Retired Track Coach Bud Winter Dies of Heart Attack at 76

Lloyd (Bud) Winter, who was to be inducted into the National Track and Field Hall of Fame Saturday night, died Friday night of a massive heart attack. He was 76.

The athletic Winter, who played tennis and racquetball for an hour daily, collapsed and died after playing racquetball with a friend.

Winter spent 35 years as a coach, before retiring in 1970. During his coaching career at San Jose State, he produced 102 All-Americans. His 1969 team won the National Collegiate Athletic Assn. title, and three of his other teams finished second in the NCAA meet.

Twenty of his athletes became Olympians, including sprinters Lee Evans, Tommie Smith and John Carlos, stars during the 1968 Olympic Games in Mexico City.

Winter was elected to the Hall of Fame in June and was to be inducted Saturday night, along with 93-year-old Abel Kiviat, the oldest living Olympic medalist; high jumper John Thomas, and sprinter Mel Patton.

“This meant a lot to him--the award,” said Kathi Winter Koelzer of Huntington Beach, one of his two daughters. “It was a dream.”

Winter had prepared a speech for Saturday night’s banquet of The Athletics Congress. Part of it read: “There is no greater honor a man can receive than to be acknowledged by his peers.”

Koelzer said: “Being acknowledged by his peers--that was very important to him.”

Funeral services were pending, but will be held in San Jose. Burial also will be in San Jose. In addition to Koelzer, Winter leaves a second daughter, Jayne Winter White of Los Gatos, Calif.; a son, Mike Winter of Sacramento, and two sisters, Claire Winter and Ruth Coffee, both of San Francisco.