Duard Walker
Milligan University
Athletic Director/Coach
Class of 2024

Duard Walker had a long and illustrious career at Milligan College (now Milligan University), serving as a coach and an athletic director.

Walker played high school football, basketball, and baseball, earning varsity letters in each at Mary Hughes High School in Piney Flats, Tennessee. As a freshman at East Tennessee State University, he earned a varsity letter in baseball, and at Milligan, he lettered in football, basketball, tennis, baseball, and track. He is the only Milligan athlete to have earned 12 varsity letters in five intercollegiate sports. He was selected as the outstanding scholar-athlete in 1947-48.

Duard spent three years in the U.S. Navy as part of Milligan's V-12 program. He received a B.S. degree from Milligan in 1948 and an M.A. from Teachers College, Columbia University, in 1949.

He began working at Farragut High School in Knoxville, Tennessee, where he coached football, basketball, and baseball for two years.

In 1951, Walker returned to Milligan and coached non-scholarship teams in baseball (eight years), basketball (15 years), cross-country (20 years), track & field (20 years), and tennis (25 years). He served as the athletic director for over four decades.

Walker's cross-country teams won seven consecutive Volunteer State Athletic Conference championships, and one went to the NAIA national championship meet in Salina, Kansas. Track & field won the Volunteer State Athletic Conference championship in 1966. His basketball team won the Smoky Mountain Athletic Conference tournament championship in 1958-59.

Walker received Milligan’s highest honor, the Fide et Amore medallion for Distinguished Service. He was also an inaugural member of the Milligan Hall of Fame, a distinguished Milligan alumni, the 2001 NAIA National Athletic Director of the Year, an inductee into the 2008 class of the NAIA Hall of Fame, the Carter County Sports Hall of Fame, the Northeast Tennessee Hall of Fame and was inducted into the Tennessee Sports Hall of Fame in 2016. The Appalachian Athletic Conference named the Duard Walker All-Sports Trophy in his honor. In December of 2000, Sports Illustrated featured him in an article entitled, “Like a Rock”, detailing his life and legacy.

Walker passed away in 2020. He was married to his wife, Carolyn, for 73 years, and the couple had five children.