Updated 3/25/21
This is Norm Tate’s 13th season as an assistant coach at Rowan University. He instructs the sprinters, hurdlers and jumpers for both the men’s and women’s track and field teams. Tate was named the 2017 and 2012 U.S. Track & Field and Cross Country Coaches Association Atlantic Region Men’s Assistant Coach of the Year for outdoor track & field and he also earned the award in 2017-18 for indoor track & field.
Tate has helped guide the Prof men to eight New Jersey Athletic Conference (NJAC) Championships, four indoor and four outdoor. Rowan has had 54 conference champions and 31 All-Americans in events under Tate's tutelage. In 2016-17, Dave Benjamin was the national champion in the 60 meter hurdles at the NCAA Indoor Championships and Anthony Salemo claimed the NCAA title in the 400 meter hurdles at the outdoor championships. The 4x400 meter relay won back-to-back national titles at the NCAA Division III Outdoor Championships in 2011 and 2012.
The Prof women have captured 10 NJAC titles, five indoor and five outdoor, with Tate on the coaching staff. Rowan has totaled 80 conference champions and 21 All-Americans in Tate's events. Shailah Williams was the 2014 indoor national champion in the 200 meters.
Tate was selected to be the men's head coach for Team USA at the 2017 Pan American Junior Championships. He has also served as an assistant coach for the United States at the 2018 and 2012 International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF) World Indoor Championships, 2015 Pan American Games and 2014 IAAF World Junior Championships. In 2010, he coached Team USA at the Five Nations Match in Glasgow, Scotland.
Prior to Rowan, Tate was an assistant coach for the Richard Stockton College men’s and women’s track and field teams from 2007-08. He worked at the Hilton Hotel & Casino Resort in Atlantic City, NJ from 1986-2006 as an Equal Employment Opportunity (EEO) manager. Tate was the head coach of the men’s and women’s track and field team at Hempstead High School in Hempstead, NY from 1981-86. He led the women’s team to the Nassau County Championship in 1985 and 1986. Tate served as an assistant coach for the men’s track team at Manhattan College for two years (1974-76).
Tate provides the Profs with a lot of international competition experience. He was a member of the 1968 United States Olympic Team in the triple jump. Tate captured the United States National Championship in the long jump in 1966, 1969 and 1970. He was the U.S. Champion in the triple jump in 1969, 1970 and 1971.
Tate graduated from North Carolina Central University in 1966 with a bachelor’s of science degree in physical education. He was a member of the Eagles’ track and field teams from 1961-65. During that time, Tate earned NCAA All-American honors three times (1963, 1964 and 1965) and was a two-time NAIA All-American selection (1964 and 1965). In 1964, he was named the Outstanding Athlete at the Penn Relays. At the 1965 NAIA Championships, Tate was selected the meet’s Outstanding Athlete.
In 1985, Tate was inducted into the North Carolina Hall of Fame. He also joined the Penn Relays Hall of Fame in 1994 and his native East Orange Hall of Fame in 2017. In 2018, Tate was a recipient of the Visionary Leader Award from the Camden County East chapter of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People . He currently resides in Voorhees, NJ.
