800 Clark Diggs' ticket to Hall

The University of Tennessee's contribution to the USA Track and Field Hall of Fame has doubled.

Joetta Clark Diggs was inducted Dec. 5 at a ceremony in Indianapolis. She joins former men's coach Stan Huntsman, a 2004 inductee.

Clark Diggs, sister of UT director of track and field J.J. Clark, was a multi-time All-American and NCAA champion in the 1980s. She went on to become an 11-time national champion in the 800 meters and made four consecutive Olympic teams between 1988 and 2000.

She was the only woman in the 2009 induction class that included hurdler Andre Phillips, long-jumpers Willie Steele and Randy Williams and coach Ken Foreman.

Clark Diggs runs a sports foundation, does motivational speaking and has a book coming out this month.

In an interview with USA Track & Field, she expressed gratitude for the opportunities the sport has given her and her family, which also includes former Olympians Hazel Clark and Jearl Miles Clark.

"Track has afforded us the opportunity to go to college for free, travel across the country and around the world to meet great people and I think, when you look at everything, we are solid people and that's the way our parents raised us.''

A top recruit in the 800 and 1,500 when she came to UT from New Jersey in 1980, Clark Diggs knew the 800 was her ticket to a professional career.

"In the States I could run both, but in the world market and in order to make a career of it, I needed to run the 800,'' she said.