HOUSTON — When Carl Lewis left the University of Houston over 40 years ago, he was a 19-year-old world-record-holding long jumper and one of the best sprinters on earth.
Lewis would go on to become a colossal sports figure, his famous face gracing the top of the Olympic medal stand nine times, and appearing on the cover of Gentleman’s Quarterly Magazine plus a few Hollywood movies and television shows.
Lewis, now 61 with prickly grays on his balding head, is back at the school he left four decades ago, coaching on a track at a complex bearing his name.
He hopes to fill what is seemingly the only void in his storied track career: a collegiate team national title.
“I’ve always just felt like if I just stayed one more year, then it could have changed the whole trajectory of the program,” Lewis, who was named head coach in July after spending several years an assistant, said in a recent interview.
The N.C.A.A. Division I outdoor track and field championships are set to begin in Austin, Texas, on Wednesday.
Houston’s best chance at winning a title appears to be with its men, with junior Shaun Maswanganyi leading the group as one of the top sprinters in the country. The women’s team is a “few years away” from having a shot at the title, Lewis said. Sydni Townsend, a…
