Gene's Blog: The Power of Teammates

November 01, 2008

November's arrival means crunch time for St. Thomas fall sports teams. Regular-season and playoff championships are on the line this week. NCAA playoff spots are also at stake in the coming two weeks.

Ready or not, winter sports are here. Hockey, swimming and basketball are now in the mix. Tennis, track and field, baseball and softball can't be far off.

For Tommie student athletes, this hectic time isn't just filled with the daily demands of practice and competition. There are ongoing academic tasks, jobs and internships, family and social opportunities, and volunteer and campus activities.

Tommie students will vote next Tuesday in for most will be their first presidential elections.

Some have more critical priorities -- searching for that clever Halloween costume for a weekend party.

Through all the excitement and stress of college life, here's some advice from an old Iowa State Cyclone to some young St. Thomas Tommies:

Step back and see the big picture.

Soak in each practice.

Savor the pranks and fun times, in the locker room and on the bus rides.

Appreciate your coaches and your parents.

Realize how lucky you are to play college sports.

Understand you only get one chance to be a wide-eyed freshman or a savvy senior.

And never underestimate the power of teammates.

Trite? Probably. True? Absolutely.

Fun Flashback

Last week, I was able to flashback to my own college sports days when I traveled to Ames, Iowa for a cross country and track and field reunion. Seeing my Cyclone brethren again after nearly 30 years was amazing.

Sure, some hairlines have taken a hit. But a cross country reunion is one of the few where showing up 20 pounds heavier is considered a good thing.

In our 1975-1981 college era, we rallied behind a young head coach. He had the right plan and personality, and just enough persistence, to turn Iowa State into a conference power and eventually a national championship program.

My teammates and I came into a track school that was a Big Eight Conference doormat. Despite poor facilities and setbacks, we helped lay the groundwork for the breakthrough seasons from 1981-95, after our graduations.

Man, those five years passed quickly. As we rode the pendulum from happiness to heartbreak, from adversity to achievement, we leaned heavily on coaches and teammates for support and inspiration.

Six Degrees of Separation

There are some St. Thomas and Minnesota connections to those days. Our amazing coach, Bill Bergan, had two sons compete at St. Thomas in the 1990s -- Dan was a distance runner, and Mike a point guard who played on UST's 1993-94 Final Four team and the 27-1 squad of 1994-95 (the only conference men's team ever to go 20-0).

Tom Kieffer, a high jumper who cleared 7-foot-0 and a native of Dubuque, moved to the Twin Cities with his wife to work for Honeywell. Fifteen months later, both had their jobs eliminated. Undeterred, Tom started his own software business. Now he's one of the most successful entrepreneurs in Minnesota.

Randy Shaver, a 400-meter runner from Cedar Rapids, crossed over the border to Austin, Minn., to work in television sports. He soon was promoted to the Twin Cities market, and has been a fixture at KARE 11 TV for nearly 25 years. The man with the great work ethic is also a cancer survivor who hosts a huge charity golf tournament each summer. His son Ryan is a Tommie freshman.

Dennis Barker, a gutty distance runner from St. James, Minn., has coached track and cross country at Augsburg for 15 seasons. He's helped grow Team Minnesota into a national force with many Olympic and aspiring Olympic runners.

The Cyclone women's CC teams won five national AIAW titles in that era, 1975-81. One of the All-Americans in that group was New Yorker Katy Schilly. Her sister, Chris Daymont, has been head coach of women's runners at St. Olaf for 28 years.

PHOTO: Second from left, Dennis Barker

Spirit of '76

I arrived in Ames in fall of 1976, one of four freshmen who cracked the cross country team's seven-man varsity lineup. The other top distance recruits from the Bicentennial Class of '76 were Dan "Big D" Gilchrist of Rockford, Steve "Buzz" Gering of Wausau, and my roommate Jim "The Big Guy" Ijams of Moline.

Our team leader was junior Jeff Myers, who was from my hometown of Davenport and an old high school rival. Myers made a national splash with a sub-4:00 minute mile that spring, and had anchored Iowa State to its first Drake Relays title in 31 years when he won in the rain at the 1976 Relays.

Sophomore Brian "Vince" Vincent of Pleasant Valley gave us four runners from the Quad Cities. Junior co-captain Steve Manley of Plantation, Fla., rounded out our top seven.

"Big D" was a humble, cerebral guy who could discuss politics or movies during a 10-mile training run while cruising at a sub-6:00 mile pace. He could accelerate faster than his 1972 Ford Pinto ever did.

"Buzz" never got rattled, always wore a smile, and brought that Wisconsin distance running toughness.

Jim Ijams always kept things loose with stories and laughs, yet could turn on the intensity at practice and on race day. "The Big Guy" usually drove the imaginary "Van." Midway through a race or speed workout, Jim would take over the pace. We tried to draft behind him, as if passengers in his vehicle.

Steve Manley was another low-ego, high-energy competitor. A quiet leader, Steve showed by example how to battle and succeed with grace.

Jeff Myers was the All-American and straight-A student bound for grad school in Veterinary medicine. He was feared almost as much for his blazing kick on the course as for his practical jokes in the locker room. Jeff was the only 21-year-old I've ever known who regularly engaged in pie fights and owned an iguana named Bert.

