Also  some of you have asked about the old car that now sits on top of this blog.  I think it is about a 1940 Plymouth that guards the entrance to a trail I ride my bike on frequently in the Comox Valley of Vancouver Island, British Columbia This week the USATF meet will be held in Eugene, OR and I will be there, but due to restrictions at the border and fear of invasive actions on my computer, I 've decided to leave it at home coming down from Canada.  Instead I've begun going through some of our old blog posts over the last 15 years and am reposting the best or my favorites or whatever.  The first is a series of chapters below that are John Lawlor's experience as a foreign athlete at Abiliene Christian College from   1960-1963.   At around that time there was a swarm of Aussies coming to the US to run and doing very well.  The Australian track federation eventually put a stop to that exodus but for a few years they were a major influ...

Roger Howard, author of this article was my roommate in 1965 during our three months of training to go into the Peace Corps as teachers in Tanzania.  We trained at Syracuse University which had a department of East African Studies that could provide us with experts who knew the lay of the land in that far off country.  For relief from the stress of training and knowing that we were still in a  pre-selection process, we could be entertained on the  campus of good ol' Syracuse U.  by Larry Czonka and Floyd Little on the football field and Dave Bing on the basketball court.  But when sport could not provide relief, we could also follow a narrow trail down a hill to Ozzie's Bar on the old two lane highway that led south out of town.   The challenge was getting back up that hill when the stress was no longer in our young frames. Roger was a studious lad, ex-high school football player, graduate of a small liberal arts college in Nebraska called Doane C...

         Frequently while reading or working on a story, something will stimulate memories from other events or one might see that particular event in a slightly different light based on one's own personal experience.  While posting the previous story about Ted Haydon and the University of Chicago Track Club history, I remembered attending that USA - Poland dual meet held at the U of Chicago campus.  Paul O'Shea's review mentioned that the track that Roger Bannister first broke the four minute mile, the Ifley Road Track on the campus of Oxford University had been dug up and replaced with more modern material, and those famous cinders and clay and peat mixture had been transported to the City of Chicago and used to surface the new track at Soldier Field where the 1959 Pan American Games would be held.   Then those famous cinders were removed from Soldier Field and replaced in the barrels they had been transported from England in to Stagg Field...

  Ted Haydon Don’t Worry About Today’s Race. You’re Capable of Much Worse   A Book Review by Paul O’Shea   The Genius of Ted Haydon and the University of Chicago Track Club By Jim Knoedel, 240 pages, Amazon $17.     Ted Haydon’s life needed an author.     Kenny Moore wrote Bowerman and The Men of Oregon.   Brendan O’Meara explores Prefontaine with his new The Front Runner.   Jim Knoedel fills the Haydon gap with The Genius of Ted Haydon and the University of Chicago Track Club.   Before track and field is harmed further by grand slam track, kangaroo shoes and new concerns over doping, we now remember and honor Ted Haydon. With The Genius of Ted Haydon, his history as humanist, teacher and leader is now preserved.   Here’s why he stands with the sport’s important figures since mid-century.   Ted Haydon coached at the university level and beyond for 35 years. He mentored U.S. distanc...

                                                                                                                                                             Joe Vigil Another very respected coach died this week.   Joe Vigil, long time coach at Adams State University in Alamosa, Colorado, passed away at the age of 95.  He was an incredible innovator in distance running and is remembered for getting the 1968 Olympic Marathon trials scheduled in Alamosa with its 7500+ feet altitude that simulated Mexico City.  He also had an impressive run of ...

                                           Bill Schnier with Bob Schul in Bob's last days Bill Schnier, My Friend   Our culture often pressures us into ranking things in our lives, such as our   favorite song, favorite movie, top ten books,   best friends,   best friends forever.   Rather than call Bill my best friend,   I choose to refer to him as the person I could always turn to when I wanted to share life, share adventure, share stories, and admire for his accomplishments, his leadership, his mentorship, and the great example he always was for young people beginning to move forward into the adult world as well as older people who were struggling with the challenges of everyday life. Even more inspiring was his role as patriarch of a wonderful family with his wife Kathy as an equal at his side and three children, Ellen, Lorain, and Keller,...

    Bill Schnier with All American X Country Man Eric Finan  2010 It is with a very heavy heart that I have to report that my friend, Bill Schnier,  longtime University of Cincinnati Bearcat Head Track and Cross Country coach was seriously injured on Tuesday, July 14.   Bill and all of his family take an annual vacation together, and this year it was at an island off Charleston, South Carolina.   That day Bill, his son Keller and 6 grandchildren went to a local park to play basketball.  Bill has played in leagues for many years and recently turned 80.  Apparently he went for a rebound and coming down his knee buckled, he took a tumble and hit his head on the support pole under the basket.  The result was two displaced vertebrae, C-3 and C-4 in his neck.  The result is that Bill is now quadraplegic.  He has no use of his arms and legs.  Along with this injury and a bloody head wound, his young grandchildren had to witn...