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Photo by Stephen Carr
Long Beach Poly and the Long Beach Unified School District are renaming the school’s track for the most successful high school coach in United States history. Poly will officially rename the school’s track and field facility as the Don Norford Track, in honor of the legendary Norford. The football field at Poly is named after David Burcham, the principal who essentially founded and led the school in its early glory years; the track around that field is being named for Norford.
The track will formally be dedicated on March 1 in an event that’s free and open to the public from 11 a.m. until 2 p.m.
“Coming from Roosevelt Elementary we use to hide behind the bushes and peek through it to see the track meets,” said Norford. “Something like this was the furthest thing from my mind. I just feel real full of joy–I didn’t want the community to forget my wife, Carol. She was alongside me the whole time and allowed me to spend the time to coach. She was our team mom and I’m glad she’ll be recognized too.”
In addition to Norford’s name being painted on the track, a plaque will be installed at the facility honoring Don as well as Carol, his wife and team mom until she passed in 2003.
“I’m happier that she’s being recognized than I am that I’m being honored, you hit that on the head,” said Norford. “Our house was a hub, it was like a beehive. Kids everywhere, parents picking up their kids, just coming and going all the time. She counseled kids, counseled parents. She influenced a lot of people.”
Norford is the most successful high school coach of all time. He coached at Poly from 1976 until his formal retirement in 2014, although he continued as an assistant football coach on and off since then. In 38 years as an assistant football coach he coached 45 future NFL players, becoming the first-ever assistant to be named NFL High School Coach of the Year in 1996.
On the track, he was the head coach of the boys’ and girls’ teams from 1989 through 2014, winning 18 team state championships and 25 CIF Southern Section championships. To put those numbers into perspective, Norford retired with more state championships in track and field than any other high school in California had won in all sports combined.
He was inducted into the Long Beach Century Club Hall of Fame in 2015 and into the NSAF National High School Track and Field Hall of Fame in 2018.
According to Cal-Hi Sports editor and California high school sports historian Mark Tennis, “Nobody else in the state is even close to what Don Norford accomplished at Poly.”
Current Poly track and field coach and longtime girls’ athletic director Crystal Irving ran for Norford and was his assistant coach until taking over the program upon his retirement. Irving has kept the program going strong, as the Trackrabbits are the defending CIF-SS boys’ and girls’ Division 1 champions as well as the CIF State boys’ champs.
“It’s amazing and deserved,” she said. “Crystal Irving will never outdo what Don Norford has done. I am one person who is a product of Don Norford and I’m so pleased that he is being honored in this way. I pray as many people from the community as can be are there to support him and Ms. Carol, because they’re very deserving. We love Don with all of our heart and we’re very happy for him.”
Like Norford himself, Irving highlighted what a big part of the Poly track program Carol Norford was before her passing.
“She was his backbone,” said Irving. “It was heartbreaking when we lost her. She sacrificed so much for him and for all of us.”
Norford’s teams set national records in the 4×100 and 4×400 relays, winning several national championships and multiple world titles at the Penn Relays. Norford’s Poly athletes won 61 individual state championships and 150 individual CIF-SS gold medals; he coached several athletes who went on to become Olympians, including Bryshon Nellum and Ariana Washington.
Poly track alums will be happy–or not–to hear that “the pole” will be returning as well. When Norford was the coach he would use a pole on the side of the football field to line his athletes up when it was time for intense conditioning. Generations of Jackrabbits learned to fear and respect the phrase “on the pole” as a result. That pole has been replicated and will be reinstalled below the bleachers with the plaque explaining the legacy of Don and Carol Norford.
In addition to the celebration at Poly March 1, other events have been planned celebrating Norford. Long Beach Unified Bar and Lounge will host a reception the night before the March 1 event, and Poly alum and former NFL player Chuckie Miller will also host a gala event that evening at Altar on Pine. The Saturday evening event is ticketed–tickets can be purchased here: https://chuckiemillerpresents.ticketbud.com/norford?fbclid=IwY2xjawITiA9leHRuA2FlbQIxMAABHa6s2TCpDLOjNLL5sjSyGQvVDfN7qlxPwIN8Jq_t9CMw3nFaeKy9rblATA_aem_d758YONll4XLIpUebD1H0g.
