University of Tennessee Athletics
ILREY OLIVER SPARKS MEMORIAL
January 07, 2003 | Women's Track
Jan. 7, 2003
The Lady Volunteer family suffered a tragic loss on Dec. 26, 2002, when former track & field standout Ilrey Oliver Sparks, 40, was killed in a car accident near Jacksonville, Fla. Sparks, an academic counselor for the past seven years with the University of Texas Women's Athletics Department, was riding in a vehicle during a holiday trip with her daughter, Imani, and three other women when the single vehicle crash occurred.
Imani Sparks, Longhorn head women's track & field coach Bev Kearney (an assistant at Tennessee from 1984-87) and former world champion sprinter Michelle Freeman suffered injuries but were all expected to recover. Both Sparks and Freeman's mother, Muriel Wallace, however, perished in the accident. Sparks, is survived by Imani, who turned three on Dec. 29; husband Melvin, an employee of the University of Texas Police Department; and her family in Jamaica.
A native of St. Thomas, Jamaica, and a product of Vere Technical High School, Ilrey Oliver came to the University of Tennessee in 1983 on a track and field scholarship and forged a stellar career that included 15 All-America citations and 17 All-Southeastern Conference awards. In that number were four NCAA championships, including an individual crown in the 500m in 1986, and eight SEC titles. She also represented her country in 1984 at the Olympic Games in Los Angeles, running in the open 400m and aiding Team Jamaica as it placed fifth in the 4x400m relay.
During her time in Knoxville, she helped the Big Orange claim three conference team titles and was part of four NCAA runner-up teams indoors and one outdoors. Her contributions to the squad came in the long sprints and the relays, where she helped UT win four-straight titles indoors and two outdoors in the 4x440y/4x400m relay. More times than not, the person bringing home the baton was Oliver.
She still shares school records in the indoor 4x200m relay and the outdoor distance medley relay and ranks second among all Lady Vols in the indoor 500 meters and the outdoor 400 meters as well as anchoring the second-fastest outdoor 4x400m relay in school history.
After completing her career, Oliver graduated from Tennessee in 1987 with a B.A. in human services. She then spent the next two seasons as a graduate assistant at her alma mater while completing a master's in sport management in 1989. Oliver joined the women's athletics department at Texas in January of 1997. Until her passing, she had worked in the Longhorn academic support and student services department, impacting the lives of male and female athletes in numerous sports.
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