Austin Coleman Piper Memorial Track: a distinguished facility for a Maryville College champion
Nov. 10, 2022
It is the nicest facility of its kind in the Collegiate Conference of the South and arguably one of the best in the region, and on Oct. 21, alumni and supporters of Maryville College came together to dedicate it — and remember the alumnus and transformational leader who inspired its construction.
The Austin Coleman Piper Memorial Track, located below Maryville College’s soccer pitch and softball field, is the newest athletic venue on the College’s 263-acre campus. Named for “Cole” Piper ’68, who served MC in various capacities throughout his lifetime, the track and field venue is a $3 million facility that includes an eight-lane, quarter-mile track, synthetic turf infield, dual long- and triple-jump runways, a dual jumping pole vault runway and a throws facility. Construction began in March 2022.
“Today we are here to dedicate a transformational facility in honor and in memory of a transformational leader — someone who was a transformational leader for Maryville College during and after his time here as a student and a transformational leader in so many organizations throughout his life,” Maryville College President Dr. Bryan F. Coker said to the large crowd gathered for the morning dedication ceremony and first event of the 2022 Homecoming Weekend.
Coker shared that he and Piper, who served as chairman of the College’s Board of Directors from 2020 until his unexpected death in August of 2021, began talking about offering track and field for men and women at the College early in 2021. Track and field had been a varsity sport for men from 1892 until 1983, and Piper was a record-holder in the discus throw and competitive members of the 4×400 relay team.
“I remember Cole telling me that he could not be objective or impartial about bringing back a track program because the sport meant so very much to him as a student,” Coker said. “He was clear from Day One that his vote on track and field would be a resounding – and very biased – ‘yes.’”
The president went on to tell the crowd that on the morning of August 26, 2021 — the day Piper died in a tragic accident in New York — the two spoke on the phone and agreed to take to the College’s board of directors a proposal to construct an on-campus track and field facility.
“That was our final conversation,” Coker said. “I am so proud that 14 months later, here we are. Cole, we built a track.”
Maryville College Athletic Director Sara Quatrocky announced that the facility would host its first event, the Scots Invitational, on April 15, 2023. Speaking at the dedication ceremony, she said that the future of the athletic program at Maryville College was bright.
“Being a Scot means something to so many people,” she explained. “As the department grows, and the track and field teams bring more growth to our campus, the waves of students competing in orange and garnet brings an extra layer of pride when you have a facility as nice as this to compete in.
“Our student athletes will have the added benefit — and bragging rights — to say that they have the best facility in our newly founded conference.”
Tom Piper ’72, brother to Cole, joined Sue Piper, Cole’s widow; Coker, Quatrocky, and Kunle Lawson, director of men’s and women’s track and field, to cut the ribbon on the facility. In his remarks to the crowd, he thanked the College and its board for recognizing his brother and shared how much it would have meant to him.
“Cole had a very special relationship with this College,” Tom Piper said. “He loved it — it was genuine — I heard about it quite frequently for over 50 years. He loved everything about this college, he loved what it stands for, he loved the people here — and I mean everybody who works here — and of course, he loved the students.”
Piper recognized with award
Prior to the dedication of the track and field facility, Cole Piper was posthumously honored with the College’s Distinguished Service Award, which recognizes alumni who have “rendered unusual service in any capacity on behalf of the College.”
Sue Piper accepted the award from President Coker, following remarks by Board Chair Mike Davis, Bruce Guillaume ’76, founder and director of Mountain Challenge, and Karen Beaty Eldridge ’94, executive director for Marketing and Communications.
The speakers highlighted Piper’s service to the College in various areas, including his work to save the 19th century log cabin of founder Isaac Anderson in time for the College’s Bicentennial in 2019.
Piper, a native of Bucks County, Pennsylvania, majored in Sociology and minored in History at MC. He completed post-graduate work at the University of Tennessee and Penn State University and taught high school history in Pennsylvania before returning to Tennessee in 1972. In a 27-year career with Proffitt’s department stores, he advanced from distribution center manager to executive vice president.
A longtime resident of Knoxville, Tennessee, Piper taught various courses in the University of Tennessee’s Retail and Consumer Sciences Department and was active in numerous businesses, organizations and causes in East Tennessee.In retirement, he developed new business for the Mountain Challenge program, supervised the Nonprofit Leadership Certificate program, and taught marketing. Piper was a member of the College’s MC2000 Steering Committee and Bicentennial Steering Committee. He joined the MC Board of Directors in 2019 and began his term as board chair in 2020.
