Saturday, October 10, 2009

Blasts From the Past!


A weird series of events led me to cruise through the Interwebbie Thingie where I came across this gem of an article from the Centre Daily Times archives.

At the Second Annual Arts Festival Ten-Miler, PSU Track Alumni Golfers were out in force. This would be 1977 or 1978, well before the dawn of breathable fabrics, colors and probably when dirt came to be made. Even Coach Groves tickled the pavement at exactly 6:00 pace.

Greg Fredericks, our Course Marshall (among other duties!) defended his title in impressive fashion, blazing a 47:37. Charlie Maquire came in second in 50:19. I wish Charlie was still around to enhance our group. He was one of the three toughest runners I ever saw. (I witnessed him run a sub 9:00 2-mile 8 years after college on minimal training.)

Other PSU Track Alumni Golfers included in the trailing pack:
  • Jim "Frit" Cooper (on our Wish List) 51:37
  • Tim Backenstose 53:49
  • Gary Black 55:10
  • Hugh Hamill 55:32 (Also on our Wish List)
  • Mark Parker 56:06 (Nike COO and on our Wish List)
  • Bill Kvashay 58:30 (you heard about his Penn Relays Marathon "Win" here)
  • Kathy Mills (Namesake of our newest award for the Most Valuable Woman Golfer and former World Record Holder in the 5000M)
  • Coach Harry Groves 60:00 (I wonder who took off the extra seconds on that one!)
  • Bob Hudson 60:57 (as an 8th grader!)

2 comments:

  1. Where did you find that article? I'd love to go back look through some of those. Larry

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  2. Don't really know how I stumbled upon it. I'll email you a copy of it. There were a few more names on there you'll recognize. When I asked Gary about it, he knew he came in 13th place! The next year I finished right behind him in 9th place at around 53 minutes. Man, those were the days.

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