Marshall Bell (2004) - Southern Miss M-Club Hall of Fame

Marshall Bell

Induction:
2004

There had been a track and field program at Southern Miss prior to the program being restarted in the late 1970s. And it was a program that was extremely successful but relied almost entirely on athletes from football and basketball to make up its squad. When the program was dismantled in the late 1950s, it would take someone special to revive it and to help it achieve new heights.

Marshall Bell was the founder of the modern day track and field program at the University of Southern Mississippi and during his eighteen year tenure in charge of the program elevated the Golden Eagle program to heights never dreamed of.

Marshall Bell graduated from Mississippi Valley State University in 1964 and earned his Masters degree from Southern Miss in 1970. At Valley State he was a four-year lettermen in track and field and a three-year letterman in football. Following his graduation he coached for four seasons at Hawkins High School in Forest, Mississippi and was an assistant football coach and head track coach at meridian High School form 1968 to 1973. At one point during his Meridian tenure, his Wildcat squad owned all the state records in the sprints and relays. Meridian High won the 1970 state championship under Bell’s guidance and was runner-up four other times. He eventually was hired to teach as an assistant professor at Southern Miss in the newly created Department of Coaching and Sports Administration.

Coach Bell was hired by then athletic director Roland Dale to resurrect the Golden Eagle track and field program that had been dropped in the late 1950s. Bell oversaw six of the school’s 15 varsity NCAA sports at the time, men’s and women’s outdoor track, men’s and women’s indoor track and men’s and women’s cross country.

The track and field program came a long way under Bell. When he restarted the program in 1977, they started with a $25,000 budget and recruited solely distance runners and began with only five or six runners on scholarship.

Under Bell’s leadership the program experienced more ups than downs. His men’s squad won back-to-back Metro Conference Championships and the women won a Metro Conference Championship as well. The school produced track and field All-Americans and had athletes that advanced to the NCAA championships and competed in the United States Olympic trials. But more important his athletes were true scholar-athletes and graduated and became productive and respected members of their communities

While Bell watched his programs flourish and grow during his 18-year career at Southern Miss, the crowning achievement of that career was realized in the spring of 1997 when the Southern Miss Track and Field Complex opened and Bell’s Golden Eagles hosted the first two outdoor meets in modern day school history. The school also hosted the second ever Conference USA Track and Field Championships in the spring of 1997.

Like a proud father, Bell said on that day, “I don’t think I have ever had a more satisfying day in my professional career than the day we hosted our first meet in the new facility.” That day had been the culmination of a lot of planning and hard work as well as a long time dream Bell had for the program.

It took longer than Bell would have like to achieve many of the dreams Bell had for the Southern Miss track and field program, but his philosophy always was “to dwell on the positives.”

Tonight as we take time to honor Marshall Bell, we honor his achievements as a coach and for his leadership in building our track and field program, but we cannot forget Marshall Bell the teacher and the educator. Thousands of young men and women, athletes and non-athletes that have come through the University of Southern Mississippi have been touched by Marshall Bell and the things that he believes in. Thousands of former students are out there today, teaching others the simple things they learned from Marshall Bell.

His legacy is as a teacher, as a coach as a leader of young men and women. And regardless of the championships we have won, the All-Americans and all-conference performers he has coached. What will be remembered is the uniqueness and special ness he has brought to the University of Southern Mississippi.

Mr. President, ladies and gentlemen, I am proud to present to you, for induction into our M-Club Alumni Association Sports Hall of Fame, the father of Southern Miss Track and field, Marshall Bell.