Outside the Silver Cafe, Franklin, Ohio before our
departure to the Dogwood Relays in Knoxville
This blog is twelve years old, but it's conception happened at least 40 years ago when a friendship started between three ne'er do wells, myself, Roy Mason, and Steve Price. Roy and Steve have excellent coaching credentials, I was a dabbler. Roy coached for years in Southern California at Bellflower HS and the La Mirada Meteors and possibly has one of the best male and female high school mile combinations ever with Debbie Heald 4:32 in 1972 and Bob O'Brien 4:08 also around that time.
Steve Price started with the Kettering Striders in Ohio and went on to coach at the U. of Dayton, Bowling Green State University, and after he 'retired' went on to coach at Findlay University making a 102 miles trek each way every day. He would also stop and play piano at nursing homes on his way up there from Piqua, OH. Instead of the Borscht Circuit, it was the I-75 Circuit. His teams at BG broke into the Midwest cross country dominance of the Big Ten and Notre Dame, being one of the few women's teams outside those schools to qualify for DI nationals.
Roy and Steve and I began writing to each other when Steve was coaching in Bahrain in the Middle East and I was in Zimbabwe. Our letters were forwarded to each other and that is how I initially became acquainted with Roy. Then we found that it was as much fun to take hand held cassette recorders wherever we went and record our impressions of life, at the drop of a hat. Over the years the three of us were actually together only three times, once in California, once in Montreal, and once in Ohio. The last time was 1998. I remember that date because it was the weekend before I started working full time as a mediator. We got together in Dayton and drove down to the Dogwood Relays in Knoxville, Tennessee.
Steve passed away last year after a long, long competition with cancer. He really suffered a lot but never, never complained. Somehow he was always able to raise our spirits.
Last week, Roy found one of those tapes we had exchanged. It was from 1992 at the time of Steve's 50th birthday. He had just been at Bowling Green about two years, and the program was still struggling to get off the ground. BG was in the process of completing an indoor facility which would help recruiting. Steve and family were still getting used to living in a campus community. There's not much else in Bowling Green, Ohio. So here are a few excerpts from that tape recording shared amongst friends. I'm sure all of you have had friendships over the years and I hope this helps you remember and reflect on those experiences. It's what adds depth and color to our lives and makes it worth the struggle to get through it. George Brose
Steve's words or thoughts will be highlighted
heard wottle is signing golf hats at BG