From March 26 to March 29, 2025, the Mike A. Myers Stadium hosted the 97th Clyde Littlefield Texas Relays, a multi-day track and field meet that brings in athletes from all around the country to compete. The meet is the second largest in the United States and features athletes at the high school, college, and professional levels. Many different Olympic athletes have competed in the Texas Relays, such as Johnny “Lam” Jones, Maurice Greene, Gabrielle Thomas, and Ryan Crouser, to name a few. This year, 100 years after the founding of the meet, the Texas Relays was awarded the World Athletics Heritage Plaque in the category of “Competition” by the Museum of World Athletics (MOWA). The purpose of the award is to recognize historic and iconic athletics competitions, careers, performances, landmarks, and media.
The Texas Relays were founded by Track and Field Coach Clyde Littlefield and Athletic Director L. Theo Bellmont in 1925. Coach Littlefield was inspired to create the Relays after the UT track team traveled to Kansas for a competition and struggled against the cold. He thought his athletes, and other athletes, would be more drawn to Austin’s weather for competition. Littlefield was a decorated athlete in his own right. During his time as a student at UT, he earned 12 letters in football, basketball, and track, and as a sprinter and hurdler he only lost one hurdle race in all four years. He was also an extremely successful coach. Coach Littlefield’s track and field athletes won 131 titles in six different national track meets and 25 Southwest Conference championships.
The inaugural Relays were held on March 27, 1925, in the newly built Memorial Stadium. Over 350 athletes participated, and around 4,000 fans attended. The Texas Relays have taken place every year since, except from 1932 to 1934 because of the Great Depression. Littlefield served as meet director for 32 years until he retired in 1961, and the University officially named the meet the Clyde Littlefield Texas Relays in 1963 (the same year women first competed in the Relays). The Relays eventually moved from what is now called Darrell K. Royal Texas Memorial Stadium to Myers Stadium in 1999.
In addition to holding records of UT track and field athletes, the Stark Center also holds archival records of Clyde Littlefield and his son, Clyde Rabb Littlefield, that are currently being processed by graduate students from the School of Information (also known as the iSchool). The collection was gifted to the Stark Center by the estate of Clyde Rabb Littlefield in 2018 and includes memorabilia, papers, photographs, and scrapbooks documenting the lives of the Littlefield family and Clyde’s career as an athlete and a coach.
Congratulations to the Clyde Littlefield Texas Relays on celebrating this award, its centenary year, and another successful meet in the books!
Sources:
College of Education, The University of Texas at Austin. “Clyde Littlefield.” Profile. Accessed April 3, 2025. https://education.utexas.edu/profile/clyde-littlefield/
Holton, Avery. “History in the making: Tradition of Relays has grown since Littlefield’s creation.” The Daily Texan Online, April 5, 2001. https://web.archive.org/web/20060904114208/http:/tspweb02.tsp.utexas.edu/webarchive/04-05-01/2001040501_s01_Tradition.html
McMicken, Glen. “Clyde Littlefield Texas Relays: A to Z.” 2005 Clyde Littlefield Texas Relays, March 31, 2005. https://web.archive.org/web/20070929091800/http:/www.texassports.com/mainpages/txr/2005/040105_11.htm
Museum of World Athletics. “Athletics History- 3000 Years And Counting.” History. Accessed April 3, 2025. https://worldathletics.org/heritage/history
Texas Athletics. “History of the Clyde Littlefield Texas Relays.” News, February 7, 2006. https://texaslonghorns.com/news/2006/2/7/020706aaa_138.aspx
Turner, Chris. “Heritage Plaque marks centenary of Texas Relays.” Museum of World Athletics News, March 24, 2025. https://worldathletics.org/heritage/news/heritage-plaque-marks-centenary-texas-relays
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