Posted: 5/2/08 Section: Sports

Media Credit: Thomas Root Head coach of the Illinois women's track and field team Gary Winckler looks on during the Illinois Twilight meet Wednesday. Winckler, who has been head coach for 22 years, will retire at the end of the season.

Gary Winckler knew when he took the job as head women's track and field coach at University of Illinois 22 years ago that it would be difficult to get the best athletes to come to the cooler Midwest as opposed to Florida, California or Texas, where training year-round is more comfortable.

He realized recruiting would be more of a challenge than it was in his previous job as head coach of Florida State, where he won two national championships.

If he was going to succeed at Illinois, Winckler knew he would need to look beyond pure times and athletic aptitude.

"You look for athletic ability, but I also look for some of those intangibles, like desire to succeed," Winckler said. "If the individual has the desire to succeed ... you can succeed here and you can succeed in life. That's a lot of what I look for."

It has been Winckler's ability to find athletes who he can develop and mold into outstanding performers that has enabled him to coach more than 300 All-Americans and helped his teams win 11 Big Ten Championships. With this knack for finding hidden talent, he discovered Tonja Buford-Bailey.

"(Tonja) was talented in high school but wasn't by far one of the top kids in the country," Winckler said. "But she did have a desire to really succeed and was very competitive, and I think in a lot of people's eyes she was a big surprise with what she accomplished."

A 10-time All-American and four-time Big Ten Athlete of the Year, Buford-Bailey will be Winckler's replacement when he retires at the end of this season. She remains one of the greatest and most celebrated athletes in Illini history.

After she finished college, Winckler coached her to three Olympics in the 400-meter hurdles, winning a bronze medal in Atlanta in 1996. He calls this one of his proudest moments as a coach.

"We worked a lot of years together before she was able to achieve that," Winckler said. "I just think you just reflect back on all the hard work, all the ups and downs. It's that journey that makes it so satisfying, really."

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