FAYETTEVILLE — It’s been a while since Mike Conley, who starred in track and field at Arkansas and won an Olympic gold medal, has been in the news for his athletic exploits.
Minnesota Timberwolves guard Mike Conley Jr., who just finished his 16th NBA season, is the athlete most sports fans probably associate with the name made famous by father and son.
“I’ve thoroughly enjoyed it, because I really wanted to be a basketball player,” Conley, 60, said of his son’s lengthy pro career after he starred at Ohio State and was the No. 4 pick in the 2007 NBA Draft following his freshman season with the Buckeyes. “I just happened to be better at track and field.
“I’ve gotten a chance to live through him a little bit, that basketball dream, and that’s been awesome.”
Conley paused and chuckled.
“Except the part that he has erased my name from existence,” Conley said. “You Google Mike Conley now and you’ve to scroll down about 250 pages to find me because everything is about Mike Jr. Other than that, it’s been great.”
For one day at least, Conley got to one-up his son.
Conley, a 17-time All-American long and triple jumper at Arkansas who won nine individual NCAA titles — sweeping all eight indoors and outdoors in 1984 and 1985 — will be a 2023 inductee into the Collegiate Athlete Hall of Fame, it was announced Wednesday by the United States Track & Field and Cross Country Coaches Association.
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Conley will be inducted during a ceremony at the Hult Center for the Performing Arts in Eugene, Ore., on Sept. 14, prior to the 2023 Diamond League Final, the Prefontaine Classic, being held Sept. 16-17 in Eugene.
Conley is the second Razorback in the Collegiate Athlete Hall of Fame, joining Erick Walder, another long and triple jump star who was part of the inaugural 2022 class.
“I haven’t had any athletic accolades happen for a long time, so it feels a little new,” Conley said. “It’s been a while.”
Among the 14 athletes in this year’s class along with Conley are Dyrol Burleson (Oregon, 1959-1962); Michael Carter (SMU, 1980-1984); Joetta Clark (Tennessee, 1981-1984); Sheila Hudson (California, 1986-1990); Holli Hyche (Indiana State, 1991-1994); Edwin Moses (Morehouse, 1974-1977); Renaldo Nehemiah (Maryland, 1978-1979); Sonia O'Sullivan (Villanova, 1988-1991); Julie Shea (NC State, 1978-1981); Seilala Sua (UCLA, 1997-2000); John Thomas (Boston U., 1959-1962); Wyomia Tyus (Tennessee State, 1964-1967); Dave Wottle (Bowling Green, 1969-1973).
Conley said he respects all of the inductees, but that Moses and Nehemiah were athletes he idolized growing up, and then he got to compete with them professionally and become their friends.
“I’m excited to be considered this early in the process for an honor like this,” Conley said. “College track and field has been going on for a long time. I’m definitely not taking it for granted.”
Conley capped his Arkansas career at the 1985 NCAA Outdoor Track and Field Championships in sweltering Austin, Texas, where he lost 12 pounds over four days winning the long and triple jumps, taking second in the 200 meters and running a leg on the sixth-place 400-meter relay.
The Razorbacks won their first NCAA outdoor title with 61 points. Washington State was second with 46.
The victory at Memorial Stadium — home of the Texas Longhorns’ football team — also gave the Razorbacks the first sweep of national titles in cross country and indoor and outdoor track during the 1984-85 school year.
“Track and field is an individual sport, but when I came to the University of Arkansas under [Coach] John McDonnell, he ingrained in us how much it’s a team sport,” Conley said. “It’s hard to realize it until you’re in the middle of it and he makes you accountable for a team as an individual, and it became infectious.”
The summer after Conley’s junior season at Arkansas, he won the silver medal in the triple jump at the 1984 Olympics in Los Angeles. He won the triple jump gold medal at the 1992 Olympics in Barcelona, Spain. He also won seven medals, including three gold, at the World Championships indoors and outdoors.
Conley won 13 times at the USA Championships.
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Conley won the 1985 NCAA Indoor triple jump title with a leap of 57 feet, 1 inch, which stood as the college record until this year, when Arkansas freshman Jaydon Hibbert won this year’s NCAA title with a 57-6 1/2 mark.
“Just all the winning [of team titles], the family atmosphere, that’s what I remember the most,” Conley said of competing for the Razorbacks. “When you look back on it, you really understand how special of a time it was.”
When Conley was an Arkansas freshman during the 1981-82 school year, he briefly was a basketball player for Coach Eddie Sutton in addition to being on the track and field team.
“Coach Sutton called me into his office and said, ‘Hey, Mike, the Olympics are coming up and the [track and field] coaches tell me you’re extremely talented,’” Conley said. “Coach Sutton said, ‘You won’t play for me for a while. Do you think [track and field] is something you need to focus on?'
“And I did, and it was the right decision.
“When I won the gold medal in ’92, I got a card in the mail from Coach Sutton saying, ‘Hey, aren’t we glad we made the right decision?’”
Conley, a Chicago native, is president on the board of directors for World Sport Chicago, which focuses on promoting and developing sport programs and events for the city.
He also is chairman of the High Performance Committee for USA Track and Field and a sports agent whose clients include his son and Oklahoma City Thunder guard Isaiah Joe, a former Razorback from Fort Smith.
Despite working to promote sports for the city of Chicago, Conley lives in Fayetteville, where Mike Jr. was born.
For a time, the Conleys lived in Indianapolis when he worked for USA Track and Field.
“I knew I was going to come back to Fayetteville at some point in my life,” Conley said. “In addition to being a Razorback and having friends here, I think this is one of the best places to live and raise a family.”