MTSU's Kevin Byard, Dean Hayes to be inducted into Conference USA Hall of Fame
Cecil JoyceA pair of Middle Tennessee State legends will now go down as Conference USA legends as well.
Chicago Bears safety and former Blue Raider great Kevin Byard and legendary MTSU track and field coach Dean Hayes will be inducted into the CUSA 2024 Hall of Fame class, the league announced Monday.
Byard is MTSU's first athlete to be inducted and is also the first football defensive player to be inducted.
Women's basketball players Jareica Hughes (UTEP) and Jessica Kuster (Rice) are the other 2024 inductees.
MTSU's Dean Hayes set standard among track and field coaches
Hayes, who was in his 57th year at MTSU (63rd overall) when he died in January 2022, led the Raider programs to 20 NCAA top 25 finishes.
Out of his 51 overall conference titles, four came in Conference USA (three women's titles, one men's title). He was named CUSA Coach of the Year three times (33 overall, including the Ohio Valley Conference and Sun Belt Conference).
Hayes, for whom MTSU's track and field and soccer stadium is named, was the coach of the United States Olympic team in the 1988 games in Seoul, Korea.
Hayes coached five NCAA champions, most recently Kigen Chemadi, who won the 3,000-meter steeplechase title in 2021.
As well as his Olympic coaching stint, Hayes worked the World University Games in Kobe, Japan (1985); Goodwill Games in Seattle (1990); World Cup in London (1994); World Championships in Athens, Greece (1997); Goodwill Games in New York (1998) and as an assistant at the World University Games in Bucharest, Romania (1981) and the World Championships in Helsinki (1983).
The Naperville, Illinois native was inducted into the OVC Hall of Fame in 2023 and is also a member of the Blue Raider Hall of Fame (1982), the Illinois Sports Hall of Fame (1993), the Tennessee Sports Hall of Fame (1994) and the United States Track and Field and Cross Country Coaches Association Hall of Fame (2008).
Chicago Bears safety Kevin Byard left his mark in CUSA
Byard, who signed with Chicago in March after spending the previous eight seasons with Tennessee (2016-23) and Philadelphia (2023), is one of the best to have played at MTSU and Conference USA.
As a Blue Raider he had 312 career tackles (five for loss), 19 interceptions (four returned for touchdowns), 36 pass deflections, five forced fumbles, a fumble recovery, a blocked kick and a kick return for a touchdown.
The Philadelphia native played high school ball in Lithonia, Georgia before signing with MTSU (2012-15). He was first-team All-CUSA in 2014 and 2015. MTSU won 29 games during his four years.
Byard became only the second player in program history to have his jersey retired when MTSU honored his No. 20 in September 2022.
The strength and conditioning center of Middle Tennessee State's $66 million Student-Athlete Performance Center, which is currently under construction, will be named after Byard after his "significant gift" to the university's Build Blue Campaign.
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He was a third-round pick (64th overall) of the Titans in 2016 and played seven seasons there before being traded to the Eagles in October 2023. He was released by the Eagles in March, just days before signing a two-year deal with the Bears.
In eight NFL seasons Byard has 749 tackles, four sacks, 66 pass deflections, 28 interceptions (one returned for a touchdown), three forced fumbles and four fumble recoveries (one returned for a touchdown).
Cecil Joyce covers high school sports and MTSU athletics for The Daily News Journal. Contact him at cjoyce@dnj.com and follow him on X, the platform formerly known as Twitter, @Cecil_Joyce.