2014 Tulane Athletics Hall of Fame Series: Gloria Asumnu
Nov 10, 2014 | Track & Field
This is the first of a five part series featuring the 2014 Tulane Athletics Hall of Fame Class. The 2014 induction ceremonies will take place on Thursday, Nov. 13 from 6-9 p.m. at Yulman Stadium.
By: Kaitlin Maheu, Tulane Athletic Communications
Homecoming weekends throughout the college football scene are a hustle and bustle of preparing campus for the return of alumni, who come from all stretches of the globe to taste the nostalgia of their college days. For Tulane Athletics, this year's Homecoming is especially memorable - it is the first game of its kind on Tulane's Uptown campus in nearly 40 years and will feature the induction of one of the most decorated student-athletes in school history into the Tulane Athletics Hall of Fame, former Green Wave track and field star Gloria Asumnu.
A four-time All-American and 19-time NCAA Regional qualifier, the sprinter out of Houston, Texas, set the bar high during her time at Tulane, blowing previous records out of the water and setting five school bests in track and field. For her efforts, Asumnu was recognized 2007 Tulane Female Student-Athlete of the year and C-USA Track and Field Women's Athlete of the Year in 2008.
Though induction into Tulane's Hall of Fame was much anticipated based on her college résumé alone, Asumnu was still surprised when she received a phone call earlier this year delivering the news.
"I think I laughed when Rick Dickson called me," Asumnu said, "And then it was just an overwhelming feeling because I was in the middle of getting ready to go back and compete. Being inducted was just another accomplishment on the list. It's a great feeling and an honor because it's something that I worked for all four years that I was at Tulane, so I'm just ecstatic."
Success in her sport was all part of the plan when Asumnu decided to come to Tulane as a freshman in 2003, but she was taken aback when she learned that she was the fourth Tulane woman to be recognized and inducted into the Hall of Fame for her accomplishments in track and field.
"I wasn't aware of that," Asumnu said. "I do know that when I made the decision to come to Tulane that I did want to help that program because it wasn't well known for track and field at the time. I remember talking to [head coach Heather van Norman] and just letting her know that I really wanted to rewrite the record book, and I think I did a pretty good job."
Seeing as Asumnu first set foot on campus as a freshman over a decade ago, it may seem surprising that she is still active on the competitive stage when in reality the sprinter has only added to her long list of accomplishments since graduating in 2008. Asumnu now boasts appearances in four separate World Championships - 2011 in Daegu, South Korea and 2013 in Moscow, Russia and indoor championships in Istanbul, Turkey in 2012 and Sopot, Poland in 2014. To top it off, Asumnu represented Nigeria, her parents' native country, in the 2012 Olympic Games in London.
While most of her Tulane classmates have settled down with full-time jobs and families, it is obvious that Asumnu chose a career with a much faster pace.
"I do a lot of travelling and competing throughout the country and throughout the world," Asumnu said. "You get to go to all these different, wonderful places, but it's not a glamorous job - it's business. You're in and out of probably three countries in a week, and it's very stressful if you don't have a handle or grip on how to travel overseas. I've been blessed with a talent that I've been able to take outside of just the U.S. and share different experiences with people and let them see me do what I do."
Even after all the long hours of training and travelling, Asumnu attributes her drive to remain active on the professional circuit to her love of the sport that she has tirelessly been a part of for so long and her patriotism towards the land of her family.
"I haven't lost the passion for it yet," Asumnu said. "I still remember the little games you play in P.E. in elementary school, the run around the gym games and the relay races - track was always something that stuck with me that I enjoyed and I loved. Now I represent Nigeria, my country, and I just want to make them proud. I haven't reached my full potential on the professional global scale yet - I'm close, but I haven't accomplished everything that I think I want. That's why I'm still going."
And when it seems like there's next to nothing the sprinter can do to make her career more impressive, Asumnu has a few more items to check off of her bucket list before retirement.
"Now we're getting ready for Beijing, which is a world outdoor and the next big thing before the Olympics come back around," Asumnu said. "But to go back to the Olympic Games in 2016 and come out with a medal in Rio is my main focus. Everyone wants that Olympic medal at some point, in some race, no matter what you do."
Despite her successes now, Asumnu's path to the top was far from easy. A young mother, she juggled school and sports alongside parenting her daughter, Kailyn, through whom Asumnu found her motivation to train to win.
"Everything that I did was for her," Asumnu said. "Every track meet, every race, every class, everything was driven by her because I was a young mother, and I was an example of someone who people thought couldn't do it all."
What's more, Asumnu and the 2005-06 women's track and field team experienced setbacks completely alien to student-athletes in other parts of the country with the landfall of Hurricane Katrina on August 29 of that year, which wiped out eight of Tulane's sixteen varsity sports programs with it.
"That was the toughest year; we ended up going to Louisiana Tech with the track program," Asumnu recalled. "The things I got used to the first two years were interrupted the next year. [At Tech], we didn't have full access to everything that we would get at Tulane. I remember being without my coach and us just training on our own, which is not the best situation and accountability comes into play. Going into the following year we came back and decided to keep the track program, and I just honestly remember not being prepared for an indoor season."
The state of New Orleans in the wake of Hurricane Katrina only inspired Asumnu to come back stronger and better than ever, as she went on to claim the C-USA 100m dash title only a year later in 2007, also garnering a No. 9 national ranking in that event and placing No. 8 nationally in the 200m sprint. Asumnu credits those closest to her for helping her make it through the toughest times, and realizes that her parents and her experiences at Tulane were instrumental in shaping her to become the athlete she is today.
"My parents really motivated me through it all," Asumnu said. "And Coach Van Norman, to me, was almost like a second mother. Just as a person she believed in me, she believed in my ability and my talent and everything that I wanted to achieve. Even though she didn't have the answers, she found a way to go get what I was looking for, and she didn't have a problem changing something that would fit me. [I just really loved] the people here, the community and the love that you got around the city."
It is for this reason that Asumnu is excited for her return to campus on Homecoming weekend - she is anxious to return to the university that paved the way for her success on the international stage and rekindle relationships that her active lifestyle has made difficult to maintain.
"I'm looking forward to seeing the old staff and everyone that's still there that I know," Asumnu said. "There are a lot of ex-athletes coming back that weekend as well that I've kept in touch with, so it will just be nice to catch up on life with them since we haven't really been able to see each other."
Though it's been a few years since Asumnu's habitual returns to campus to watch her younger brother, Chris Asumnu, play as a member of the Tulane football team from 2008 to 2011, her time spent in New Orleans and the records she set are never far from her mind as she is aware of the high standard she set for future student-athletes.
"I think [my legacy] is one to be reckoned with in a sense," Asumnu said proudly. "Anyone that looks at that program now and sees my name, they understand that it can be done. I think I left a pretty good legacy, maybe a hard one to back up, but at the same time records are meant to be broken."
And while Asumnu takes pride in her records, she doesn't expect them to stay around forever, and she awaits the day when another student-athlete in her prime sets records of her own.
"If it happens, great, and if it stays for another 10 years, even better," Asumnu laughed. "If someone comes along and reckons with that I won't be upset. It just shows that they're talented and a hard worker and it's their time. Everyone has their time in everything that you do, not just sports, in life in general."
