Pat Porter dead in plane crash

Adam C wrote:

Here is Pat giving a speech just a week ago (July 20th)!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DZjjJVQcUnA

Thanks for that post.

I haven't seen Pat in almost 30 years. I briefly went to Adams State in the early 80s and Pat was definitely the MAN on campus. Too bad I didn't wear the same size shoes. He had a closet full of new shoes that he would gladly give to anyone that could use them!!

What I was impressed about was that Coach Vigil and Porter left nothing to chance including his diet. I think Porter was ahead of his time in regards to his nutrition. At the time he was 128 lbs and about 6 ft tall. He got absolutely everything out of his ability possible.

His birthday is incorrect on the "black page". It should say 1959.

That very good and very moving. Thank you

So sad to hear about Pat and even more sorry to have never seen him run. Thank you for all the memories you have shared about Pat. The guy was quite a horse.

jenapharm ...

LOVED your recollection / anecdotal story about Pat catching you and your team with almost a mile headstart in addition to the cheeky "Gotcha" quip as he chugged on by everyone.

Very cool.

Thanks for sharing.

-trollcrusher-

Pretty sure it was '88 at Meredith College, Raleigh, NC at the USA CC Nationals. I ran the Junior race. Porter crushed the Open field in the first mile with a sub 4:20 and no one came close. Got his and Lynn Jennings autographs on that "Their name is mud" flyer after the races. Both were very friendly and willing to talk to a fan. I'm guessing no one will ever win 8 CC titles again.

I've been dwelling on this sad news about the death of Pat Porter and (I presume ... as it has not yet be confirmed as of Friday, 07/27/2012) his son and another child.

I posted an earlier recollection of having met Pat during a week long cross country / track camp held in the summer of 1986 at the University of Wisconsin, Madison. He and another runner from the University (who I've since forgotten the name of ... was a bit of a cocky "star" long distance runner for the Badgers) were the main draw for this young group of guys who came from all over the U.S.A. to spend time with them at this camp.

To say that we were in AWE of Pat would be an understatement. Seriously. We worshipped him like a mortal running diety. We'd follow him around and attempt to emulate him and whatnot.

But what was so cool is that he was very, very, VERY down to earth. Totally engaging.

But damn, when he'd run, it was like watching a gazelle sprint along on the Serengeti plains. Just a graceful loping stride that would call up visions of the Greek messenger "Mercury". Totally. ;-)

And I'll tell you, Pat had a very mischievous / cheeky side to him. I remember that he and the other guy from the Wisconsin CC team stayed back one afternoon whilst everyone from the camp was out either training or at workshops. He and this other guy went around into each of our rooms in the dorm and tracked down where we all had placed our alarm clocks and whatnot. They went ahead and set each and every one of them either an hour forward or an hour backwards (I can't remember exactly which).

So later in the day, when we were to show for a very important meeting with them, we wound up getting thrown off schedule. Guys showing up an hour early or an hour late for this critical meeting and having to endure a mock "dressing down" by either Pat or the Wisconsin dude. Just screwed everyone up. Everyone that is EXEPT those of us who were wearing our trusty Timex Ironman watches or the watches with the little pixelated guy running in the stopwatch mode (remember them?). We showed up on time. :P Pat and the others got a kick out of that stunt.

Also, during the course of the week, we were able to sit down and bounce questions off of Pat and the other guys who were present for the workshops. Reps from Nike; reps from nutritional groups; Wisconsin Badger reps; etc. I remember asking Pat what the strangest / oddest thing that he could recall during his time racing and he kind of screwed up his face, rolled his eyes towards the ceiling and said "I knew it. I knew someone was going to ask something like that." But he did so in a jestingly overdramatic manner to get us all laughing.

He went on to say that during one rather tough cross country race (in which the weather conditions had been quite sour - rain, mud, cold), as they were traversing the course they had various natural obstacles to deal with that lent the race an almost "steeplechase" feel. I believe that he said that he was leading the pack and as he came to this low lying fence / barrier or hay bales crossing the path, there was a ditch filled to the brim with very muddy acrid water in it (so he couldn't determine how deep it was) and lo and behold, "things" floating in it. Clumpy, black and brown globule looking "things". Like rotten bobbing apples.

