Hall of Fame
For 39 years Erdmann defined excellence in the sports of cross country and track and field for Eastern Kentucky. During that time he won a combined 73 OVC Championships, was named OVC Coach of the Year an unprecedented 70 times, coached a combined 46 All-Americans and guided his cross country team to a No. 8 national ranking in 2016.
Erdmann guided EKU to OVC Championships in women’s cross country (31), men’s cross country (23), women’s outdoor track and field (9), women’s indoor track and field (4), men’s indoor track and field (5) and men’s outdoor track and field (1). His last title, the men’s outdoor crown, came during his final season as head coach and capped EKU’s first-ever OVC “Triple Crown,” a sweep of cross country, indoor track and outdoor track in the same season (EKU was the first OVC team to accomplish that feat since 2003-04).
In cross country Erdmann coached 45 individual OVC champions and 10 Division I All-Americans. Six times his teams (3 men’s, 3 women’s) finished the OVC Championship with perfect scores (finishers 1-5). He won the 2013 NCAA Southeast Regional Men’s Championship, was named Southeast Region Coach of the Year twice (2012, 2013) and had three individual NCAA Southeast Regional individual champions. In 2011, the Colonels men’s team became the first OVC squad to qualify for the National Championship since 1980 and would go on to qualify five-straight season (2011-15) and also in 2018. In 2013 the team finished 15th nationally. In 2017, the EKU women’s team became the first-ever OVC team to qualify for the National Championship, finishing 23rd overall.
In track and field he coached 36 NCAA Division I All-Americans, including four individual NCAA runners-up. Additionally he also coached three Olympians (Jackie Humphrey, Dallas Robinson and Ole Hesselbjerg). Following his retirement he was named “Head Coach Emeritus” for the program, which is now coached by his son Cory.