumph that was the third-largest margin of victory in meet history at that point. Calvin's women landed on the podium in each year from 2006-08, highlighted by a runner-up finish in 2008.
On the track, Diemer-coached athletes won five NCAA event crowns and racked up multitudes of All-America honors. Patrick McNamara and John Lumkes ruled the steeplechase in 1989 and 1990, respectively, and Calvin remains the only men's program in NCAA DIII history to win back-to-back steeplechase titles with different athletes.
Diemer was named USTFCCCA National Coach of the Year four times and earned more than five times as many Regional Coach of the Year honors during his illustrious career.
While at Michigan, Diemer won the 1983 Big Ten and NCAA titles in the 3,000-meter steeplechase. After graduating from Michigan, Diemer competed on the international circuit, winning the gold medal at the 1990 Goodwill Games and the silver medal at the 1995 Pan American Games. He was a three-time Olympian, competing in the 1984, 1988 and 1992 Olympic Games, and won the bronze medal in the 3,000-meter steeplechase at the 1984 games in Los Angeles with a career-best time of 8:14.06. Diemer won the 1989 Glen Cunningham Award, presented annually to the top distance runner in the United States.
Bob Braman (Florida State), Russ Jewett (Pittsburg State), Boo Schexnayder (Louisiana/LSU) and Patty Vavra (Missouri Southern) were also announced as part of the Coaches Hall of Fame Class of 2025.
