Houston TX USA - Victor Lopez will likely spend his retirement sharing experiences with his wife Evelyn, who recently retired from Bellaire High School, and their families in his native Puerto Rico. Or maybe he will whittle the time away fulfilling his passion for cooking.

Perhaps Lopez, an aspiring author, will exhaust his days penning a book or two.

He has a standing invitation to rejoin the jazz salsa band he founded as a conga player some 48 years ago, and his duties as president of the Central American and Caribbean Confederation — a body that governs track and field in 35 countries — remain pressing.

When Rice athletic director Bobby May announced last week that Lopez was retiring as the Rice women's track and field coach following the 2005 outdoor season, most everyone realized that Rice was losing a pioneer.

What many are unaware of is that Lopez is a Renaissance man whose impact on the Rice community, past and present, is exceeded only by what he has accomplished globally.

"He's an icon," said May, who competed against Lopez on the track when he was a senior student-athlete at Rice and Lopez was a freshman at Houston. "His contributions at Rice are incredible, but his contributions in his field far exceed what he has done here."

Where does one start in assessing what Lopez has contributed to his sport?

When he took over the Rice program 25 years ago, he was a graduate student looking to maximize his potential. There were six athletes in the program, but his experience as a consultant overseeing development of track in his native land helped him deal with the challenge.

Much more than a coach

Five years later, Lopez was making "a good salary," and the Owls were ascending.

Lopez has led Rice to four outdoor conference titles and four indoor conference titles. He is a 10-time conference coach of the year honoree, and the list of individuals who have enjoyed national prominence — Regina Cavanaugh, Valerie Tulloch, Claudia Haywood and Allison Beckford, to name a few — is extensive.

But success came at a price. After hearing Alberto Gonzales, President Bush's nominee for attorney general, speak at commencement exercises last spring, Lopez realized the time had come to reassess his priorities.

"He mentioned in his speech how, after you have accomplished a lot of great things in life, how important it was to come back and give something to your immediate family," Lopez said. "I was touched by that and the way he approached the situation. Come back and share with your parents and family that helped you to achieve what you were.

"Although I promised Bobby that I wanted to win a national championship, I feel like I have accomplished so much at Rice. The program is in the best shape that it could be. It has a very solid foundation.

"We have the largest number (45) of athletes (and) the graduation rate can't be any better — it's 100 percent," Lopez said. "And the student-athletes are great. You're talking beautiful human beings. You're talking a total class act: intelligent, high achievers coming from great family foundations with goals in life. Lovely people.

Affection for athletes

"That's why every day here has been such a satisfying experience, because day in and day out, I feel like I'm working with my daughters, the way a father develops his children."

While his international accomplishments are unparalleled, Lopez seems most pleased by the graduation rate.

Driven by his own experiences as a cultural outcast on campus, Lopez insisted that his athletes, many of whom are minorities, not leave Rice without a degree. To Lopez, it marks accomplishment in the face of disdain.

The prodding was appreciated.

After the retirement announcement, Lopez received numerous e-mails from former athletes. Lopez admits he has lost sleep over the decision to wrestle himself away from an extended family that will miss him greatly.

"On the one hand, I'm happy that he's able to move on at a point in his life where he is so active," said volunteer coach Andrea Blackett, who was one leg of the 1997 NCAA mile relay champions. "But on the other hand, it's really hard for me because I'm losing a coach, a friend. It's going to be difficult. It's going to impact the team a great deal losing him.

"I don't think (current athletes) are able to see the whole picture of who Victor Lopez is. But I do think that, from what they have seen of him ... they do have a great appreciation of him. He has made a tremendous impact."