RIP Dr Tony Waldrop - Share your remembrances here

He was on fire when I was in college

He really was something back then. I saw him run at Penn in 73 or 74 and he did 3:53 in the mile and it's still the fastest mile I've seen run in person. Sad that he was only 70.

He was Bad Ass back in the day.

RIP Tony

'74 Penn Relays Waldrop runs 3:53 with Dennis Fikes at 3:55. Waldrop takes a victory lap followed by Penn's Fikes taking a lap of his own.

A then lesser known Eamonn Coghlan, John Harnett, Brian McElroy and Tom Gregan lining up for it seemed like every relay.

Great memories.

I remember listening to the radio when he had a string of sub 4 minute miles indoors, it was a national story for one season- track was more of a sports fan concern back then . What a great talent!!

Also an All American in cross country.

The Duke anchored that Nova team against Manhattan's Tony Colon. I was a half lap behind and it was the loudest crown I ever heard, that is, until the mile. I was in the corral after finishing the steeplechase. Incredible experience. I think I saw the best of the Penn Relays.

I was a school kid in Chapel Hill when Tony was in his prime. People in town who didn’t follow track knew who Tony Waldrop was. He still ran occasionally after quitting track. He won the local Bob Holiday Cross Country Challenge, which was a popular 10k in 1978 or 1979.

One of the most fluid runners I have ever seen. Floated then exploded. RIP Dr. Waldrop

Thank you for the notice about Tony. I have always remembered him. He was really an excellent runner. I was high school freshman in Philly in 1974, busy running that year myself, and reading about his races in the Inquirer and the Bulletin. Had read over the years that he was one of the many runners who did good things in life later on. It's true that the applied daily effort at one thing (distance running) can carry over to other aspects of life. Good for him and others that he did so.

Back in the mid-1970s, many of the high school cross country meets at Belmont Plateau had true "old timer" starters, who had been World War 1 veterans and who loved the sport. Just before he fired the starter's pistol, one day one of them, instead of saying "ready" said "Anyone can sprint, it takes character to run distance." I always like seeing when individual distance runners prove him to be correct.

RIP Tony.

Dennis was and is an incredible person.

He was my doppelganger. May he RIP.

Greatest Tony Waldrop documentary that wot has ever bin.

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A Puma man. 3rd 1972 NCAA 880.

I didn't like xc while at UNC and the summer before my senior year Tony coaxed me to run with him. He wasn't running seriously at the time but he was so massively talented he could outrun me easily. I placed 4th in the ACC conference meet, a feat I owe all to him.

I have a memory that I cherish to this day. We often ran over a railroad bridge which only had railroad ties, no bed and you could easily see the creek 40-50 feet below. He would dance over the bridge from tie to tie with the greatest of ease, while I would carefully try to place my feet on the ties and not fall. He as just an amazing athlete and far more than just a runner.

I have a similar memory running with Tony and tlm1959 in the Orange County side of Duke Forest. There was standing water with a cottonmouth snake lurking on the side of the water. Tony leapt over the water with ease, tlm1959 hoped through it, and I waded through like a clumsy drunk fearful of the snake. Tony looked back and smiled with an empathetic smile, knowing that some things city slickers just didn’t do well. It was life in color and not black and white - RIP -