Feb 3: Geoff Hollister's Birthday

The Oregon Track team and OTC elite team dedicate their February 3rd workout to Geoff Hollister.

Blog by Paul Merca

RICHMOND, British Columbia--While preparing my notes to announce Saturday's Harry Jerome Indoor track meet at the Richmond Olympic Oval, I saw several tweets and Facebook posts noting that February 3rd is Geoff Hollister's birthday.

Ellen Devlin: We Grew Wings

We Grew Wings teaser

Ellen emailed: "Today's Oregonian / OregonLive linked our teaser and website"

The full OregonLive article is copy-pasted below:

Kara Goucher: Change is Hard

Kara Goucher made a difficult change last fall after the 2011 World Championships.  More on that below.

But first, Oregon-based training partners Kara Goucher and Shalane Flanagan just finished 1st and 3rd in the Olympic Trials to make the 2012 US Olympic marathon team.

Our 2012 Olympians:

Women: 1-Shalane Flanagan 2-Desi Davila (Arizona St) 3-Kara Goucher (Col)

Men:  1-Meb Keflezighi (UCLA) 2-Ryan Hall (Stanford) 3-Abdi Abdirahman (Arizona)

Back to Kara.

Bob Welch: Get ready for a year to remember

Bob Welch, a Eugene Register Guard columnist, wrote about the upcoming year. Included was mention of Bill Bowerman and the upcoming Olympic Trials.

Here is a portion of Bob's article ...

Tinker Hatfield: His Proudest Achievement

Dwight Jaynes interviewed Tinker Hatfield on his 30 minute sports television show.

Dwight covered all of Tinker's great accomplishments and then asked Tinker what he was most proud about.

I was surprised by his answer. (hint: it is about the people)

Tomy Chang: Nike Retirement Video

[Warning: A 15-minute video] Tomy Chang is retiring after 32+ years in Taiwan. This is a DRAFT video for his retirement party in February.

Some of My Favorite Music Videos

A few of my favorite music videos.

A Random Post: Tailgate Music

circa 1956: Renato Carosone and his band play their 1950's hit Italian song. Yolanda Be Cool did a 2010 remake (click to see the YouTube video) which the young men in the tailgate spot next to us played (for hours this 2011 football season) as part of a loop.

College Football needs a Prefontaine



Steve Bence and Ake Svensson
1974, Vastervicks, Sweden



"In a summer 1974 race Oregon's Steve Bence beats Ake Svensson, Sweden's 800-meter record-holder, in Vastervicks, Sweden, while competing for money against AAU & NCAA rules. Bence was in Europe in part to show solidarity with Steve Prefontaine, the Oregon runner who rebelled against the Amateur Athletic Union."

Several current stories bothered me about the relationship between today's college football athletes and the NCAA governing body.  I suggested to the Oregonian that they could wirte a story to compare football today with Prefontaine and the AAU governing body from the 1970's.

Oregonian sports writer Rachel Bachman contacted to me and by the end of the process I wrote the article with Rachel's expert coaching and guidance.

Below is the article as printed in the Oregonian: