Random Thoughts About the 1978 Cross Country Team While Awaiting the Penn State National

1. Coach Groves has been quoted as saying the 1979 team was his finest, but the 1978 team scored fewer points at the NCAA Championships. (* Obvious errors in this statement have been corrected in This Post.)

2.  Manager John Barber had been a runner on the team the two prior years, but became a great manager starting in 1978.  I can still hear him calling out the splits in our 400 repeats in his distinctive voice.  John has been coaching and mentoring young athletes ever since.

3. Ray Krombel was one of my favorite teammates, even though we did not have many interactions.  He was the PA State High School 2-mile Champion the year before my lowly efforts.  I still remember a coach telling me not to celebrate "like that guy last year!"  I smiled when I showed up for practice on the first day in 1977 and saw he was a teammate of mine.

4.  Ted Lyon was also a delightful character.  I even think he ended up rooming with Ray one year off campus.  It was a thrill when I got to golf with him 2 years ago at the tourney.  He is intelligent, funny and as good a golfer as I.

5.  Mark Hawkins somehow survived being hospitalized at Centre Community Hospital and having my future mother-in-law as his nurse.  That's how I know he's tough enough to challenge the 5:00 barrier after age 50 one of these days!

6.  Larry Mangan has been a big help with this web site and is slated to be even more important in the future.  I can't tell you how pleased I am to be able to call him a friend all these 30+ years.  (And he has very flat feet which dumbfound me how he is so fast.)

7. My former roommate Doug Kent (or Dudley Doo-Right as my mother knew him) was the tallest member of the team.  He's a heck of a golfer, smarter than every one on that team, and taught me many things I would not have listened to from anyone else.  He also took me to my first Catholic Mass, which I must thank him for someday. (or did I just do that?)

8.  Tom Rapp was Larry's roommate that first year.  As Larry once put it, when he moved into his dorm room he went from the fastest miler in Pennsylvania to the second fastest miler in his dorm room!  You cannot find a more decent man than Tom.  I remember a great early morning run on Easter morning where we started at 4:00 am and finished for a Church service at dawn.

9. Kelley O'Brien  was someone I always looked up to.  He was as hard a worker as I've ever seen.  I would have been perpetually injured if I tried to keep up with his mileage!  And I'm happy I always wore more clothes than did he!

10. Glenn Chumley had the most unique running gait of anyone on the team.  I once saw him waaaay far ahead of me on the Schuylkill River years after graduation.  I ran as fast as I could to catch him, and sure enough, there he was.  I told him I knew it was him just by his gait.  A streaker was photographed in the snow one time by the Daily Collegian from behind on College Avenue.  Every single member of our team knew it was him.  Coach would have killed him, but only his back-side (and gait) were evident.

11. Rich Prann was a quiet sort, but very intelligent.  He's also another one of those who beat me at the marathon distance at Penn Relays.

12.  Mike Wyatt was also one of my favorite teammates.  I remember him cringing as the team sang Earth, Wind and Fire Songs on a road-trip at William and Mary.  A singing choir we were not!  He was also the only teammate who ever stopped and came back to me on the numerous times I sprained my ankles.  I still have the spikes he gave me his Senior Year.  I only ever got one wet during all those Steeplechases.

13. I also had few interactions with Eric Christianson.  I remember him as smarter than I and harder working, though.  I'd love to find out more about him.

14.  Tim Backenstose is responsible for me having this photo to reminisce about.  He was someone to look up to, as apparently he has better organizational skills than me at the very least.  His victory at the Penn Relays Marathon is a really great memory.

15.  Bruce Baden was a very good runner and a good role model ..  His running talents were earned through hard work.  And, oh so many extra miles....  He was responsible for all 15 milers being 17 miles at the minimum, I think.

16. Captain John Ziegler personified hard work also.  He is one of the finest examples of Coach Groves turning a good runner into a great runner.  I also remember the time John missed the bus to Pittsburgh.  I remember him hitch-hiking all the way to arrive just in time for the 10K.  I'll have to ask him what Coach told him.

17.  Campbell Lovett, with his beard and large frame, seemed like a friendly bear when I first met him.  He was one of a group of guys who I thought of as mature at the time.  I'll never forget the day he returned to Rec Hall covered in mud after a 10-miler in the rain.  The "Mud Men" are indelibly etched in my memory.

18.  Bob Snyder was hurt when I began my career as a Freshman.  I kept hearing about him, but figured I was beating him in those first races straight-up.  That didn't last long, however.  I soon discovered that I wasn't faster than an All-American!  His "That's McConnells BURGH, you big dummy." retort whenever someone said McConnellsville is also etched into my DNA.

19. Alan Scharsu was probably the purest runner of all on that team.  I swear he was all lungs, heart and legs.  A virtual running machine.  Note on the photo, though, that at the time I was still smaller than he!

20  Don Ziter has always been one of my best friends.  Despite being in a Fraternity (p*ssing Coach off to no end!) Don can rest assured that I will be there whenever and wherever he needs me. The 3:00 am episodes of Rat Patrol at his Frat on (Wednesday?) nights were a highlight of my undergrad years.
 
21. Jim Close was on the team, but really a half-miler.  I remember the time he hitch-hiked to the finish of the Bypass Loop Time Trial and made the mistake of getting out of the car within site of Coach Groves.  It was several days before Coach let him back on the team.

22.  Brian Boyer IS PSU Cross Country.  No one was there for as many teams as Brian.  He was actually a better runner in the years following his undergrad years than he ever was while really on the team.

23.  Brad Althouse also beat me at the Penn Relays Marathon.  It seems those guys should create a club or something!

24.  Jim Clelland never said a word the first two years I knew him.  Actually he did, but you really had to listen closely, or you missed it all.  He also once fell out of the van on the way to Beaver Stadium.  The door actually fell off!

25. Al and Jeff Wolfe were twins from the Kane, the coldest region of PA.  It's actually true that I was running a morning run on the golf course one day when both of them flew past me.  I yelled to them and told them to talk to Coach to see about getting on the team.  I'll bet they don't even remember that!  I don't know which one it was on a cold winter run one day, but his nose turned ashen gray.  He laughed and said that always happened, ever since he got frostbite as a kid.  I have always remembered to never visit Kane in the winter.

26. Dave Spears is another great golfer.  I know Tim and the other Yanomamos will get him back on the links one of these years.  Heaven knows we need his swing!

27.  Mark Dunmire joined me on the team as Freshman.  We both walked on as top finishers at the PA State meet just several months before.  I have stated before that he won the Mile that year, but others say he was second.  Only Mark Haywood would know the answer to that one and he somehow wasn't there for this photo!

28.  Jeff Sanden is also one of my best friends.  A great golfer, and probably p*ssed as Heck that I never have given him The Golden Putter yet!