The First Time I Met Coach Groves

It was June, 1977 and it was just a few weeks after my victory at the 1977 PA Class B Two-Mile State Championship.  I wasn't cocky or anything like that, and I had put in a couple of 100 mile weeks.  I probably averaged 75 or so through the track season, with two-a-days 5 days per week.  I was pretty much self coached and it seemed I was doing way more than many of the runners around me.  Boy, did I have another thing coming?!

I had a couple of friends heading to State College for some fun and I asked to tag along.  I was hoping to see Coach Groves and ask about walking-on and knew absolutely nothing at all about it.  I planned on heading to his office and just introducing myself, and that's just what I did.  Coach Groves' office at that time was in Rec Hall, just above the area where the men's locker rooms were.  I remember Coach Paterno's office was there also, which probably made for some super great times, I have come to learn!

I walked in and there he was, surrounded by photos, papers and memorabilia from a track career that seemed to have gone on forever already, and he was just getting started. I had been warned about Coach by several local high school coaches, who intimated that he was gruff and most-likely worse. I was told to brace for some foul language. I had no idea what I was getting into, and was rather intimidated.  (That's a feeling I still have a small degree of today, each and every time I see him.)

He started in on a conversation as if we knew each other for years, referring to people I had no idea of.  I saw photos of many runners, throwers, jumpers and who knows what else amidst the voluminous piles of papers with his distinctive scrawl on them.  The only person I recognized was Greg Fredericks. I have recently learned he has saved all those "notes" which should be a treasure trove for anyone willing to go through them.  Through the conversation, I was trying very hard to find out if I could walk onto the team, and he kept referring to the coming distance recruits as top-notch or something similar, (that turned out to be Larry Mangan and Tom Rapp).  Just when I was about to give up, he asked about my mileage currently and  told me I would need to do a  little more to keep up, and he would see me in the Fall.  I was in!  At the time I didn't know that there were many more of "me" in, including several other State Champions and second-place finishers from our year alone.

That very first conversation continues today each time I see Coach at one of our events, or a Cross Country Meet or Indoor Meet I try to make each year.  He seems to be able to start in right where he left off the last time he saw you, even if years intervene. I look forward to the next time...

Coming Soon:  "Running in China", another in the series of my self-indulgent blog rantings, this time with a Hospital Visit!   Don't forget to help out our new Wiki effort.  Add anything you would like.