Ron Renko (2005) - Hall of Fame - Iowa State University Athletics

Ron Renko

Ron Renko

Track & Field/Cross Country
Anoka, Minn.

Head coach of the 1985 NCAA Cross Country Championship runners-up, a team immortalized after an horrific airplane accident in icy conditions killed Renko, five runners and a trainer
That 1985 team entered the year with low expectations but improved steadily and had the race of their lives at the national meet with six runners placing in the Top 50
Three separate university planes then returned the men’s and women’s teams to Iowa State after the race and one – carrying Renko, Assistant Pat Moynihan, Sue Baxter, Julie Rose, Sheryl Maahs, trainer Stephanie Streit and pilot Burton Watkins – crashed in a Des Moines neighborhood
More than 5,500 people attended a memorial service at Hilton Coliseum to honor the victims
Renko coached 20 All-Americans and 14 Big Eight Champions while winning two conference titles and the 1981 AIAW National Cross Country Championship
Recruited Nawal El Moutawakel, the first Olympic Gold Medalist in track & field at Iowa State