James Arthur Hogue (born October 22, 1959) is an American impostor who most famously entered Princeton University by posing as a self-taught orphan. Early life Hogue was raised in a working-class family in Kansas City, Kansas...
Falcon was a player, I was a big fan, but I'd forgotten about him!
It's like this maybe; we all remember the stars from our high school and college years, but then it fuzzes up. I am an older guy, Pre was the big man when I was in high school, I was really dialed in from '75 - '79. Frank Shorter! Bill Rodgers!
Same as with music, you set your taste when you are young. See you soon, for now I'm gonna finish my coffee and listen to the Ramones "Rocket to Russia." LOBOTOMY!
Falcon was a player, I was a big fan, but I'd forgotten about him!
It's like this maybe; we all remember the stars from our high school and college years, but then it fuzzes up. I am an older guy, Pre was the big man when I was in high school, I was really dialed in from '75 - '79. Frank Shorter! Bill Rodgers!
Same as with music, you set your taste when you are young. See you soon, for now I'm gonna finish my coffee and listen to the Ramones "Rocket to Russia." LOBOTOMY!
I bet you will struggle to remember the joe falcon level guys from your college years without some prompting. You know the ones that won a couple of NCAA, had a good race but never really did anything in the WC/Olympics. Take a guy like Wheating. Who in 20 years is going to remember that brief period after he ran 3:30.9 when he looked like a world beater? And that is a dude who made 2 Olympic teams. You will be lucky to remember Leo and Centro.😁And Webb cause he is coming back any day now...
I was a spectator at NCAA CC Championship in '87. Faclon surged up a hill around 4.5mi mark and gapped the field. For the remainder of the race he glanced over his shoulder often and easily held his lead. He seemed to have much more if needed. Couple that with NCAA 1500 and 10,000m track titles and later a sub 3:50 mile. Quite a runner.
My team was 4th that day, but of course I was not part of the top 7.
Never knew about this runner and his accomplishments. Recently watched his 1988 NCAA indoor double on YouTube. Feel like I’ve been an American distance fan since the early 2010’s but I’m still discovering past great US distance runners from the 90’s and 2000’s. Am I just a bad fan for not knowing him or even David Krummenacker? Or is this just a symptom of the sport and future fans won’t know who Boris Berian is either.
Nothing wrong with not knowing someone from what seems to be long before your day. It can be fun to learn about past figures. I did it as a kid in major sports (interest in running history came later).
According to TRACK & FIELD NEWS, he ran the last lap in 54.7. However, he covered the last 300m in 39.0, which is 52.0 pace.
So Joe finished a 13:20 in 54.7, with a blistering last 300m. This shows he could have run faster, but it doesn’t show anything more than maybe he could have run 13:12-13:14 or so that day. However, Joe did benefit from drafting almost the entire race. I think what Joe showed is he had the tools to be dangerous in championship races.
In fairness some of Joe’s issues appeared to be bad luck, like tripping on a sprinkler while leading NCAA Cross Country but take a look at this. Again bad luck but this is NCAA 1500m at Provo in 1989. The Olympic champ Peter Rono is in this heat. This is not the final. Joe is here and he runs into problems and when he is shoved it is amazing (to me) how far that shove sends Joe across the track.
NCAA Track and Field ChampionshipsProvo, UTJune 3, 1989Men's 1500m - Six-time NCAA Champion, Joe Falcon, was tripped from behind and then pushed to the groun...
In fairness some of Joe’s issues appeared to be bad luck, like tripping on a sprinkler while leading NCAA Cross Country but take a look at this. Again bad luck but this is NCAA 1500m at Provo in 1989. The Olympic champ Peter Rono is in this heat. This is not the final. Joe is here and he runs into problems and when he is shoved it is amazing (to me) how far that shove sends Joe across the track.
Joe was a sub 13 runner, but he honestly seemed to have a psychological issue which manifested itself in tripping. In this race, there was no way he should’ve been flailing to the track like this He “tripped” several other times as well.
Joe was a legend. I remember watching him toy with the field at NCAA Indoor 1988 in the 3000, waving to the crowd and pumping his fist as he took over the lead with a lap to go.
Not sure if it's more urban legend than fact, but I remember people saying Joe could bench press well over 200lbs.
I rememeber that too...except i remember the number being 300 (!). I'm pretty sure that was in a feature article about him from either runner's world or running times. i'm sure i still have it somewhere in my massive collection of 80s/90s running magazines.
Falcon was a player, I was a big fan, but I'd forgotten about him!
It's like this maybe; we all remember the stars from our high school and college years, but then it fuzzes up. I am an older guy, Pre was the big man when I was in high school, I was really dialed in from '75 - '79. Frank Shorter! Bill Rodgers!
Same as with music, you set your taste when you are young. See you soon, for now I'm gonna finish my coffee and listen to the Ramones "Rocket to Russia." LOBOTOMY!
I bet you will struggle to remember the joe falcon level guys from your college years without some prompting. You know the ones that won a couple of NCAA, had a good race but never really did anything in the WC/Olympics. Take a guy like Wheating. Who in 20 years is going to remember that brief period after he ran 3:30.9 when he looked like a world beater? And that is a dude who made 2 Olympic teams. You will be lucky to remember Leo and Centro.😁And Webb cause he is coming back any day now...
People will remember Centro. First American 1500m Oly champion in over a century. He’s in the all-time US HOF.
The American records 1500/3k/5k were held by a 3:48/13:00 guy. The mile was a 3:47. It isn't remotely clear he would be holding more than the 10k record. Possible but he would have needed really good days...
And yeah him having one more year like 1990 would have been fun. Instead he is one of a half dozen guys where you go what if...
Falcon was never going to run 27:20. The point is if Falcon could run 27:20 he was going to own the US record book at that time. Falcon had an acceleration that was unusual but he never showed anything close to 27:20 ability. It is astounding how people credit Joe with ability that he didn’t show. Nenow ran 27:20 but he was probably a 3:58 miler at best. People have no idea what it would have been like to have 27:20 ability with 3:49. Back then that meant you might have an Olympic gold medal.
Nenow does, because he lost to someone with the kind of ability the year he ran 27:20.
Falcon was never going to run 27:20. The point is if Falcon could run 27:20 he was going to own the US record book at that time. Falcon had an acceleration that was unusual but he never showed anything close to 27:20 ability. It is astounding how people credit Joe with ability that he didn’t show. Nenow ran 27:20 but he was probably a 3:58 miler at best. People have no idea what it would have been like to have 27:20 ability with 3:49. Back then that meant you might have an Olympic gold medal.
Nenow does, because he lost to someone with the kind of ability the year he ran 27:20.
Indeed. Excellent example of the astonishing ability we would be witnessing in Joe if he could have run 27:20, which seems rather unlikely.
