I came to Edinburgh in 1969, that's a long time ago, and I was here for 44 years and
saw a transition of really from what Edinburgh was in the 60s to where it reached its high
point in the late 80s into its part struggling now once again because of state budget considerations
and things like that.
When I came, I don't know if Edinburgh Track Team ever won a dual meet, I'm not sure if
they did or not, but I was lucky enough that I was able to bring with me still the recruit
I say is my number one recruit, the one I owe pretty much all of my Hall of Fame to and
his name was David Antignoli.
The 75 and 76 teams because when Dave graduated, then I recruited some kids and we got two
years of development into them and so we went to Emporia, Kansas, from God forsaken place
way out in the middle of nowhere and we had to run against Eastern New Mexico that was
led by two Olympian Kenyans and in those days there weren't a whole lot of Kenyans, so everybody
hated Eastern New Mexico because they had these Kenyans.
I made a speech at the end of the banquet at the end of the meet and thanked Eastern
New Mexico for having the opportunity for us to run against Olympians.
It was so cool and that's what made us so different than other teams.
They hated them because they had to run, we were all fired up to do that.
I remember then I walked down to see the coach and said what I said was sincere, I really
do thank you and I remember him with his sour face going, yeah they like you now, but win
another year and see what they say about you.
But it all came down in this region, in this conference, everybody was scared of us because
we looked like we'd kill people, we ran like we'd kill people, we trained like we're going
to kill our opponents.
I'm always, I'm always, which is the best team you ever coached.
And I say the 90, 91 team that won the national championship probably ran the best for their
ability.
The 75, 76 teams were the most talented teams, but I think the 85, 86 teams would be the
teams that would beat the other ones.
They were tough, very tough.
As we got into the middle 90s and into the 2000s, I knew it was going to be very difficult
to win another national championship because times had changed.
I still remember the NCAA guy, we're sitting with the athletic director and he goes, so
how many scholarships do you have?
The athletic director and he goes, they have none.
He goes, what?
We have none.
You know, when you talk about coaching, I never thought I'd ever be a coach.
All I ever wanted to be in life was a teacher.
So somehow this coaching stuff is the thing that is the tail that wags the dog.
And so when I approached coaching, I never looked at it any different than what I would
do as a teacher.
And if I'm proud of something, and I don't like the word proud too much, but if I'm proud
of myself for doing something, I always kept that in mind.
The number one decision that I made in my coaching was always what is the best thing
I can do to help this student athlete become a better person.
This is the first year, 2017, where I'm okay and I'm not coaching.
It's a long way to the top if you want to rock and roll.
