NJ High School. Princeton grad. Sports Illustrated writer.
NJ High School. Princeton grad. Sports Illustrated writer.
He was a good writer, I enjoyed many of the Sports Illustrated articles that he wrote back in the 1980s and 90s.
malmo wrote:
https://www.facebook.com/merrell.nodenNJ High School. Princeton grad. Sports Illustrated writer.
I remember his account of a mile race he ran in which featured Sebastian Coe.
He was an extremely good runner for Lawrenceville before his Princeton days and then ran cross country at Oxford. I believe one story that got him his Sports Illustrated job was about the log walks Charles Dickens would take.
There was no nicer and more engaging person than Merrell. This is a very sad loss.
Here are some other articles on Noden.
Here is a eulogy given by SI writer Jack McCallum:
Here is an article on runblogrun:
As a fellow princeton grad and runner, I'm sad to say I never crossed paths with him or even knew he was. Sounds like a great guy.
I am late to this, and saddened that this is so. I attended high school with Merrell - Lawrenceville prep, just outside of Princeton. There are many fine tributes that have been posted about the remarkable person that Merrell was, and I encourage readers to find them, many from colleagues at Sports Illustrated where Merrell was an esteemed contributor on many, many sporting subjects, running just one of them. From just a few of those portraits will form this image of just what a remarkable person Merrell was, meant in the fullest, largest sense that life can offer. But this being Letsrun, and Merrell being a runner, I need to offer an important clarification. Merrell was an OUTSTANDING prep runner, who, almost single-handedly, willed Lawrenceville to a position as one of the elite East Coast distance-running powers in the mid-70s. It will always be contention that if Merrell did not have so many other and competing passions - literature, writing, golf, music - that he may well have become a great American distance runner, on the largest of stages. At a minimum, he was one of the outstanding prep runners of his era. If in the area, wander in to the always-open Lavino Fieldhouse and Lawrenceville's stately campus, behold one of the finest indoor tracks in the country, and then find the lower-level exit near the swimming pool and gaze up at the bronze plaques that capture the track record's progressions. Merrell's name is everywhere. In a few instances, it's still at the top. It is so sad to be writing this. The running world has lost a precious member.
I remember as a Pac-10 mid distance runner back in the early 80's and a club runner after that being very critical of much of what passed for writing about our sport back then. There were only two whom I would read and think, "Yeah, this guy totally gets it": Kenny Moore and Merrell Noden. I had no idea he was a distinguished runner.
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