Frank Gagliano, the famed middle-distance and distance coach who guided more than 40 sub-4:00 milers, 15 Olympians, and a world championship medalist, has died. Gags, as he was affectionately known, was 89. Gagliano is survived by his wife, Roberta, and four children, along with multiple grandchildren.
One of track and field and distance running’s most prolific coaches, Gagliano never officially retired, coaching athletes until around 2023. Gagliano influenced the sport at the scholastic, collegiate, and professional levels. He coached an NCAA championship team at Manhattan College, then made stops at Rutgers and Georgetown before working with pro groups in Washington, D.C.; Palo Alto, California; Eugene, Oregon; and New York.
He forged deep connections with athletes at each stop. It’s an amazing thing, really.” Francis X. Gagliano was born on March 20, 1937, in the Bronx.
Growing up on East 237th Street with his parents, Perry and Clara, Gagliano’s childhood was filled with athletics. Dee Lycett, Gags’s only sister, said the house was a revolving door of athletes. He spent two of those summers at Officer Candidates School in Quantico, Virginia, however, and he spent eight years as a reservist in the Marine Corps beginning in 1956.
After graduating from Richmond, Gagliano was signed by the Canadian Football League’s Hamilton Tiger-Cats. In 1960, he was sent down to the London Lords, a minor league team. Selling coffee and soda at a construction site during the day and playing football at night while splitting time at quarterback was not the life Gagliano wanted, so he moved back to the U.S.
There was also someone he missed back home. Roberta “Robbie” Arnold, whom Gagliano had met as a junior at Richmond, had stayed in touch with Gagliano during his time in Canada. They were married within a year of his return to the U.S., in 1961.
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