HAMPTON, Va. – The Hampton University Department of Athletics is mourning the loss of former women’s track & field head coach Mamie Rallins, who was killed in a car accident in Ohio on Monday. She was 74.

Rallins, who most recently had been a volunteer coach at Ohio State, was the head women’s track & field and cross country coach at Hampton from 1997-2002.

“I’m extremely sad to hear of her passing,” Director of Track & Field Maurice Pierce, who was an assistant for Rallins from 1999-2002, said. “Mamie helped me get my career started; she’s the reason I came to Hampton. I owe all of my success and gratitude to her. She took a chance on me, and I’ll forever be grateful to her for it.”

In 2001, Rallins gave the Lady Pirates their first MEAC title, winning the Indoor Championships. She followed that up in 2002 by winning the MEAC Outdoor Championships – which was another first for the program.

Rallins coached two NCAA qualifiers at Hampton in 2002: Lakeema Lewis in the 100-meter hurdles and Chloe Davis in the 400-meter hurdles. Davis was named an All-American, the Lady Pirates’ first since moving to Div. I in 1995.

Prior to coaching at Hampton, Rallins was a long-time head coach of women’s track & field and cross country at Ohio State, serving in that capacity from 1976-94. In that time, Rallins – the first African-American woman to ever coach at Ohio State – coached 60 Big Ten champions (indoor and outdoor), 24 All-Americans, nine Olympic trial qualifiers, and one Olympian.

She also spent three years as an assistant athletic director.

A 1976 graduate of Tennessee State, Rallins was a three-time All-American in the 100-meter hurdles – earning those honors in 1972, 1973, and 1974.

Rallins was also a two-time Olympian, competing in Mexico City in 1968 and in Berlin in 1972. She was .001 of a second shy of reaching the 100-meter hurdle finals in Berlin.

Among Rallins’ other coaching endeavors included serving as head coach of the U.S. Indoor World Championship team in 1987, as well as assistant coach in the 1996 Olympics in Atlanta, Ga., the 1995 World University Games, the 1981 USA vs. USSR Meet, and the 1979 World University Games.

In 2000, Rallins was the Olympic head manager for USA women’s track & field for the Sydney games.

Rallins was a native of Chicago, Ill.