AUSTIN MEEK

The Last Amateurs

The track stars of the 1970s fought to get today’s athletes paid

Kenny Moore visits Bill Bowerman's bronze at Hayward Field in 2006 (Chris Pietsch/The Register Guard)

Gerald Ford, then vice president of the United States, penned a 5,000-word essay for Sports Illustrated in 1974 outlining his views on various subjects of the day.

I'll be an Adjunct Professor, someday

Today, I officially started co-teaching a Sports Product class today with Ellen Devlin. I have some work to do before I'm officially an Adjunct Professor, but I took my next big step today to get there.

What is an Adjunct Professor?

Countries that I've visited

Click on the map above to see a more readable version.

I've been to 41 different countries.

Some of the countries no longer exist or are questionable as a country: Yugoslavia is gone, Hong Kong has reverted back as a possession of China, and China still claims Taiwan as their island.

My goal in 2015 is to visit some countries that I've never been to before. As a starter I'm thinking Hungary since I'm 50% Hungarian and my father was a first generation American.

2013 Christmans

(l-r) Kelly, Steve, Cory, Santa, Lynn, and Mary

Lynn was Santa's helper at the mall again this year.  We got 5 of the 7 Oregon Bences in the picture.

UO Proposes Sports Product Management Program

Allan Brettman (Oregonian) wrote an article about the proposed UO Sports Product Management Program:  Link to the Oregonian article

I'm on the advisory board and offered to be an Adjunct Professor for the program which is proposed to start Fall 2015.

The full text of the article is below.  I highlighted where I was quoted.

Steve Prefontaine's Legacy

Doug Williams of ESPN Endurance interviewed me and then quoted me in an article entitled Legacy of Prefontaine still lives on

Pre's Rock during 2013 NCAA championships

A woman asked for a picture with me at Pre's Rock.

The Gonzalez family was in Eugene to watch the NCAA track & field championships.  They happened to be at Pre's Rock when I spoke to Grant Hanson's legal team.  I didn't get her name but received this picture and the following email.

Free to Run movie trailer

I have been helping as I can on the creation of this movie due out in 2014.

Will Drinkwater, 9+ years later

Will Drinkwater with (left) Venuste Niyongabo in 2004 and (right) at Stanford in 2013.

I randomly caught up with Danny Drinkwater at the Prefontaine Classic and he gave me an update on his son Will.  On a Nike Heritage trip to Eugene in 2004 we met Will.  He was thrilled to have his picture taken with Venuste Niyongabo, a Nike employee and the 1996 Olympic gold medalist at 5000 meters.  Today I found out that Will was inspired by our chance encounter and he is currently a runner at Stanford ... which means that he is both fast, and smart!  I plan to follow Will's career at Stanford and post what I hear..