By Michael Newman, DyeStat Illinois Editor

Chapter 7:  First Home Meet

Proviso West signaled the first of four dual meets against conference schools. August was the dog days of training. Most of September were the dog days of racing. We did not really consider it racing, though. Yes, we did wear our uniforms and spikes and did race against other schools. Proviso West was the biggest challenge for us to date, and we kind of passed that first test. For me, it was a big fat F. But I was looking forward.

Our conference back then was the West Suburban Conference. There were no divisions like there are now. It was the seven schools that are in there now, plus Riverside-Brookfield and Proviso East. Proviso East was an easy win for us in cross country but they were tough in track. Tougher in basketball. I ran a 2-mile in an invitational at Proviso West at the end of April in 1978. Every time I circled the track, I was watching this kid that had no form clearing the bar by almost a foot. He was doing this in basketball shoes. It was amazing. They announced the results in that event after my race was over. Glenn Rivers from Proviso East had cleared 6-2 to win the sophomore high jump. He gave up track after that and concentrated his efforts on basketball after that. The rest is history. "Doc" Rivers played in the NBA for more than a decade and coached the Boston Celtics to the championship in 2008.

Our conference was not the strongest in 1978. Glenbard West was rated ahead of us, then Downers Grove North, Proviso West, and Lyons Township were rated below. Our next three opponents were not rated but had a few good individuals. It would give us a chance to work on running together.

I was looking forward to a long Sunday run at Bullfrog Lake. During that meeting on Saturday morning Mr. Newton reminded us of an obligation that we had on Sunday. Earlier in the year, he became involved with this event that was trying to get off the ground: The second annual Mayor Daley Marathon. He was in charge of staffing all of the aid/water stations along the course. And he “volunteered” all of us to help out. Having 160 members on the team kind of helped in that cause. On this Sunday, it was a rehearsal for the real thing in two weeks. The thing that I hated the most is that we had to meet at York at 7:00 a.m. That's when everyone was supposed to get on a bus headed into Chicago. Thank goodness my parents had “volunteered” to help out, also. We had a packed station wagon of kids going down to meet up with other schools at Buckingham Fountain.

Mr. Newton gave a speech to all of us who were helping out, gave us our marching orders. He was always organized. It mirrored the meetings that we had at York and the workouts he conducted. It did not surprise us at all. A few of the kids from other schools were talking when he was giving instructions. He was using a megaphone so that everyone heard him. He noticed the distraction that this small group was providing. He stopped for a second. No megaphone was needed. I thought he was going to slam it to the ground. He started yelling at the top of his lungs at that group. I do not remember what he said on that day, but he did not have a problem from that group the rest of the morning. Mr. Newton was not tall by many means. But with the way that he carried himself and that confidence that he had in everything that he did, to us he was 10 feet tall.

We were taken to our aid stations. Newton made sure that the top varsity runners were in aid stations close together. We were hoping that it would be early in the race. Instead, he put us on a bike trail by the lake close to 39th Street  near mile marker 21 and 22. Crap. We knew we would be there for most of the day.

The running boom was just picking up in the United States. The City of Chicago did not give the organizers a free run of the roads like they do now. Instead, most of the course was on the paths by the lakefront and some roads. The finish line was by the Field Museum in Grant Park.

Mr. Newton had instructed the varsity to know where our aid station would be and then run back to Buckingham Fountain where the entire group would meet up before going home. So nine of us ran down to the path a couple of miles and turned around and headed north back to Grant Park. It was a goofy run but all of us were so tired that this run needed to be goofy. Freegs and Lisy started running ahead because they needed to find a bathroom.

We got closer and closer to Buckingham Fountain and we could not find those two. Heds, Willie, Wags, Rags, and Mac were trying to figure out what they would say to Mr. Newton. Henry and I stayed out of the conversation. We were juniors. This time we would keep our mouths shut and let the seniors decide. It was their team.

They did not have to give that speech. As we approached the fountain, we saw them talking to a few of the other guys. We asked them where they went.

They told us that they found a bathroom … in Soldier Field. They found a gate that was open and they decided to take advantage of the opportunity and the facilities. Stadiums were not nearly as secure back then like they are now. I think in this case it was open for a cleaning crew or something. Freegs was smiling. Heds said, “What?”

“Well … after we used the bathroom, we ran up and down the sidelines,” Freegs said. His infectious smile kept getting bigger and bigger and we started to laugh, most of us in disbelief. How could they have not gotten caught? I still have this vision in my head of what they must have looked like going up and down that field where Walter Payton was becoming a star. I would start to laugh whenever I would watch a Bears game on TV. 

It was something that we kept to ourselves. We met with Mr. Newton and then left the park and headed home. There were some things that we never told him. This was one of those times.

This would be a long work week. We had a meet against Oak Park-River Forest and Proviso East at East End Park on Thursday afternoon. It would be the first of four meets on this course. First we had to get there. Mondays were rough. This week it was 5 x 1 mile with a short rest. It was just a matter of working on our pace and staying together. We kept everything close to 5:04 for all five. It was an accomplishment to stay near the group on all five intervals. The past two races were the opposite. This had a feeling of what I had gone through in the summer. There was a comfort level that I had not felt in the last three meets. I had run close to 1,400 miles from June 1 to September 1. The first two runs my legs had felt flat. Proviso was flatness and side ache to compounded that. I was not getting too excited for Thursday, but I was looking forward to it.

