Ulysses “U.S.” Grant coached the University of Arkansas at Pine Bluff track and field teams for 33 years, won six team conference championships and nearly led the women’s team to a national championship in 1989.

To the chief of police in Washington, D.C., Grant was more than a coach.

“He instilled in me a commitment and dedication to hard work,” Pamela A. Smith, a member of UAPB’s National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics runner-up team and all-American performer, said in a statement. “He pushed us beyond our expectations and for that I will forever be grateful.”

Grant died last weekend, UAPB confirmed in a news release. He was 94.

He was the longest-serving head coach of any sport in school history, coaching track and field from 1969 until his retirement in 2002. He was also a football defensive coordinator early in his tenure at UAPB and established the women’s track program in 1983, winning four-straight Arkansas Intercollegiate Conference women’s titles (1984-87) and being named NAIA Area Five Coach of the Year in 1987.

Grant’s track and field teams excelled without a facility of their own and a limited budget, according to the university. The Lady Lions — or Golden Lionettes at the time — won the NAIA District 17 championship at Harding University in 1991 and 1992 and placed 11th and 12th, respectively, at nationals.

But his 1989 Lionettes team, tying Concordia University Nebraska, set what remains the high bar for the program with the national second-place finish to Prairie View A&M University, which was in the midst of a nine-year dynasty. Competing in Azusa, Calif., UAPB was powered at the time by three all-American sprinters, Latonya Johnson of Rison, Laquita Blount of Marianna and Terri Banks of Pine Bluff.

“Coach Grant contacted [me] when I was appointed chief of police and shared with me how proud he was of my accomplishments,” said Smith, who took over the Metropolitan Police after serving as chief of the U.S. Park Police. “I told him that it was because of his commitment to excellence [that] I was able to push myself toward a career that has been rewarding and fulfilling.”

UAPB Athletic Director Chris Robinson said it has taken some time to process Grant’s death and reflect on his life, calling him a legend of the school, which was formerly known as Arkansas AM&N College.

“Coach Grant has impacted students, student-athletes, co-workers, competitors and the community as a whole for over four decades,” Robinson said. “I will admit that I am blessed to have crossed his path and to have been personally influenced by him. The Athletics Department here at the University of Arkansas at Pine Bluff is in a better place because of his contributions to establishing a solid foundation. His legacy will live on for years to come.”

Grant started his coaching career at Daniel High School in Crossett, winning four district titles in the 1950s and a state championship in 1957. At Southeast High in Pine Bluff, Grant’s teams won nine conference titles and a state title in 1961.

Shortly afterward, Grant returned to his alma mater UAPB, where in addition to coaching he was a longtime associate professor in the Department of Health, Physical Education and Recreation. His 1970 and 1971 men’s teams won the AIC outdoor crown.

Also in 1970, Grant led a 4×400 team of Henry Smothers, Walter Smith, Maurice Myton and Earl Goldman that ran 3 minutes, 9.6 seconds on their way to a Southwestern Athletic Conference championship. The sprint medley relay team of Smothers, Aaron Harris, Myton and Goldman won the Drake Relays in Iowa and the National Federation indoor track championship at the old Houston Astrodome.

Grant is credited with developing a number of 400-meter runners from Arkansas, including longtime local youth coach Louis Moss, originally of Brinkley, and Rudolph Stennis of Pine Bluff. Lars Allen of San Antonio was a senior when he became Arkansas’ first 25-foot long jumper and 50-foot triple jumper in 1973.

According to UAPB’s announcement, perhaps Grant’s most remarkable accomplishment was producing several NAIA all-Americans each season while the track teams established numerous school and state records.

Paulette Bell of Humnoke and Blount are the only female athletes at UAPB to win all-America honors in four-straight years. Bell set school and AIC records in the 200 meters with a 23.6-second run in 1986. Johnson is the only female athlete to win a national event in back-to-back years, winning the 100 meters at 13.93 seconds in 1989 and 13.73 in 1990. (Banks ran 13.8 for second place in 1990.)

The 1990 Lionettes’ 4×100-meter relay team, anchored by Johnson, ran 46.79 seconds, to this day a school record.

“I cannot tell you the impact that man had on me,” Bell said of Grant. “When I came to UAPB, I was going on a wing and a prayer. My parents couldn’t afford to send me to school.”

Bell enrolled at UAPB a year after finishing high school and made the basketball team, but did not receive a scholarship. She began running track under Grant, who eventually helped her with costs that basketball did not cover.

Grant later shared with Bell something she didn’t know during her running days.

“The only reason I let you stay on the track team is that you were with the girls on scholarship,” Bell recalled Grant saying, revealing that she wasn’t good enough at first but blossomed. “You were quiet and didn’t cause me any problems. After that year, Paulette, I never cut another runner.”

Bell asked: “If I wasn’t that good, why did you let me stay on the team?”

Grant’s response, she recalled: “You never know what you’ve got.”

“I wanted to please him and make him proud,” she said.

Grant also helped Bell, who was working in the fast-food industry, go into education as a teacher and coach in the Dollarway School District in 1995, six years after her graduation from UAPB. She said Grant had already talked to then-Superintendent Maurice Horton, who hired Bell before she could interview.

“I could never, ever, ever, repay [Grant] for what he did for me,” Bell said.

Smith, a 1992 UAPB alumna, said she will forever be indebted to Grant for preparing a young girl from Pine Bluff to “never drop the baton.” She also extended her condolences to Grant’s family, friends, colleagues, former UAPB track athletes and the university community.

“He was a true legend!” Smith concluded.