The University of Texas at Austin Athletics
Hall of Honor
- Induction:
- 2021
- Class:
- 1997
Richard Duncan went from a virtually un-recruited high school basketball and track & field standout in St. Catherine’s, Ontario, Canada to one of the most versatile track and field performers to ever compete for the Longhorns. He pulled off a rare and historical feat with his great success in all three jumping events (high jump, long jump, triple jump), becoming the only athlete in NCAA Division I history to earn All-American honors in the long, triple and high jump in the same season. Duncan is still the only Longhorn ever to rank among the top seven performers in all three of those events. He led Texas to back-to-back top-five finishes at the NCAA Outdoor Championships in 1996 and 1997 and is the only athlete to ever finish among the top three in the long, triple and high jumps at the same SWC or Big 12 Conference meet, a feat he accomplished that four times. A two-time Olympian, three-time World Championships qualifier, eight-time All-American (five outdoor/three indoor) and five-time conference champion (two outdoor/three indoor), he helped the Longhorns win five conference team titles (four straight outdoors and the 1994 SWC indoor crown) during his career. He was Texas’ high-scorer of the meet on all five conference championship teams. His 138 points in conference championship meets is the most-ever in Longhorn track and field history. He won the 1996 NCAA Outdoor Championship in the long jump and also earned All-America honors with a sixth-place finish in the high jump, helping UT finish fifth as a team. In 1997, he led Texas to a second-place NCAA outdoor finish after becoming the first athlete in NCAA history to earn All-America honors in the long, triple and high jump at the same NCAA meet. He finished third in the long and triple jump and fifth in the high jump that year to lead the Horns with 16 points en route to their national runner-up finish. On the conference level, Duncan won SWC Championships in both the high jump and triple jump and claimed five conference titles and medaled (finishing among the top three) 15 times. He swept the indoor and outdoor high jump titles in 1994 and 1996 and added an indoor triple jump title in 1996. Overall, Duncan set a Texas Relays record of 27-0 in the long jump in 1997, a mark that ranks third only to Eric Metcalf and Marquise Goodwin on the UT all-time list. Duncan also was a regular volunteer at Neighborhood Longhorn events and was a member of the UT student-advisory committee in 1994. He competed for Canada in the long jump at the 1996 and 2000 Olympic Games. Duncan, a Cleburne Price Jr. Scholarship and Weldon H. and Mary Smith Scholarship recipient, earned his bachelor’s degree in kinesiology from UT in 1997 and earned spots on both the SWC Commissioner’s List and UT Athletic Director’s Honor Roll. Duncan now lives in Los Angeles and currently is the President/CEO of BIOlympic Medical, a medical devise distributor.
