Wednesday, March 18, 2020 The Nugget Newspaper, Sisters, Oregon
7
When sports dreams are foiled by outside events
By Charlie Kanzig
Correspondent
Like many of you sports
fans out there, my heart
went out to the University of
Oregon women9s basketball
team whose dreams of going
deep into the NCAA tourna-
ment got dashed with the
precautions surrounding the
novel coronavirus. I felt espe-
cially empathetic for the play-
ers in their final college sea-
sons who won9t have another
shot. The years of prepara-
tion, the team bonds and the
thrill of fans, all swept away
virtually overnight.
Of course, sports are not
the end-all to human exis-
tence and happiness, but we
can all relate to one degree
or another to the loss of a
dream. This pandemic is no
one9s fault. It9s not based on a
political decision or a decla-
ration of war. It did, however,
remind me of a similar heart-
break for athletes right here in
Oregon back in 1980, the year
of the Moscow Olympics.
The University of Oregon
has a long and colorful history
of producing elite distance
runners, and the late 1970s
and early 80s were no excep-
tion. This was a time when
Oregon runners included ath-
letes who were not only the
top collegiate runners, but
among the top in the nation,
including Matt Centrowitz,
Rudy Chapa (American
record for 3,000 meters while
in college), Alberto Salazar
among the top 5,000- and
10,000-meter runners in
America and winner of three
consecutive New York City
Marathons after graduating
in 1980, and Eugene9s own
Bill McChesney Jr., who
still owns the UO record for
5,000 meters at 13:14.8 4
faster than Steve Prefontaine,
Edward Cheserek, and the
aforementioned stars.
Following his stellar
career at South Eugene High
School where he graduated in
1977 and won numerous state
titles while becoming the best
high school runner in the
nation, McChesney was part
of the Ducks9 NCAA cross-
country championship team
along with Centrowitz, Chapa
and Salazar. By 1980, when
the Olympic trials were to be
held in Eugene at Hayward
Field, McChesney was poised
to give his best shot of a fin-
ish in the top three to qualify
for the Olympics.
Rumors of the United
States, along with dozens of
other nations, boycotting the
Olympics to be held in the
Soviet Union had begun to
swirl well before the trials
over international displea-
sure with the Moscow9s inva-
sion of Afghanistan. Pressure
was being applied from
throughout the world for the
Soviets to withdraw from
Afghanistan. Negotiations on
the issue continued through-
out the spring of 1980.
President Jimmy Carter
made the final decision to
approve the boycott prior
to the trials, but fans and
athletes held out hope that
something still might change,
or they pressed on, simply
to prove to themselves they
were Olympic material.
McChesney had overcome
a nagging Achilles tendon
injury which had plagued
him throughout his collegiate
career, to finish third at the
NCAA meet three weeks ear-
lier, but most track and field
aficionados did not consider
him likely to make the team.
Among the field were the for-
mer Duck Centrowitz, who
had won three consecutive
U.S. titles and was among
the top in the world, fellow
Duck Rudy Chapa, who had
run 7:37 to break the 3,000-
meter American record ear-
lier in the season, and Marty
Liquori, formerly ranked first
in the world for 5,000, among
others.
Regardless of the boycott
and the high level of com-
petition, as McChesney toed
the line on a wet evening on
his home track in front of a
partisan crowd for the 5,000-
meter final, his mind was on
one thing: finish in the top
three.
According to newspaper
accounts of the race (I did
not attend this day of the tri-
als, for which I am eternally
regretful) the pace was slow
and the pack remained tight
through the first two miles
of the 3.1-mile race. With
four laps to go McChesney
demonstrably spit on the
track and took off, a bold
move reminiscent of the
legendary Oregon runner
and American record-holder
Steve Prefontaine, and soon
had opened up a 40-meter
lead.
The Hayward Field crowd
went wild as the hometown
boy led the field, but their
cheers dimmed in the last
lap as he was passed first by
Centrowitz and then by Dick
Buerkle. McChesney found
one more bit of gutsiness, for
which he was well known,
to hold off Jerald Jones by
.29 seconds to finish third in
13:34.42.
He then kneeled down on
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