Doug Case

FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. — Arkansas men’s track and field head coach Chris Bucknam announced his retirement at the end of 2025, and associate head coach Doug Case will become the next head coach of the men’s program.

“Coach Bucknam has done an incredible job leading our men’s track and field program over the last 18 years,” Vice Chancellor and Director of Athletics Hunter Yurachek said. “He took over a legendary program and was able to put his own stamp on it, which is a testament to him, his staff and the student-athletes he’s coached. Our track and field program has been very fortunate to have elite leadership for over 50 years and that will continue with coach Case.”

In 18 seasons with the Razorbacks, Bucknam has collected a pair of NCAA Indoor Championships while guiding Arkansas teams to a total of 18 NCAA top-four podium finishes and 31 NCAA top-10 team finishes in cross country, indoor and outdoor track and field seasons.

In addition to the pair of national championships, the Razorbacks were NCAA runner-up on six occasions while placing third or fourth five times each.

Bucknam is one of six University of Arkansas head coaches who have achieved a national championship across all sports.

Case, also in his 18th season at Arkansas, has been an associate head coach with the Razorbacks for the past seven years. Now in his 35th year of collegiate coaching, Case previously was a head coach at Drake University (1996-99) and served as an assistant coach with Arkansas State (1989-95), and an associate head coach at Northern Iowa (2000-08).

“We’ve had a long history and have done some pretty good things,” said Case, who has been part of Bucknam’s coaching staff the past 26 seasons. “I’m excited for this next chapter and next step. At the same token, to not coach with Coach Bucknam is going to feel a little weird for a while. We’re going to get through it and get things going.

“I assume he’ll be around, and I hope he is. We’ll encourage him to still be a part of the program.”

Bucknam coached at the University of Northern Iowa for 25 years before taking the Arkansas job.

“I don’t think there’s a more qualified coach in any sport among the power 4 schools than Doug Case,” said Bucknam. “His record is phenomenal. His ability to coach, to recruit and to mentor is off the charts.

“He has a great demeanor, and has based all his decisions on what’s best for his athletes. The other thing that comes into play with Coach Case is his loyalty. We were together at Northern Iowa and then here at Arkansas. There was never one time that he kept a secret about anything about his program, about his athletes. Everything was out in the open.”

Arkansas earned the USTFCCCA John McDonnell Program of the Year accolade for the second consecutive year and fifth time overall since the award began in 2008-09.

For the 2024-25 season, the Razorbacks were the only men’s or women’s program to finish among the top four among the three NCAA Championships held as Arkansas placed third in cross country, fourth indoors and third outdoors. It marked the first time for a men’s program to accomplish the feat since Oregon in 2015-16.

“To me it’s great leadership,” Case said of the success Bucknam delivered at Arkansas. “Through the years if you can maintain things like that, you’re doing things right. When you have good support from the administration along with great facilities, like we’ve had here, it shows in all the accolades. It’s been pretty amazing with all the things we’ve accomplished. We intend to do the same exact thing.”

A 1981 Marshalltown High School graduate, Case has been named USTFCCCA South Central Region Assistant Coach of the Year on five occasions. He has coached 20 NCAA individual champions and his athletes have set three NCAA records in the 60-meter hurdles, 110-meter hurdles, and 4×400-meter relay.

“There’s no overhaul that needs to be done with Arkansas track and field,” said Case. “It’s going to be business as usual. The staff will be a little bit different, but we’re going to concentrate on the same things and we’re going to focus on excellence.

“We’ll keep doing the things we’ve been doing for basically the past 50 years here with Arkansas track and field.”