Teddy Mitchell was an NCAA title as a walk-on.
Teddy Mitchell was an NCAA title as a walk-on.
Teddy gave up a scholarship at Tennessee. Does that count?
carney developed at Millersville with prs of 14:00 and 29:12 I think, then went to penn state and ran slower his 5th year. Millersville also has a guy now who has run about 14:25 5k and in the mid 29 for 10k. I forget his name. These times show development in a program by these guys. Millersville might not be a quote\"hot bed for distance runners\" (what schools with no dollars really is???) the school is developing some guys.. I ran against the twins from hempfield, the housemans in hs and they look good right now. I used to beat them but not any more.
how about DIII, they must have some great ones. Was Paranya from Haverford a walkon???
Definitely have to agree with Sully about John Scherer. John walked on at UM, was an 8 time All-A, Three time NCAA Champ. He later made a couple of World Cross Teams and was fifth in the World Indoor 3000 in 1991. Came to UM for the Aerospace Engineering program. Graduated with like a 3.9 and ended up with a doctorate by the mid-90's. Pretty extraordinary guy.
A couple more walkons at UM that became pretty good and came from the same "Recruiting class". Dan Oden walked on, ran 29 minutes for 8K as a frosh, then was All-Big Ten and just missed A-A as a redshirt junior. Another walk on, Matt Smith, was 10th at NCAA's in XC as a fifth year senior. You get that out of any recruiting class and you've done pretty well. Amazingly (or luckily), the "studs" they recruited for that class didn't live up to their credentials coming in, but the walkons made it a very good class.
josh eberly - western state. 4:35, 10:00 high school. 14:06 as junior, top returnee for xc in dII.
Can't be considered a walkon in DIII because NO ONE has a scholarship.
Pat Porter from Adams State in the 80's was a walk-on. He went on to win a bunch of National Titles for them, then became one of the best cross country runners in the world, and also made 2 Olympic teams.
Richie Brinker from Central Michigan who now runs for Hansons use to get waxed in practice. Turned out to be a 3 time all-american.
Steve Jones
couldn't break 17 min as an 18 yr old
Before his career was over, ran 13:18, 27:3?, 2:07:13.
Punky Brewster wrote:
Teddy Mitchell was an NCAA title as a walk-on.
Right. Teddy was a complete zero coming out of HS.
Yeah... Brinker is one of those guys that pisses you off... You think when you see them run as Freshman that at least you'll never be last in race as long as they're in it... and then they get darn good... aaaarrrrrgggghhhhhh! Good job, Brinker!
Henery Marsh was a walk on at BYU in 1976
The point is, Teddy was a complete scrub who could barely scrap up any conference points before he headed down to Fayetteville. A few months later he was a top 10 NCAA XC guy and then that spring broke 29:00 and won a major upset 10K
John McDonnell does a great job of developing walk-on talent:
Alistair Cragg (NCAA CHAMP)
Daniel Lincoln (NCAA CHAMP)
Teddy Mitchell (NCAA CHAMP)
Brian Baker (NCAA CHAMP)
Ryan Wilson was on books his freshman year (NCAA CHAMP)
Dewayne Minor (won Penn Relays, about 14:00/8:00)
Danny Green (All American)
Andrew Begley (All American)
There are probably even more walk-ons that I am forgetting.
Unca Dawg wrote:
The point is, Teddy was a complete scrub who could barely scrap up any conference points before he headed down to Fayetteville. A few months later he was a top 10 NCAA XC guy and then that spring broke 29:00 and won a major upset 10K
I have no doubts about McDonnell's coaching ability but how Mitchell can be considered a scrub talent is beyond me.
He was a 3 time FL finalist and state champ at two distances in multiple years.
I think the term 'walk on' is being stretched to the legal limit in this case specifically and others generally.
Also was/is a 16 and under 3000m record holder. I think 8:34 or 8:38-either way pretty good for that young. Still not a walk-on if it is by choice. Some of the other HOGS on that list are also not walk-ons-were scholarship athletes. Still John is the best coach in America. A legit HOG who was a walk on would be Richard Cooper 8:35 steeple after having been a 4:25ish and 9:30ish-ended up a three or four time All-American.
The best walk on of all was Frank Shorter. A 4:30 miler in high school he was not recruited by anyone. He went to Yale and won an NCAA six mile title and then as we all know on to Olympic glory.
Sorry, but Mitchell went to Arkansas and got NO MONEY. That is the definition of a walk-on. His times deteriorated significantly his time with Doug Brown, thus significantly lowering his "stock."
Isn't the definition of a walk-on someone who walks on the team with no scholarship money? That is what T. Mitchell did. If you use the argument that Teddy was good beforehand, then most of the Arkansas walk-ons aren't true "walk ons" either. Richard Cooper, or Andrew Begley, or anyone else on the list surely "Could" get scholarships to other shitty programs, but they chose to WALK ON, thus classifying them as a walk-on. If you want this category to read "best shitty high school runner who developed into big time NCAA runner," then that completely changes everything.
BTW, Teddy was literally a joke in the SEC. He rarely scored in conference meets, and when he did, it was 7th or 8th. He became a monster during his tenure in Fayetteville.
Unca Dawg wrote:
Sorry, but Mitchell went to Arkansas and got NO MONEY. That is the definition of a walk-on. His times deteriorated significantly his time with Doug Brown, thus significantly lowering his "stock."
Based on the title of the thread I would say that the original poster was looking more for the 'shitty or unknown HSer' who became a star.
Not comparing Mitchell to Alan Webb but if he decides to attend Tennessee and saves them the scholarship and decides to run for the team he is a 'walk on' by definition but not what many, many people would use as an example of a walk on.