ORLANDO, Fla. - It was a very memorable birthday for legendary Villanova track & field coach Marty Stern, who was one of six coaches inducted into the United States Track & Field and Cross Country Coaches Association (USTFCCCA) Coaches Hall of Fame on Wednesday night. The ceremony took place during the organization's annual convention at the JW Marriott Orlando Grande Lakes Resort & Spa. An audience of more than 600 peers, family and friends honored the six Hall of Fame inductees, and Stern was inducted on the night that he also celebrated his 80th birthday.

Stern led the Wildcats women's cross country and track & field programs from 1984-94 during a long and distinguished coaching career in the Philadelphia area. Perhaps most notable on Villanova's long list of accomplishments during Stern's tenure are the five consecutive national titles won by the cross country team in his final five seasons at the helm. The achievements of the Wildcats women's program during his tenure have not been matched by any other collegiate program before or since, and Stern becomes the latest Villanova coaching legend to earn induction to the Hall of Fame. Previous inductees who coached for the Wildcats include Jumbo Elliott (1995), Jack Pyrah (2006) and special inductee Jim Tuppeny. Longtime Haverford coach Tom Donnelly, who raced for Villanova during his collegiate career, was a 2014 inductee.

"It's very, very exciting to me and my family," Stern said of being inducted to the Hall of Fame. "This was my main job my whole life and it's the thing I always wanted to do (to be a coach). Ever since I was younger and I participated in sports, I knew I'd be a coach. And to be honored by my peers and friends -- because if they're coaches, they're all my friends -- means the world to me."

Started in 1995, the USTFCCCA Coaches Hall of Fame exists to recognize coaches who have brought great distinction to themselves, to their institutions and to the sports of cross country and track & field. Joining Stern as inductees in the Class of 2016 are Terry Franson (Azusa Pacific), Pat Healy (UW-Lacrosse, Southern Oregon State), Mike Holloway (Florida) and Bob Kitchens (UTEP, Mississippi State, West Texas A&M).

During his time as Villanova coach, Stern saw his student-athletes win 21 individual NCAA titles and set 12 collegiate records while being named All-Americans a total of 145 times. As a team, the Wildcats won 19 BIG EAST titles and captured 17 Championship of America titles at the Penn Relays. There were also 12 world records, eight American records, 13 Olympians and four world champions during his Villanova coaching career.

Any of the above superlatives are staggering in their own right, but none can match the unprecedented five consecutive national titles and five straight individual national champions in cross country. Included in that stretch -- which began with the 1989 national title -- are three of the widest margins of victory in the history of the national meet. No other women's program has won more than three consecutive national titles, and none have accounted for more than three consecutive individual champions.

Villanova won its first national championship in 1989 when senior Vicki Huber capped her collegiate career with the individual national title. She led the Wildcats to a 69-point margin of victory over defending champion Kentucky, which at that point in time was the largest winning margin ever. The mark wouldn't last long, as Villanova broke its own record a year later when Sonia O'Sullivan got the individual win and the Wildcats had a team score of 82 points -- 90 points lower than that of runner-up Providence. To this day, there has not been a larger winning margin at the national championships.

O'Sullivan repeated as the national champion in 1991 and sophomore teammate Carole Zajac came in second among four top-30 finishers. Villanova beat Arkansas by 83 points that year, still the third-largest margin of victory ever at the meet. Zajac won the individual title in 1992, when the Wildcats needed three top-seven finishers to beat Arkansas by a mere seven points. In 1993, Zajac and Jen Rhines came in first and second and Villanova's team score of 66 was its lowest of the Stern era. Still, the Wildcats edged Arkansas by just five points in another dramatic finish.

Villanova excelled on the track at the national level from Stern's earliest days as head coach. At the indoor NCAA Championships in 1985, the Wildcats won a national title in the 4x800 meter relay to account for the first of 19 national event titles over the next decade. Villanova won at least one national title in nine of the 10 years from 1985-94. Perhaps even more impressive, the Wildcats finished in the top-10 of the team standings at the indoor championships eight straight years from 1987-94. That streak had a definitive starting point, as Huber was a national champion in the 3000 meters in 1987 and Villanova also won the title in the 4x800 relay.

