Bill McChesney Jr.

OOH, OOOH, raising hand here..

Don is stil up in alaska, I saw an article about him some time back, he hands out awards at state meet but doesn't run so much anymore. Still holds the alaskan HS distance records. I think of him everytime a Boston song is on the radio!

I think Art was doing some marathons in the late 80's early 90's. I recall seeing his name somewhere, but never ran into him :(

note to Steve, my "mcchesney sanctioned" course goes on line today!

McChesneys are great people and a great family. And tough Ping-Pong players. I would have never gone to Oregon if not for them.

I can think of two classic stories of Bill. One, when he showed up at the U of O presidents house wearing a kermit the frog outfit, and two, when he was walking through the stands at a high school football game in Winston, Oregon with a traffic cone on his head. I am sure Steve can tell those stories better than I can.

Dan Nelson

Art is living in Vancouver, BC these days. He won Los Angeles a few times in the 90s - 1994 for one. He is doing triathlons these days as well as running.

Thanks Prescott...do you know what Art got his PR down too? I think he ran 2:12 or so at Moscow.

AW kid who died was Jeff Drenth. Used to be a XC meet named after him in the Eugene area.

damn, I ran LA in '91. just missed Art by a couple of years. what a cutie.

Steve. A big hello from Cy Curnin.

There were three Nelsons that ran for Oregon during my brief time there. The first was high school record holder Jeff Nelson. What a talent. He only stayed for his freshman year and moved on. What a talent. Nice kid.

The next was Bruce Nelson. Very one loves Bruce. I was lucky enough to be his dorm mate for a good part of our freshman year. Things did not go well for Bruce early in his freshman year and he was frustrated. But he gutted things out and finished like the champ that he is. I have always been proud of Bruce. I enjoyed going into his home near Winston. He has a very nice family. We respected him so much that a bunch of us including, if I remember right (it seems that Matt C. was there, but I can't remember for sure), Art B., Mike Friton, Ed Goldberg, Billy and I went to Bruce's home town to run a mile on a dirt track on a cold night at the half time of a high school football game to honor Bruce. Bill D. showed up and made an appearance. Bill was indeed wearing a cone over his head and dancing around getting the crowd into it. We had so much fun that night and we were treated like royalty. Bruce's entrie town seemed to be there. They made signs for us and hung them at the school in welcome.

They seemed thrilled that the Ducks had arrived. The race itself was one of the most fun races that I have ever run. We fought the gophers for the first 3 laps at good pace for the conditions and then followed Bruce on the final lap. We came through the 800 in a relaxed time something around 2:04 and the announcer said something like " they are on 4:00 pace, lets see if they can do it". We cruised in and my freshman brother thought we were really in a race and outkicked Bruce. Bruce didn't mind and in his humble way he really appreciated us all coming. We all came to show Bruce's home town that we appreciated having him. The night for us was all about having fun and honoring a wonderful friend. It was a great night to be a Duck.

Billy and I discoverd Dan Nelson in the home town of our grandparents, Baker Oregon. Whenever we visited we would run with Dan and then visit with him. He did not have consistant coaching and we would offer him advice on how to train. When I was doing road races after college I ran into Dan at a race called the Strawberry "half fast" Marathon. It was a rolly 1/2 marathon that my parents loved to go to in Eastern Oregon. It was fun as it was actually started in a small town with a cannon and was run on a quite road among a few farmers and the cows. When Dan showed up he was still in high school and I knew that he was good, but I did not expect him to be with me. I was out for an easy win, I thought. We got to the 10K in under 32:00 and I looked over at Dan and asked him what his PR for the 10K was. He said in a confident voice "That was it", and kept running like it was no big deal. I pulled away from Dan a bit later, but he ran something like a 1:07 half marathon in the summer before his senior year in high school. I told Dellenger that he had to recruit this kid. Billy told Bill D. the same thing. Dan's high school coaches did things like drive him the 8 hours to Eugene getting up very early on the day of his finals in the State meet. So he had not shown all of Oregon his ability yet. We were happy that Bill contacted Dan on our say so. Dan went on to win the NCAA steeplechase. I had the pleasure of training with Dan while coaching him right out of college. He ran something like 8:25 that year. He coached with me at South Eugene for a while. He made a whole bunch of World Championship cross country teams and had a nice career. He was in our wedding and I always love when he visits. Dan send me an email.

