My Last Relay Race 1969

My friend Jeff McKay said he was looking forward to the fun of running some distance medley relays with Anna’s speed group tomorrow night. It does sound fun. And he talked about how long it’s been since he ran a relay. That got me to thinking—about the last time I ran a relay. Senior year of high school, at the state track meet, I ran anchor on the Mile Relay. I think I got the baton a little ahead of any of the other teams. Soon enough though, Jack LeRoy from Rogue River sidled up beside me and said, “OK, Modée, it’s just you and me now.” We ran a little while side-by-side, or I think maybe he was half a step behind me. He was making me nervous. And he was messing with me, trying to mess with my mind. I thought I can’t let him mess with me; I’m going to mess with him. So I said, “No, it’s not, Jack. It’s just me now,” and I took off, pulling away from him rapidly, showing him the bottom of my shoes getting smaller and smaller to his vision. I thought I would just do this to discourage him and then I would slow down, but I didn’t slow down. I kept going. I was clocked at 49.5 seconds, which I think translates to something like 49.3 for the 400M, my P.R still to this day—of course.

Afterwards, I was approached by Bill Bowerman, the track coach from the University of Oregon, where I had already signed a Letter of Intent. Bowerman said, “That was a great run you had in the Mile Relay.”

I felt like, yeah, but that was me and three other guys, so with bloated pride, I said, “I won the 880, too.” And I was thinking . . . and that was all by myself, too.

Bowerman completely ignored what I said. He did not even congratulate me on my State Championship Half Mile. He repeated, “That Mile Relay was a great run.” As if my individual race was unimportant. Plus I felt kind of ashamed that I had bragged to him about my Half Mile. I felt kind of small.

That was Bill Bowerman.

As I got to know him better, I realized what he had liked was the style of my quarter mile leg—the way I toyed with Jack Leroy, the way I displayed an impressive kick. He wasn’t impressed with my leading the Half the whole way, and then winning by fifty yards.

That, my friends, was Bill Bowerman.