John Horace “Cap” Shelton of Coleman County was known as the “Dean of Texas Track Coaches.”  His teams won 14 Texas Conference championships, three Lone Star Conference championships and two NAIA Cross Country championships, in 1957 and 1964. He helped establish the Texas Conference and served as its president for many years. He was named to the National Track Hall of Fame in 1955 after Howard Payne won its 14th Texas Conference title. Shelton enrolled in Howard Payne’s prep school in 1912 and graduated with a bachelor’s degree in 1917. He played fullback on the football team, ran the 880-yard run and the mile in track and managed the basketball team. After graduation he taught math at Sherman High School before serving in the Army during World War I. He returned to Howard Payne in 1920 as math teacher and track coach. He also served as faculty manager of athletics and basketball coach from 1920-24. Shelton served Howard Payne as registrar from 1929-31; business manager from 1931-56; and director of properties and development, 1956-64. After Howard Payne joined the Lone Star Conference in 1956, Shelton’s teams won three more conference titles. He was LSC and NAIA Coach of the Year in 1964 and was named to the NAIA Hall of Fame. He coached many All-Americans, including five on the 1964 NAIA Championship cross-country team that set an NAIA record for the highest cross-country score with 29. Shelton died in 1967 of a heart attack and was posthumously inducted into the HPU Athletics Hall of Fame in the inaugural class.