Brian Vincent, a walk-on, was just tapping into his potential as a steeplechaser and distance runner. He was destroying the notion that nice guys finish last. Another straight-A student bound for grad school in Veterinary medicine, "Vince" was kind, funny, disciplined and a role model for us all. An Eagle Scout and president of his residence floor, his future seemed limitless.

As for me, my goals, in no particular order, were to avoid injuries, give a consistent finish on race day, and add comic relief when needed.

There were another dozen teammates who contributed each day with solid work ethic and positive attitudes. Even though you were competing with them for the same lineup spots, you found yourself pulling for all of them to reach their goals.

Bright Lights, Big Cities

We stormed the Midwest that autumn, like an up-and-coming touring rock band. We opened at Veenker Golf Course in Ames, with stops in Iowa City, Brookings, S.D., Lincoln, Neb., and Stillwater, Okla., capped by a trip to the Division I national meet in Denton, Texas.

One trip summed up that peak-and-valley year. After a disappointing sixth-place finish at the conference meet, it looked like our season was over and it was time to prepare for indoor track. Coach Bergan, the persuasive recruiter, lobbied his boss and gained us a reprieve. There would be no plane ride to Oklahoma for the regional meet, though. We'd make the nine-hour drive by Chevy station wagon, and cut costs with a no-frills hotel. Some good stories, some math and science textbooks, and the vocals of Jackson Browne, Hall and Oates, and Marshall Tucker helped the road time pass.

Stillwater, Okla., is no Stillwater, Minn. The latter is a scenic river town near the Twin Cities known for bed and breakfasts, fine dining and boating. In Oklahoma's Stillwater, the dirt was red, and the televisions were black and white. Even the fast food wasn't particularly fast. We had many laughs at our roadside hotel, watched cartoons before we left for Saturday's 10,000-meter race, then used that Motel 51-mojo to craft a relaxed and successful run. We placed in the top five in the region, and qualified for the national meet.

PHOTOS: Steve Manley (left) and Brian Vincent

Tragedy

We carried that bond into track season. In those years, we broke bread (and occasionally shared some wine) together. We broke records together. Financially, we were broke together.

Then 15 months later, our hearts were broken together.

Jeff Myers and Brian Vincent left the 1978 Big Eight Indoor Track & Field meet in Lincoln, Neb., to join Jeff's girlfriend, Laura Vernon, and two others on a flight to Colorado for spring break. Skiing and training runs in the mountains were on their agendas. But their small plane crashed in the dark of night.

Jeff, Brian, Laura and her teenage brother and father (the pilot) all perished.

Two high achievers, in many ways the heart and soul of Iowa State's track and field team, were suddenly gone. There were three funerals and three sets of emotions -- shock, grief, and anger at life's unfairness. "At first we thought it had destroyed us," Coach Bergan said at the time.

Over time, we put our lives and our team back together. It was a difficult two years that followed, but the tragedy brought us closer. We took nothing for granted. We grew up faster than we'd have liked. We discovered the power of teammates.

Jim Ijams and I came back in 1980 as fifth-year seniors and helped bring Iowa State a conference runner-up team placing and a 10th-place team finish at nationals. It was a modest step for a program that would later win two NCAA team championships in cross country, and claim 15 Big Eight team titles in CC and indoor and outdoor track in 15 years under Bergan.

PHOTO: Jeff Myers

Reunion

Bill Bergan was hired at Iowa State making $10,000 a year in the early 1970s. At last week's reunion, he joined his wife Karen to pledge $1 million to start fundraising for a new outdoor track on the Cyclone campus. I thought I did OK with the two books I've written, but my writing revenue is child's play compared to Bill's Championship Books company. What started in his basement in our era, was built into a major operation with the same energy and attention to detail that made Iowa State track and field so successful.

The Bergans' pledge wasn't the only surprise. We were joined by Jeff's younger brother, Craig Myers, as well as Brian's parents, Gene and Arlene, and his younger brother, Kent Vincent. Craig and Kent, both ISU alums, are achievement oriented  like their brothers, and through their careers and family we get a glimpse of what Jeff and Brian would be doing today. Craig is a plant manager near the Quad Cities. Kent is an orthopedic doctor in Tucson and a sub-3:00 marathoner.

We shared stories, and promised we'd never forget Jeff and Brian. We pledged each other more visits, e-mails and updates. I think those guys have even forgiven me for joining a fraternity.

If someone invents a time machine, and I get to book a couple of reservations, I know my first two destinations.

Fiirst, I'm going back to spend a Christmas with Mom and Dad and my eight siblings in Davenport in about 1970. Maybe I will find my box of baseball cards that later disappeared.

Next, I'm going back to Ames, circa 1976, for a sunny September afternoon run through central campus and on the trails near the golf course. One more day alongside Coach Bergan, Buzz, Jeff, Steve, Vince, Big D and the Big Guy.

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To read an Iowa State Daily story on the 30th anniversary of the 1978 plane crash, click here:

Part 1: 

http://www.iowastatedaily.com/articles/2008/04/08/sports/20080408-archive.txt

Part 2:
http://www.iowastatedaily.com/articles/2008/04/09/sports/20080409-archive.txt