Daniel Hughes

Jack Daniels, the legendary running coach and exercise physiologist, has died at the age of 92. 🕊️ He was a collegiate swimmer in the 50s and earned degrees from Colorado School of Mines and the University of Montana (double major in physical education and math) before serving in the U.S. Army in Korea. He earned a team silver medal and a team bronze medal in the modern pentathlon at the 1956 and 1960 Olympics, respectively. His curiosity about elite performance is what eventually drove him to running and more degrees from the University of Oklahoma (M.Ed.) and University of Wisconsin (Ph.D. in Exercise Physiology). Daniels’ genius lay in combining cutting-edge science with genuine care for runners of all levels. From Olympic champions to recreational joggers. He coached at Oklahoma City University, Texas and SUNY Cortland (where he led 8 NCAA Division III national titles and 130+ All-Americans from 1986 to 2003), NAU, Brevard College and Wells College. Nike also hired him in the 80s as a researcher and physiologist and he helped athletes like Joan Benoit Samuelson prepare for the 1984 Olympic Trials, where she won gold. Most notably, he developed the VDOT concept: a practical proxy for VO₂ max that incorporates efficiency, mental toughness, and race performance. He’s also best known for publishing the Daniel’s Running Formula, which pulled together his decades of training philosophy into formulas focused on allowing runners to train at the right intensity to improve. News of his death was first reported by Runner’s World.