He had to quickly assess what said "things" may have been as he closed distance on the fence / water trap, and concluded that they could be none other than horse droppings. Just a rancid soup of 'em bobbing on the other side of this fence. Then he had to make the fateful decision of "Do I attempt to jump it in one leap?" (it was too wide for a single jump) or "Do I take the barrier and then plunge one or two strides THROUGH it?"

Pat took the second choice much to his chagrin.

As he hit the barrier, he used it as a springboard to acquire as much lift as possible off of it to keep his toesies from hitting the water, but alas ... wound up waist deep in the water. Just shocked the heck out of him that it was that deep. Had to do the kiddie pool wade gait through it with horsecrap bobbing all around him and getting on his legs and uniform.

Ran the rest of the race looking (and smelling) like he just got off an equestrian polo match and once he finished it was straight to the showers. Said it was the grossest thing he'd ever encountered during his career.

Everyone who was present when he recalled that was left in stitches. Just totally appealed to the teenage guy mindset that embraced all things gross at the time.

Very cool memories and I am very glad to have been able to spend a week with him back then. Very cool guy and I do know that he will be sorely missed in the running community. A lot of us looked up to him back then and I think this recent news has come to a shock to all of us.

May he be with God now and please take time to offer a prayer for his soul and that of his possibly deceased son. Also pray for his wife and daughter as well as his relatives and everyone whom he touched.

May you now be running in the "fields of the Lord", Pat.

Godspeed.

Thanks for taking the time to read this everyone.

Peace out,

-trollcrusher-

Florida, U.S.A.

Very sad news to hear last night. Even worse this morning when his wife confirmed their son was with him.

I still have the "their name is mud" poster and a number of extensive RW/Runner interviews with him.

An inspiration to those of us with minimal talent that loved the competition and thrill of cross country.

ripvanracer wrote:

What I was impressed about was that Coach Vigil and Porter left nothing to chance including his diet. I think Porter was ahead of his time in regards to his nutrition. At the time he was 128 lbs and about 6 ft tall. He got absolutely everything out of his ability possible.

I think this gets at what why Porter was so great as a runner. It seemed like there were a dozen or more (known) top runners of the era who were more talented. But it appeared that Porter could outwork them (which is a talent in its own right), at altitude no less. He had a great coach in Vigil and he was almost completely focused on cross country nationals/worlds and track nationals.

I attended a U of Wisconsin running camp and got Pat's autograph there. It's my most treasured running-related memorabilia, just ahead of a signed Jim Ryun poster. As many have mentioned, Pat was very approachable to regular kids. What a terrible tragedy, especially because it appears his son died, too.

He was the MAN in XC.

DougC wrote:

I attended a U of Wisconsin running camp and got Pat's autograph there. It's my most treasured running-related memorabilia, just ahead of a signed Jim Ryun poster. As many have mentioned, Pat was very approachable to regular kids. What a terrible tragedy, especially because it appears his son died, too.

He was the MAN in XC.

If you were a young runner in the 1980's and were lucky to meet Pat Porter you know. Porter was an extrovert which is rare with great runners and he took his position as a role model very serious. He loved his sport and loved that he could could give back and inspire the up and coming. Most elites are too wrapped in the pressure of their own running. Pat was all out. He lived life the way it should be lived. He was the only elite on the the World Cross Team I made as a junior that took the time and interest to even deal with kids and when I ran he was the solid favorite to win. Pat Porter was the odds pick to win in 1986 but that was the race John Ngugi showed what the future of distance running was was going to look like. Pat Porter lived a life that makes most of us question our lives and importance.

My strongest memory of Pat Porter was the time I didn't meet him:

20 years ago, when I was 19, I had dropped out of college and was living in Colorado and had driven all the way to Phoenix, AZ with a buddy of mine to run a race. After the race we continued south and spent the night partying in Mexico. The next day was Sunday and we both had to be back at work on Monday morning. We had a 17 hour drive ahead of us. There are many different routes to take to get back home from there, but we specifically chose a route that would take us through Alamosa for the express purpose of stopping in to meet the great Pat Porter. We didn't know Pat, or know anyone that knew him, we just figured we'd show up, like a religious pilgrimage to gain wisdom from a llama atop a mountain. We figured Pat would be ok with that.

