Dr. Hartley Price coached Florida State gymnastics to five national championships. In 1951 and 1952, Seminole gymnasts won NCAA titles and in 1951, 1953 and 1954 won the Amateur Athletic Union (AAU)
title. These five championships coupled with the six titles he won at the University of Illinois give Dr. Price one of the best records in collegiate history. Price founded and directed Gymkana at
Florida State. In addition, he was the founder of the highly successful Tallahassee Tumbling Tots. Internationally known, Price was awarded Fulbright lectureships to Indiana and Columbia. He served
for 20 years on the U.S. Olympic Gymnastic Committee. In 1959 he was named to the Helms Foundation Athletic Hall of Fame, and he received awards from the National Association of College Gymnastic
Coaches three times. A brilliant innovator, educator and coach, Dr. Hartley Price made great contributions to both FSU and the community of Tallahassee.
Obituary for Hartley Price From the
Tallahassee Democrat, September 19, 1977, page 13.
Tumbling Tots founder dies
Dr. Hartley D'Oyley Price, 1561 Yancey St., who coached Florida State University gymnasts to five national team
championships, died last week at Extended Care of Tallahassee. He was a retired commander in the U.S. Navy Reserves and a professor emeritus at FSU.
Price founded the Tallahassee Tumbling Tots
in 1948. He served on the U.S. Olympic Committee for more than 20 years. He received the Helms Hall of Fame Award for achievement in gymnastics and served as chairman of the National Association of
College Gymnastics Coaches.
He was a Fulbright professor at Lakshmibai College in Gwalior, India, and at Universidad Nacional in Bogota, Colombia.
Price wrote extensively on intramural and
recreational sports. He contribute to Collier's Encyclopedia, the Encyclopedia Brittanica, the Dictionary of Sports and the Encyclopedia of Sports Medicine.
Survivors include his wife, Dorothy
Wills Price of Tallahassee.
