about Coach McGuire

Coaching Career

Dr. Rick McGuire is the Director of the Missouri Institute for Positive Coaching. He recently retired as the Director of Sport Psychology for Intercollegiate Athletics at the University of Missouri, and Graduate Professor of Sport Psychology in the Department of Educational, School and Counseling Psychology.

For 27 years (1983-2010) he was Missouri’s Head Track and Field Coach. Under McGuire’s tutelage, Missouri athletes earned 143 All American recognitions, 110 conference champions, 29 USA National Team members, 7 NCAA Champions, 3 collegiate records, and 5 Olympians, with two winning Olympic Silver Medals.

He is the founder and was the chairman for 27 years of the USA Track and Field Sport Psychology program, and served on the staff for 11 USATF National Teams, including the 1992 and 1996 Olympic Games in Barcelona and Atlanta.

Rick also served as a member of the NCAA Track and Field Committee, and was President of the NCAA Division 1 Track and Field Coaches in the United States Track and Field and Cross Country Coaches Association. In 2014, the USTFCCCA awarded Rick with one of their highest honors, the George Dales Award, for lifetime service, achievement and contribution to the coaching profession. In 2016, Rick was inducted into the University of Missouri’s Intercollegiate Athletics Hall of Fame.

As a professor, Rick established Missouri’s graduate masters and doctoral programs in Sport Psychology, along with providing a popular undergraduate sport psychology class. For these efforts he has been recognized with the Missouri Students Association Award for Outstanding Teaching, and the College of Education’s Pillar of Excellence Award for receiving the High Flyers Awards for Teaching Excellence for 15 consecutive years. He was also honored with the University of Missouri Alumni Association’s prestigious Faculty-Alumni Award.

Positive Coaching

Rick has been a significant contributor to the cause of coaches’ education, has written extensively, and is a prominent speaker at coaches’ organizations meetings, clinics and seminars. He founded the Missouri Institute for Positive Coaching (MIPC) to support, study, research, teach, promote and in all ways encourage the importance and the impact of highly effective positive coaching. He established the first and only fully ONLINE MASTERS DEGREE in Positive Coaching.

Rick is a founding member of the Association for Applied Sport Psychology (AASP), was in the initial class of AASP Certified Consultants, and has been honored with the recognition of AASP Fellow. He is a long-standing member of the American Psychological Association (APA) and Division 47, and received the Bruce Ogilvie Award for Distinguished Practitioner. For over 30 years he has been a member of the United States Olympic Committee’s Sport Psychology Registry. He received his doctorate in 1983 from the University of Virginia, where he studied under Bob Rotella, world renown golf sport psychology consultant. Rick was honored with the Distinguished Professional Practice Award from the Association for Applied Sport Psychology in 2019.

Rick has numerous publications, including his 2016 ground breaking book, “The Power of Positive Coaching”, and his 2012 books, “From the Whistle to the Snap: Winning the Mental Game of Football!” and “Winning Kids With Sport: Teach … Model … Practice … Inspire.” Coming soon is his latest publication, entitled “The Pyramid Model for Mental Toughness: The Athlete’s Playbook.”

Rick and his wife Jane recently moved to the San Francisco area to be closer to their two adult children, Wendy and Mick, and grandchildren.