Ford Mastin’s first time as a collegiate head track & field coach was on very familiar territory as he had graduated from Oklahoma Baptist 20 years earlier.
During the next 27 years he led the Bison to many of its greatest successes in program history as Mastin’s teams won NAIA team titles ten times and added nine runner-up finishes in his first 19 years. Perhaps the most successful year was 2013, when his Bison teams swept the men’s and women’s indoor crowns and both finished second outdoors later that spring.
In 2016 and 2017, OBU also swept the men’s and women’s indoor and outdoor team titles at the National Christian Collegiate Athletic Association Championships, where the Bison competed during its transition from NAIA to NCAA Division II. He was named NAIA coach of the year on 11 occasions and added another eight such honors from the NCCAA.
OBU track & field athletes achieved amazing success under Mastin’s direction, winning 153 NAIA indoor or outdoor individual or relay titles and earning over 1,300 All-American awards.
Prime among his most celebrated athletes were Akela Jones, Jura Levy and Hannah (Helker) Fields. Jones won a total of 12 NAIA indoor or outdoor national titles in just two years at OBU, while Levy (12) and Fields (11) also had double-digit career titles.
OBU’s women’s 4×400 relay team was a dominant force for many years, winning 16 of a possible 19 indoor or outdoor titles from 2005 to 2015, including 11 straight (outdoor 2007 to outdoor 2012).
As great as his athletes and teams have been, Mastin takes most pride not in what happens on the track, but rather what happens in the lives of his athletes after they leave school – some of whom he sees again as coaches. In one Oklahoma high school state cross country championships he counted nine of his former athletes who were coaching.
This is the fifth Hall of Fame for Mastin, following induction into those of the Oklahoma Track Coaches Association (2008), Oklahoma Baptist University Athletics (2009), NAIA (2014) and Drake Relays (2019).
Interestingly, when Mastin graduated from OBU, becoming a track & field coach wasn’t in his plans – he originally wanted to build a career in music and ministry, which was understandable for anyone with a bachelor’s degree in music education.
But while earning a Master of Divinity at Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary in Fort Worth, Texas, he spent time training at TCU and was ultimately hired as an assistant coach. Mastin enjoyed working with the athletes and realized that the Horned Frogs’ international athletes were the Christian minority on the team.
“Coaching led to the idea that a great mission field for me was public education in America,” he said. He coached and taught at high schools for 20 years before entering the collegiate coaching world.