Clary had a hip replacement and spins more than runs.

Of all of the Ducks of our era, Art was the most sensible when it came to training. Art could not be rushed and as a result went from being a walk on (I believe Art finished 6th in the State 2 mile that Billy and I went 1,2 in my senior year) to a high Olympic placing. He was the example of being consistant both in training and in racing. He had a vision and knew how to get the most from himself.

Turtle as we called him always had a twinkle in his eye as he loved to give us gentle grief with his incredible wit. He was a great team mate. He kept things loose and was so much fun to be around. I am pretty sure that he also made at least one World Championship team in cross. He is a guy that was easy to cheer for.

I got to know Bruce on a trip to Europe with AIA...he was a great guy...we would crack up when the Eastern European track announcers would say his name...Brew-k Nelsoan...he said his time at Oregon was such that he only made the cross team one year buta he had great timing as that was the year Oregon won the National Championship...Steve do you know where he is today...

I knew Bill. I met him in the fall of “78”.

I never really heard of him until I read this SI article on him winning his third state cross country title(I’m from California). A feat Pre never did.

When I met Bill and he found out I was from California, he wanted to know about Terry Williams(Lompoc, CA). He had great enthusiasm and energy.

Bill was down to earth and didn’t have an attitude, as some team members did. Bill would sometimes ask you to run with him. Bill took me on a run and showed me where Pre had crashed.

That fall, Bill was reaching another level, not only could he stay in step with Al and Rudy, he was starting to dish out the pain. That made for some great work outs.

There was a running shop next to campus. On the wall was a photo the finish of a 5,000. Al is in front of a Kenyan from WSU(Kimombwa?) and there is Bill screaming past the Kenyan and almost catching Al, out in Lane 3! It’s raining and there are people screaming on both sides. Very inspirational.

Steve was no slouch either. I was ahead of Steve in a 10,000. The finish was around the track. I was 30 yards ahead, Steve blitzes around that track and beats me by 30 yards.

The McChesney’s owned the Lane Community College cross country course.

that I sure would like to see!

Thank you runner from L.A. for your nice words about us. You certainly describe the Bill that I love.

I would love to see that picture as well. Do you know that name of the store, so that I could write the owner?

Sampson K. (I don't recall the spelling either) was such a warm and nice guy as well as owning the world record in the 10k before Henry Rono broke it. He was also someone I loved as he was about the only other athlete in the Pac - 8 that was close to my size. He made a real effort to get to know us a people and not just as competitors. He was very kind and humble for such a big talent. So the picture of that race has meaning on so many levels. He helped to put the WSU, Oregon rivalry in it's proper place!

Steve, have you seen this bio on page 5?

http://www.goducks.com/downloads1/3647.pdf?SPSID=5637&SPID=243&DB_OEM_ID=500

Cool bio on all the OR greats... quick story, I coach HS XC currently up here in Washington (Redmond HS). I was wearing my "Go Pre" shirt at an invite on Whidbey Island last weekend and I've never received some many comments about the shirt in my life! Anyway, 2 HS girls asked to take a picture of me, but only to get the picture of the shirt.

Unfortunately, I don't recall the name of the shop maybe someone might know. If they are even in business.

If my memory serves me correctly, I would walk down Agate St. just past 18th and the shop was right around there. Next to the campus.

I would like to have a copy of that pic as well.

If anyone has a pic please post one.

Jsully, Thanks I had not seen that entire thing, but I do have a copy of the part on Bill. I think I may have gotten it from a B. McChesney twilight mile brochure. That also looks like what Oregon has for my brother in the Hall of Fame. That entire thing is really well done! I am sure that anyone who has gotten a chance to look at it enjoyed it as much as I just did.

It is funny were we are picking up things on Bill. I am trying to get ahold of any footage of any of my family on video. I put together a video to music for my parents with footage of our family with good high school running footage. I have great shots of all of the brothers except Ken (I would love some of Ken). But we do have much from college. Can anyone help with that?

Thanks again for thinking of us.

I wish we had more threads like this one......I love this kind of stuff........

could we ever get lucky enough to hear more good runners from the past!...I love read their stories

please post