Athletics West

Dick Brown was the Director when I arrived and was replaced by Doug Brown a year or so later. Lots of good research coompleted there (1) Comparing aerobic demand of over-ground running (on the road and track) with same speeds on the treadmill, (2) Effect of head-wind and tail-wind at different velocities of running, (3) Effect of wearing orthotics on the energy demand of running, (4) Found women runners to be as economical as male runners, if compared at equal fractions of aerobic power rather than at absolute speeds, (5) Found 10k-marathon runners to be more economical at slower speeds, compared with 800/1500 runners and the latter to be more economical at faster speeds, than the former. Looked at the effect of drafting on aerobic demand of running, and on wearing tichts on the aerobic demand of running. Also looked at variations in fluid loss and replacement during 25k races. Possibly the most important was looking at the aerobic demand of track vs treadmill running, both at sea level and at altitude. When time allows I hope to submit many for publication (#4 and #5 have been published; others have been presented at scientific conferences. Also did a fair bit of swim research with the US Junior and Senior teams, both at altitude and sea level. I hope to get it all out there some day when time allows.

I don't know a ton about the history at that time but some of these times seem rather pedestrian for sponsored athletes (Mike Long--15:10). Do those just represent off days by good athletes or did Athletics West have a very deep roster?

Mr. Obvious wrote:

I don't know a ton about the history at that time but some of these times seem rather pedestrian for sponsored athletes (Mike Long--15:10). Do those just represent off days by good athletes or did Athletics West have a very deep roster?

My thoughts as well.

Mr Daniels, care to share the results of you treadmill vs. track comparison?

I don't know lifetime PRs for these guys, but this was simply a sample of one meet fairly early in the season (april 14th). It was given simply to give the OP an idea of who was with AW back in the formative stages. According to the same newsletter, at a meet a month later Long ran 14:27.

For many of these guys it was an interesting period in American running. AW was one of the first sponsored clubs for aspiring post-collegians. AW gathered a fairly ecclectic mix of runners who showed promise for continued improvement. Some stayed on for quite a while, some were dropped, and others were added.

Until I had re-read this newsletter, I had forgotten how many throwers made up the AW ranks. Unlike the track runners, who I think I remember were asked to relocate to Eugene, the throwers seemed to have congregated in the San Jose area. I don't recall that the bulk of the marathoners (Sandoval, Ortega...) moved to Eugene (except for McCarey).

Let's not forget Salazar was wearing an AW singlet when he set his then marathon record in NYC

ridge hs wrote:

jim crawford ran at the same hs as i did, although 20 year gap. i don't think he was great in hs, but i know he went to college somewhere in arkansas and went on to run 3:55 -56. anybody know other details? always interested in the past.

Jim Crawford graduated from Ridge HS (NJ) with a mile best of 4:20.5.

Still holds the Harding University (Searcy, AR) school record in the indoor mile (4:01.02) and outdoors in the 1500 (3:44.84) & mile (4:02.40). Was Harding's top finisher in the 1966 (19th) and 1967 (24th) NAIA XC nationals.

First broke 4 minutes with a 3:59.6 at the Modesto Relays in 1970. Lifetime mile best was 3:57.7 for 2nd at the 1971 AAU Nationals (Liquori 1st) in Eugene and late in his career posted a best of 3:39.9 for 1500 in Oslo in 1978 while running for Athletics West.

Through 2008, he was #127 on the US all-time Mile list and #166 for 1500.

I have my original letter dated 6 September, 1989 and signed by Martyn Brewer announcing the end of AW and the beginning of Nike International.

By the end of 1988 the roster of AW was wide ranging. The interesting names in the middle-distance/distance crowd on the roster. Of course, many of these people were cut by the start of 1989 if they had not performed well in '88 i.e. made the Seoul Olympic team or if they did not in any other way distinguish themselves. The number of those who went on to represent Nike International by the end of 1989 was only a sliver of those below.

Brian Abshire

Terry Brahm

Joetta Clark

Brian Diemer

Nan Doak-Davis

Gerard Donakowski

Sabrina Dornhoefer

Chris Fox

Betty Jo Geiger

Margaret Groos

Ti Hacker

Alisa Harvey

Kathy Hayes

Lynn Jennings

Henry Marsh

Colette Murphy

Doug Padilla

Steve Plasencia

Pat Porter

Alberto Salazar

Joan Samuelson

LInda Sheskey

Mary Slaney

Jim Spivey

Judi St. HIlaire

Nike helped to effectively scuttle the club system in this country by cherry-picking top runners from local clubs for AW.

Nike had its own club system in place in some areas of the country: Nike South, Nike Boston, etc.

Many of the people above were picked up after college and not necessarily plucked from some great situation.

It's not like there were huge opportunities for emerging elite in local clubs. Greater Boston was perhaps one of the exceptions to this.

By time Alberto had become a member, the club had undergone a few changes. From a purely cosmetic measure of the changes you can look at the changes in singlets. The first incarnation was a three color singlet with an artistice image in the middle. The next variation was the two color singlet with the wild west stylized "Athletics West". By time Alberto had joined the singlets became a very simple white with red logo.

Try looking at pre-AW results from XC nationals sometime. There were many pockets of really good runners training together around the country.

And after the beautiful simplicity of the red/white era we were forced to wear the horrendous Tom Derderian red in the front, white on the sides, blue on the back. They were awful.

And confusing to spectators.

LJ

The poster of you and Pat Porter covered in mud is still my all-time favorite though.

As you can tell, I don't post on the board...

Thanks. Plenty of those mud posters still hanging around. The art/design production on that one was fun!

I have umpteen boxes of AW kit as well as all color ways of all Nike International uniforms. Not to mention over 100 pair of unworn shoes still in boxes.

What to do with it all??

I would love to buy a poster or two. I coach HS XC and T&F and there aren't too many great posters like that anymore. Click on my name for my email contact if you're interested. I'd also love to purchase any of your old AW stuff as well.

Ditto that!

Thanks for offer. All kit/posters/memorabilia (except for a certain something) is in storage at my mother's in NH.

I do have a Nike Charles Barkley vs. Godzilla beautiful bomber-type jacket that I wouldn't object to selling.

Never been worn. One of a kind item made here in Portland.

You would not happen to have any of those tan/navy "air mariah" racing flats would you, say size 9 or 9.5. A fantastic shoe!

If you were a really good runner and were offered the chance to join AW with health benefits, travel money, a monthly stipend and all the kit and shoes you needed, would you have turned that down?

We can agree to disagree but the opportunities AW offered to emerging elite were fantastic.