A Full Member Of Our Group

Our previous post on the 50th anniversary of the very first Olympic Trials Marathon got a tremendous response from all over.  The post centered on Joe Head, a Nittany Lion who managed to find his way into the field.  It took great courage and persistence, and even the help of one of my running idols, Buddy Edelen, to make it happen.

Joe ran that race with minimal preparation, but great enthusiasm.  The kind of attributes that our very own Coach Groves would have admired.  This was just as Coach began his tenure at PSU.  Joe was surprised at how easily the Officers of Our Group accepted him into our fold.  At first Joe thought he was just a token member of our Facebook Group, but I corrected him that he is a full member of the Penn State Track and Field Alumni (Golf) Group.  This is in keeping with the tradition that Coach Groves himself  brought to Penn State.  Anyone with Joe's fortitude would have been afforded full team membership by Coach.  All of us can attest to that.  Coach had the patience of a Saint for anyone willing to put in the work to become better.  He even gave liberally of his time for walk-ons.  I can attest to that with a personal breakfast meeting each of my years at PSU.  One of them allowed me to have breakfast with Arthur Lydiard and Coach!

In turn, all of Coach Groves' athletes became better people (look at the excellence of everyone in our group!).  Eventually, all of us live up to Coach's quote at the 2009 Alumni Reunion, "Athletics is for education and recreation, nothing else. Winning is important only in that you learn more."  Turns out that Coach Groves was one of Penn State's greatest educators in its history.

So welcome, Joe Head, into full acceptance into the (soon to be, with everyone's help) largest and most active Track and Field Alumni group in the world.  And come golf with us in May, 2019!

Joe may have some further info on the 50th Anniversary celebration upcoming.  But it must be pointed out that he improved over those 50 years, and finished in the middle of the pack in the 50th Anniversary 8K!  Ahead of Frank Shorter!

    MALE AGE GROUP RESULTS 60 - UP
=============================================================================

Place No.   Name                    Age   Time      
===== ===== ================= === === ========== 
    1    56 Rich Hadley              62   35:16  
    2    36 Benji Durden             66   36:15  
    3    81 Bruce Kirschner          64   37:12  
    4   209 Michael Sandrock         60   39:02  
    5   192 Art Kitze                61   39:17  
    6   153 Pablo Vigil              66   39:41  
    7    73 Jim Johnson              61   41:07  
    8    11 Greg Birk                62   43:32  
    9   191 Chris Trunk              63   44:09  
   10   141 Kevin St.Croix           62   44:23  
   11    28 Robert Davis             61   44:57  
   12   108 Scott McMillen           61   44:57  
   13   196 Jan Frisby               74   46:01  
   14   195 Amby Burfoot             71   46:32  
   15   200 Gary Muhrcke             77   46:41  
   16   143 Darrell Sterns           67   46:44  
   17   199 Rick Moisio              63   46:49  
   18   208 Steve Jones              62   47:04 
   19   180 Joe Lowrey               61   48:11  
   20   185 Doug Ouren               62   48:40 
   21   213 Bob Deines               70   49:04  
   22   142 Will Steinberg           64   54:38  
   23    60 Joe Head                 70   55:10  
   24   207 Tom Heinonen             73   55:10 
   25    72 Alan Johnson             70   55:13  
   26   206 Tim Cronin               68   55:52 
   27    93 Frederick Maas           73   57:11 
   28   138 Ron Shepherd             65   57:54

   30   214 Frank Shorter            72   1:01:42  
   31     4 Dana Anstey              70   1:10:41  
   32    83 Kirk Kritner             64   1:12:50 
   33   202 Bill Clark               74   1:19:31 

Joe, finishing the first Olympic Trials Marathon, 1968.

Joe and Pablo Vigil being photobombed by Frank Shorter.

I Was A Miserable Steeplechaser

Our newest member, Greg Reyner, has sent along another pic from the past.  There soon will be many more.  Here's a pic of a former away-meet roommate, Rick Garcia.  It's a small world.  I ran quite a few miles with Rick, but Greg and I missed by just one year and have not yet met.

Greg notes that he remembers that Rick and Coach Groves "often had words" with each other.  hee hee hee  I suppose he's quite correct in his analysis.

Some spontaneous thoughts about the photo:

• The uniform singlet is hideous!  The shorts are worse.  
• I also only ever got one foot wet during the steeplechase.  I was really and truly shown how to do the water jump by Arthur Lydiard himself.  It was at a summer meet in Millersville, PA. My hurdling technique was atrocious and my times pitiful, but I was really good at the water jump.
• Rick was a very good steepler and made the US Junior Team, if I remember correctly.
• Note the "wind break trees" in the background.  Coach Groves always talked about the wind break that will one day be provided by them.  More than 30 years later, they are almost helping.
• Is that Pete Bortolotti on the left-hand side of the pic?

Another Academic Honor By Marriage

Way back, even before I made it to PSU, I met Heather Carmichael at an all-comers meet at Millersville.  She was there with Arthur Lydiard scouting out colleges for his "girls".  I had the pleasure of meeting both of them after I won the 2-Mile and the Steeplechase that day.  Took a nice warm-down run with her when she said she was leaning toward PSU, where I had just found out that Coach Groves would allow me to walk on.  Small world!  I still have one of the mittens Heather made for me in 1978.  Apparently, knitting is easy for someone from a land where sheep outnumber people 2 to 1.


Our Official Physicist and great friend Brian Boyer sent me word of her husband Tom Richardson's recent honor of a Penn State Alumni  Fellow Award.

Heather Carmichael, foreground, with Arthur Lydiard.

Steeplechasers Unite!

Arthur Lydiard watches Heather Carmichael (foreground) and "His Girls" bounding hills, circa 1978. Heather won the Peachtree Road Race soon after.


I hope to make next year's outing the Year of the Steeplechaser. So far my efforts have been fruitless, but I refuse to give up. I'm looking to get all the best steeplechasers together for next year's golf outing. Let's see if any of them can drain a twenty-footer! My best steeplechase was actually run during high school at a summer all-comers meet in Millersville PA. In attendance was future Penn Stater Heather Carmichael and her coach, Arthur Lydiard. He actually said "good race" afterward. If he had only known that after specific training for it in college, I could never equal that whim of a race! (I know, pitiful.)

Oh you people of little faith, I pity you. This video is not of me running a high school steeplechase. View this in order to know that you should wear spikes when running
a steeplechase. I can't believe no one viewed this yet!


Kid Fails At Steeplechase - Watch more free videos

A belated hello to Kyle Bernhardy, PSU Track alum of the 90's, now living in Costa Rica! One mystery is solved, but others remain. What is the state of Track and Field in Costa Rica? And what about golf in Central America? Let us know what's going on there. How hot is it? Welcome to the world of PSU Track Alumni Golf.