Tuesday night before I went to sleep I ran the race in my head. The lights were off in my room and all I could see was East End Park and how I was feeling in each part of the race. Everything was a positive image. My race ended with me coming across the finish line with my teammates. That was my goal this week. Just to be with them as we went into the chute.

A dual meet at East End Park almost felt like a celebration of life in some sorts. We would get to the park and the flags were set up around the course. There was a sign on the bathroom in the middle of the course welcoming our opponents. A pep band would be there playing at the home meets. Cheerleaders would be there, doing their cheers as we would pass. It was a happy feeling that got you excited to race.

Mr. Newton would always assign one varsity runner to meet the opposing team’s bus when they got to the course. That person would greet the coach and the team and walk them around the course. For East End, that was no problem. You start out, stay to the left of the building and stay to the left of the tennis courts. Then make a small loop at the north end of the park, then head back to the main loop, where we would take four laps before heading back to the center of the park to the finish chute. It was not a challenging course in the fact that it was rough or hilly. It was a mental challenge in that if you lost concentration in one of those laps, your race was over.

The varsity would be the third and last race of the day. We would start to warm-up just as the freshman race went off. I had a close interest in that race. My brother Dan was a freshman and one of the top runners on that level for York. We found out that week that Oak Park had a stud freshman named Larry Head. By the time he graduated, Larry was all-state three times in cross country with a second place finish in 1980 and a third place finish in 1981. They ran together for the first mile before Dan put his head down and went. He ran 10:50 for the 1.93 mile course. Head finished 12 seconds back. Quite a start for the day for us as the freshmen beat Oak Park 19-44 and Proviso East 15-50.

I got my spikes on as the sophomore race was going on. We thought that Oak Park would have a good sophomore squad. We ended up winning 15-48 over Oak Park and 15-50 on Proviso East.

The temperature was in the upper 70’s by the time we ran. It was about 15 degrees cooler than when we raced the week before. I did not make the mistake that I made last week. It was a PB&J and some water. Positive thoughts. I was going to be in this race and not put myself out of it.

Oak Park had one runner that we were a little worried about. That was Larry’s older brother, Andy. We knew that they did not have the depth to match us. That showed after we came out of the front loop back onto the main course. Head was in front of us but there were nine of us surrounding them. We did roll call again at the mile and this time it felt good. It was just like I had run it two nights before. Teammates were around me and all was right with the world.

Just before the two-mile, Head made his move and tried to distance himself from us. It did not work. Dave Haller was the first to go with him, then Phil Williams. We just stayed a few yards back watching Henry and Willie go after him. They broke away from him by the 2.25 mark. The pack of Heds, myself, Freegs, Mac, and Boyd started to go after Head. I think we waited a little too late.

Henry won his first varsity race running 14:27 for the 2.8-mile course. Willie was four seconds back. Heds put on a massive kick but could not catch Head as he finished one second behind. I finished in fifth in 14:39 with Brother Mac one second behind me. Freegs was another second back. Boydo, Rags, and Wags were behind us. As I came into the chute, I was relieved. I was not surprised. I came out of the chute telling myself this is where I should be. We all waited for all of the York varsity to finish. Then we headed back to the team area.

I came home, had dinner, and had to study for a test for the next day. The advantage of having two study halls and a lunch in the middle of my schedule was that I could take my books home and while I was eating lunch, study. I did not want to stay up late. I was tired.

We were happy how we ran, but we did not know what the meeting would be like before practice on Friday. Mr. Newton was happy with some of the performances but he was not completely content. Yes, we had a 13-second split on five and 17 on seven. “There is no way Head should have been in our pack,” he told us. It was something he told us because he was preparing us to race against him next time. I think if we were racing Frank Shorter or Steve Prefontaine, he would tell us that we should have five men on that guy. Just his way of preparing us for the next battle.

He did not like how the pack split up when Head made his move. He acknowledged Henry and Willie, and that was it. We got the message. When one moves, we all move.

Our legs were tired but we were kind of charged up after the meeting. The pace picked up considerably during our warm up. It happened a lot that year. If someone took off, we went with the bastard that was pushing the pace. Most of the times, it was either Henry or me. We were the young guys, feisty to improve. I’ll get into one of the feistier times later.

The Friday and Saturday workouts were beneficial to us. Newton would call those workouts "money in the bank" sessions. He would tell us that while other teams were resting and ready to race on that weekend, we were working our butts off, looking at state. “They are taking money out of the bank to race,” he would tell us. “You are putting money in.”

We had a hard segment session on Saturday morning. One of the distressing things in that run was Boydo had to drop out of the workout. It was not normal for him but his leg was bothering him. It was an injury that would put him out for the rest of the year. He was a senior that had put so much in during the summer. Realistically, we were down to nine runners gunning for seven spots at that point.

After the workout, some of the seniors decided to go to Proviso West to watch the invitational that was there. That was the big early meet of the year in the state and some of the best teams were there. Henry dropped me off at my house. We both had homework and were just too tired to go watch.

For me, it was a shower, then a nap. It was something that I had earned for this week. When I got up, I focused on work that needed to be done both in the classroom and on the track. I knew in both cases, there was a lot still to be done.