SHS Cross Country and State Meet 1962

After my sophomore year in high school, I realized that distance running was what I did best and would be my fastest way to a varsity letter. In those days, earning a varsity letter was a major accomplishment as these were not given out as "paticipation" awards as so many things are today. This had to be earned at the varsity level and had strict requirements. So that summer of 1962, I trained very hard. I ran almost every day with my best buddy, John Prillaman, in Washington Park, Illini Country Club and Pasfield Park Golf Course. In spite of the hot, humid summer weather, we logged up to 50-60 miles each week. When the season started in September, we were ready. We had a great team. John was by far the best runner and maybe one of the best in the state as a junior. We had a couple of seniors, including Allen Ice, juniors which included Prillaman and myself and one or two sophomores. We were deep, and we cruised through the early dual meets. We stumbled a bit at the Peoria Invitational, but still finished high and were regarded as a possible state meet contender. We won our Big 12 conference meet and placed 1st or 2nd in the district meet to secure a team spot at state. This would be coach Cochran's first time to the state meet with a team, and he was excited. The meet would be at 10 am Saturday morning at Urbana Country Club.

We left Springfield in two cars, with John, Allen Ice and myself with coach Cochran in his station wagon. He didn't say too much, which told the rest of us how nervous he was. When we arrived in Champaign, he stopped at a traffic light which was green. John nudged me and winked, nodding toward the traffic light. When the light then turned red, coach proceeded to go through the red light. We cracked up laughing so hard....lucky there wasn't any cross traffic. We stayed at a small motel outside town (lest we be enticed by the nightlife of a college campus) and had an early dinner at the Redwoods Inn which was an all-you-can-eat smorgasbord. In spite of a curfew, we horsed around till late at night with our own nervous energy.

When we arrived at Urbana Country Club the next morning, we all began to realize what a big deal this really was seeing all the other teams in their fancy sweats...New Trier, Evanston, Rockford East, Oak Park - schools three times the size of ours.  Coach told us about the course and emphasized that about 400 yards from the starting line we would have to go almost all the way around a green before heading nearly back the way we came. He said that if we didn't get around that green with the leaders that we would be strung out too far behind. So when the starting gun fired, all seven of us tore away like the hundred yard dash and we were all within the first 20 people around that green! Then we crashed! Lactate production sky-rocketed, legs became heavy and breathing labored. Prillaman still did reasonably well, but not as well as he might otherwise have done with a more controlled start, while Allen Ice and I finished 157 and 158 out of 164 runners....brutal!! Our senior year we returned to the state meet and did much better, and John received all state honors. To this day, I think cross country is one of the best sports for a kid - comraderie, shared pain and exhilarating finishes.