Liberty mourns loss of founding track & field, cross country coach Jake Matthes

Liberty University mourns the loss of Jake Matthes, the first head coach of the Flames’ Cross Country and Track & Field programs from 1976-91, who died on Thursday, April 18, at the age of 86.

Matthes was inducted into the Liberty Athletics Hall of Fame in 2014. He was the initial architect of one of Liberty’s most successful athletics programs during the first four decades of its Athletics Department.

He started the men’s cross country program in 1976 and the men’s track & field teams the following year. During his tenure as head coach, Liberty won the 1981 NCCAA men’s track & field national title, five Mason-Dixon men’s cross country championships, and eight men’s cross country regional titles.

Matthes, who coached Liberty at four different levels of competition (NCCAA, NAIA, NCAA Division II, and NCAA Division I) helped 18 student-athletes at the NCCAA level earn All-America honors, four at the NAIA level, and three more as NCAA Division II competitors.

The native of Mansfield, Ohio, earned numerous coaching awards during his 15 years of coaching, including 1981 National Christian College Men’s Track & Field Coach of the Year and 1985 NCAA Division II South Region Men’s Cross Country Coach of the Year.

Matthes, who also started the women’s track & field and cross country programs in 1977, became the namesake of Liberty’s outdoor track facility in 1991. The facility, dubbed the Matthes-Hopkins Track Complex, pairs his name with Ron Hopkins, who took over the women’s programs shortly after Matthes helped get them off the ground.