At the age of 101, life hasn’t been easy for Herb Sheaner, one of the greatest advocates for high school track and field that Texas has ever seen.
The founder of the prestigious Jesuit-Sheaner Relays is battling dementia, which has affected his short-term memory. Last week, Sheaner went to the hospital with pneumonia, and once that seemed to have abated, it was discovered that he had fluid in his lungs.
But Sheaner is a fighter. He always has been since he survived the Great Depression and being a prisoner of war in World War II.
It takes a lot to keep him down.
It is unclear if Sheaner will be able to make it out to Jesuit on Saturday for the Jesuit-Sheaner Relays, an event that brings elite track talent together from all over Texas and from surrounding states. He was still in the hospital as of Wednesday.
High School Sports
“If he continues improving and if he can transfer to a wheelchair, I know he wants to go,” his son, Mike Sheaner, said.
Herb has never missed the meet that he started in 1964 and that was renamed to include his name in 1975. He has a deep love for a sport that he began in college when he ran competitively for the first time at the University of Texas after he was done with the war.
Herb Sheaner stands at the Jesuit track, where the finish line was dedicated to him.
Courtesy photo / Courtesy photo
“I still love what I do with track and field,” he said in an interview with The Dallas Morning News. “I just think it’s a privilege and an honor to go out and see these kids run in good competition. I enjoy what they’re doing for these kids. It was intended to be a good meet, a great meet.”
Herb is what makes the meet so special. And not just because he put his own personal touch on the invitations to the meet every year.
“I coached for 39 years in Mesquite, and the majority of that at Poteet High School,” said Doug Robinson, now the track coach at Jesuit. “I would get these hand-written requests from Herb starting in November, December for the upcoming meet. He knew all about my kids, he knew all about what events they were in. It made it a personal invitation to come to something that was really an outstanding event, and it made you feel special that someone knew something about your kids.”
Time as a POW
Herb has lived quite a life, and he chronicled his experiences in World War II in a book he wrote called Prisoner’s Odyssey. He was a U.S. Army Private First Class with the 106th Infantry Division who was on the front lines at the Battle of the Bulge when he was captured by German forces at the age of 19 in December 1944.
That led to a treacherous trek to Germany, which became a near-death experience.
While Herb was in a boxcar on a train as a POW, a plane opened fire on them, and several people Herb was with were killed, including someone just a few feet away. Conditions didn’t improve when he was in a prison camp, as food was sparse and he battled to avoid starvation.
At that point, he looked like a skeleton, as his weight had dropped to about 100 pounds.
Herb Sheaner receives the Valor Award from the Texas Veterans Hall of Fame in 2025.
Courtesy photo / Courtesy photo
“You didn’t have breakfast ever and then we didn’t have lunch,” he said. “We had one bowl of vegetable soup for a meal. It was quite an experience. It was difficult.”
Herb used deception to escape in April 1945, telling a guard that he was going out to get firewood before fleeing.
“He and a buddy escaped and were on the loose, but they were caught in no man’s land between Germans and Americans,” Mike said. “They were recaptured and escaped again. Five days later they met an American patrol who was coming through and he was put in an infirmary and flown to England for a couple of months.”
Herb received a Purple Heart and Bronze Star for his valor in combat, and he attended a celebration for the 75th anniversary of the Battle of the Bulge, where he met then-House Speaker Nancy Pelosi. But until writing his book, he kept that part of his life a secret from many of those around him.
“Like most veterans, he never talked about it,” Mike said. “A lot of the coaches he coached with at Jesuit and the athletes that ran for him never knew he was a POW. They never even knew he was in the war.”
Starting out in track
Herb never competed in track in high school, saying he may not have even been 5 feet tall back then. But he went out for football at Texas, and coaches there saw he had speed and told him he should try out for the track team.
“By that time, I had grown and put some more inches on my body,” he said. “I had a lot of natural ability.”
He became a sprinter for legendary UT coach Clyde Littlefield, and that helped him get his start in coaching in 1955.
At that time, the wife of Jesuit’s football coach was pregnant and the school was looking for someone to train the athletes in the spring, so Herb was seen as a logical choice because he had run in college. He was working in the insurance industry but volunteered his afternoons and weekends to start the track and field program at Jesuit.
He thought it was going to be a temporary position, but 10 years later Jesuit began paying him a small stipend and it led to a 21-year coaching career at the private school. When Jesuit moved to its new location in 1964, it built a new all-weather synthetic track that was the first of its kind in Texas, and Herb started the Jesuit Relays that brought in high schools and colleges from around the state for the inaugural meet.
Herb Sheaner celebrates turning 101 years old.
Courtesy photo / Courtesy photo
Mike said the meet was a family affair in the early years.
“My grandfather would help prepare the track and fields for competition, my mother was the scorekeeper and even I, at 7 years old, would pitch in by sweeping the track,” he said. “I was a better swimmer, but I loved track. Track was my favorite sport because of being with him.”
The meet was renamed the Jesuit-Sheaner Relays in 1975 to honor Herb when he retired from coaching, and it has become a meet for only high schools. Olympians Michael Carter, Jason Richardson. Jeremy Wariner, Marquise Goodwin, Jasmine Moore and Bryce Hoppel and 2026 world indoor champion Cooper Lutkenhaus are among the greats who have competed there, and this year’s meet that is Friday and Saturday has 127 teams entered.
“He is just the kindest and most knowledgeable person outside of my coaching circles,” Robinson said. “As a business man, he never stopped loving track and field and the coaches. To have that sphere of influence that goes beyond the coaching circle and the athletes and the parents, it has had quite an impact.”
Herb is a big reason the meet always attracts elite talent, as Mike said his father would bombard coaches with emails or letters until they agreed to come to the meet. But Herb deflects any praise that comes his way.
“It’s a credit to all the coaches and to the good athletes and their training,” he said. “They’ve got to be ready to run in good competition, and we provide that.”
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