Well, we didn't really calculate the drive time to determine exactly when we would arrive in Alamosa. We ended up rolling into town at about 1am.

So as we pull into a roadside gas station I say to my friend, " Looks like we won't be meeting The Panther on this trip".

"Hell yeah we will." he replies and walks over to a payphone booth (yep still had em in 1992) and starts flipping through the white pages. He finds an address for Pat Porter, and off we go.

"What the hell are we going to do when we get to his house?? It's one in the morning!" I say.

"I dunno, but goddamn it I've been driving for 13 hours and I'm gonna meet Pat freakin Porter."

We finally locate his house in the pitch darkness.

"I'm not going to the door." I said.

"Yeah, me neither.

"So that's it then?"

At this point we both felt like we had to have some sort of closure to our adventure. So we rolled down the windows and yelled "The Panther!" and peeled out down the street. Cause that's what you do when you are 19.

I once retold this to a friend from the midwest and he casually replied "Yeah, my buddy did the same thing at Bob Kennedy's house."

RIP Pat, wish I could have met you. Sorry about the tire tracks outside your driveway.

The preliminary NTSB report is listed on http://www.faa.gov/data_research/accident_incident/preliminary_data/media/B_0727_N.txt It is the 2nd report down.

That's a shame, I always looked up to the guy in high school, he was just bad ass in XCC. i ran into him at the trials in '88 an he was very cool and nice to me. RIP

This is the first thread I've read all the way through and I'm amazed at how many people feel the same way I do about Pat Porter. When I was in high school, others put pictures of rock stars or hot girls in their lockers, I had pictures of Pat. I thought I was the only one who looked up to him. Its good to see how many people still have respect for an outstanding person and athlete.

i never forget being at the cmu open when i was in college in either 1985 or 1986 and Pat Porter was so far ahead of the top college and open runners. He was in a class of his own among american cross country runners throughout most of the 1980s. So sad and tragic. God bless his family. RIP

Posting one last quick memory of Pat and then I'm hitting the sack. I went to Colorado to visit Boulder, Denver and Alamosa with a good friend of mine who was Pat's Adams State teammate and my training partner (Joe Sheader was a graduate student at Berkeley, I was an undergraduate and running at Cal).

When we finally rolled in to Alamosa, one of the first people he sought out was Pat. Pat asked us what kind of a run we were going to do. Joe and I had run about 6-7 miles in the morning and he replied, "oh we'll probably go about 40 minutes." (To be fair his achilles was bugging him a bit).

Pat seemed unimpressed with 40 minutes, and knowing I was in from sea-level he sort of looked over at me and said "this isn't just Denver's altitude" and I shrugged. Actually I like running at altitude even though it's harder.

I then asked my friend (Joseph) where I could add on another 30 minutes after we did 40 together because I wanted to get some more mileage in. It was right then when Pat really warmed up to me, and gave me a good route to add on 5 more miles.

He appreciated anyone who was willing to work hard.

wow...this was hard to hear about on the night of the Olympics. I had met Pat several times over my running career. One of the special times meeting Pat Porter was at the 1987 Cross Country Trials for Worlds in Dallas. As a local age grouper (I'm older than Pat...) I was chosen to give the top ten runners that year a tour of the cross country course the day before. After running two loops and busting my chops trying to stay in front and giving pointers on the course, Pat was nice enought to thank me personally and signed my t-shirt from that race, along with the rest of the guys at the trials that year. I've even got Joe Vigil signature on the same shirt. I had it framed and have it hanging in my run room for 25+ years now. To me, Pat Porter gave the creditiblty to Joe Vigil's work and coaching at Adam State during the 70's.

fyi.....I've also got the Porter/Jenning CC mud Athetic West poster framed with a personal notation to my spouse & me from Pat. Pat truly kept my interest in Cross Country!

R.I.P. Pat Porter

So sad to hear about Pat Porter and his son. Had the privilege of watching him compete in person once and on TV a few times. Just a beast in CC & would simply leave it out there. If anyone was going to beat him, they would have to put themselves in agony also. Was a true inspiration for the sport of Cross-Country.

RIP to you and your son Pat. Prayer's and thoughts are with your family. God Bless!