Following a third place finish at the NCAA Championships in 1987, the Wildcats tallied consecutive runner-up finishes the next two years. Huber and the 4x800 relay were the cornerstones of those teams in 1988 and 1989, with Huber winning the Mile and 3000 titles in 1988 and eventually finishing sixth at the 1988 Olympics in Seoul, South Korea as Villanova's first-ever female Olympian. She won the indoor 3000 meters title for a third time in 1989 and matched the feat outdoors with three consecutive titles from 1987-89.

Villanova won its fifth and final 4x800 relay championship of the Stern era in 1990. With Huber graduated, O'Sullivan took her turn in the national spotlight. She was the NCAA champion in the 3000 meters outdoors in consecutive years in 1990 and 1991, and also won the 5000 meters indoors in 1991. Zajac added back-to-back championships in the 10000 meters in 1993 and 1994, and Jen Rhines won the first of her five national titles while under Stern's tutelage in 1994. The team success continued during the early part of the 1990's. Villanova came in third indoors in both 1991 and 1992, and fourth in 1993. The team also finished fourth outdoors in 1994 in Stern's final meet coaching the team.

Stern coached the Wildcats to 19 team titles at the BIG EAST Championships, including "Triple Crowns" in 1984-85, 1986-87 and 1987-88 when Villanova won conference titles in cross country, indoor track & field and outdoor track & field. The team won five straight cross country championships from 1989-93 to match its run at the national level. There was also an outdoor BIG EAST title in 1989 and indoor crowns in 1986, 1990, 1993 and 1993.

From an individual standpoint, the Wildcats produced seven BIG EAST individual champions in cross country during a nine-year span from 1984-92. Villanova had 49 individual champions and 18 relay champions indoors at the BIG EAST Championships during Stern's tenure, while Wildcats athletes were named the Outstanding Performer at the indoor meet five times and were cited for the meet's Outstanding Performance on three other occasions. It was more of the same at the outdoor conference meet, where Villanova had 44 individual and 10 relay champions to go along with two Outstanding Performers and five Outstanding Performances.

Stern led the Wildcats to at least one Championship of America title at the Penn Relays in nine of his 10 years as head coach. That success included sweeping the three distance relays (4x800, 4x1500, distance medley) in 1989 and 1990, and winning two of those three races in 1988, 1991, 1993 and 1994. Vicki Huber was named the Women's Athlete of the Meet for the relay events in 1987 and 1989; Carole Zajac earned that honor in 1992. The 1988 distance medley relay and the 1990 4x1500 meter relay squads were inducted to the Penn Relays Wall of Fame in consecutive years in 1999 and 2000.

Although he coached during an era where academic achievement of student-athletes was not yet recognized to the extent it is today, Stern's Wildcats still had a lengthy history of academic achievement. Nnenna Lynch (1992) and Becky Spies (1994) were the first two Rhodes Scholars in Villanova history, and Lynch was the 1992-93 NCAA Woman of the Year. Villanova athletes were named Academic All-Americans on 13 occasions while Stern was head coach; Joanne Kehs headlined the group by earning the distinction in each of Stern's first three academic years on the job. Kehs was the BIG EAST Female Scholar-Athlete of the Year in 1985-86, while Huber (1988-89) and Lynch (1992-93) win also win that award.

Known as "Uncle Marty" during his time on campus, Stern came to the Wildcats after heading a number of successful high school teams starting in the 1960's. He made stops at St. James High School, Malvern Prep and Central Bucks High School, and also spent two seasons at Delaware Valley College in 1982-83 before joining the Villanova staff in 1983-84 as a volunteer assistant coach under Charles Jenkins. He became the head coach of the women's teams a year later.