THE FLATS – Grover Hinsdale and Dr. Shaday Word-Daniels have been announced as Georgia Tech’s recipients of the 2024 ACC UNITE Award, the Atlantic Coast Conference announced Wednesday.
The ACC UNITE Award was created to honor individuals affiliated with the league who have made an impact in the areas of racial and social justice. An initiative of the ACC’s Committee for Racial and Social Justice (CORE – Champions of Racial Equity), the award was developed and approved by the ACC’s members institutions.
Hinsdale has left an indelible mark on Georgia Tech track and field as the program’s head coach for the past 32 years. He has not only coached champions on the track, but also countless men that have gone on to represent Tech with distinction in all walks of life as alumni. Hinsdale’s impact can be felt on and off the track.
The Yellow Jackets have posted seven top-10 indoor and outdoor NCAA Championship finishes during Hinsdale’s tenure. He was named Atlantic Coast Conference Indoor Coach of the Year in 2002 and 2008 and has coached three Olympic gold medalists, 13 NCAA champions and 87 all-Americans. Twenty-five members of the men’s team during Hinsdale’s tenure have gone to be to be inducted into the Georgia Tech Sports Hall of Fame.
Among the group of talented athletes that struck gold is Derrick Adkins, who won Olympic gold in 1996, and was a two-time national champion and six-time all-American during his Tech career. A second Olympic medalist, Derek Mills won gold as part of the 4×400 relay team in Atlanta. He was a four-time national champion and an 11-time all-American for the Jackets. The third Olympic gold medalist under Hinsdale tutelage was Angelo Taylor, who won gold in the 400 intermediate hurdles at the 2000 Sydney Games, for which Hinsdale was honored as the USA TF Outstanding Coach Award.
A two-year women’s basketball letterwinner, Word-Daniels, donned the White and Gold for the Yellow Jackets during the 2007-08 and 2008-09 seasons. Word-Daniels took the floor in 35 career games and earned her first start of her collegiate career as a sophomore when the Yellow Jackets took on No. 4/8 Duke.
After her time on the court, she has spent most of the last decade working at Southern Company and Georgia Power, delivering resilient energy solutions that connect communities, businesses and future generations to opportunity. At Southern Company, she is a supplier inclusion consultant, supporting business units across The…
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