Tracy Smith

Tracy was rad. I ran at Bend High School in Oregon and he was an assistant coach while I was there. He held the indoor three mile world record for about 20 days. Currently he is the head cross-country and track coach at Crook County High School in Oregon. Just a really neat, humble gentleman. You would never know how good he really was by talking with him because that's just not his style. Luckily, my high school coach (Bob Latham) loved to talk and we were always informed on how good Tracy really was.

+ there is a famous Steve Prefontaine picture that was made into the poster for the Pre Classic a few years ago... Tracy was in the poster right beyind Pre, I had Tracy sign it, I think he denied me the autograph like a dozen times because he said it wasn't a poster of him and that it was dumb of me to ask... funny stuff. I love that poster.

Seems to me that he held the indoor American record for 3 miles for a while. I want to say 13:16 set in New York City, but we're talking about pure memory here, so a fact check is in order.

1969 Outdoor 3 mile national championship results follow:

1. Tracy Smith 13:18.4

2. Gerry Lindgren 13:18.4

3. Juan Martinez (MEX) 13:35.6

4. Steve Prefontaine 13:43.0

5. Mario Perez (MEX) 13:44.4

6. Jerry Jobski 13:47.2

Tracy use to live in Bishop, Ca. and every year I would race against him at a 10K in Mammoth Lakes (before Mammoth was fashionable)and every year I would get 2nd place.

I saw Smith run his World Record for the Indoor 3 Mile. Great race. With about a lap to go, the announcer told the crowd that Smith was on record pace and "to bring him home." The crowd went absolutely beserk. That was the same meet, I think, where MacGrady and Evans beat on each other in the 600 (WR for MacGrady).

I understand Tracy was one of the subjects in the sea-level/altitude research that Daniels did in 1968, and that in a return study in the 1990's, Tracy ranked #2 in fitness among those 26 subjects (I think McCubbins of OK State was the only one who tested better).

thanks for the info guys!

perspective wrote:

Seems to me that he held the indoor American record for 3 miles for a while. I want to say 13:16 set in New York City, but we're talking about pure memory here, so a fact check is in order.

1969 Outdoor 3 mile national championship results follow:

1. Tracy Smith 13:18.4

2. Gerry Lindgren 13:18.4

3. Juan Martinez (MEX) 13:35.6

4. Steve Prefontaine 13:43.0

5. Mario Perez (MEX) 13:44.4

6. Jerry Jobski 13:47.2

do you have a link to those results? or any others? thanks

Tracy and his wife put on "Sierra Running Camps" for at least a few years in the late 70's -80's, always a good time. Somewhere along the line he was also a LAPD cop, and perhaps held their academy record for pullups - I always remember him having a lot of natural physical strength. He always impressed me as a very genuine, good and humble person. Ran competitively as a masters athlete somewhere along the line, and before that in the ITA I think.

PS to Burbanktom - did you live in Mammoth any of those summers in the late 70's early 80's, perhaps sharing an apartment with Coach/runner Brad Roy and or Bill Tokar?

Those 10k's in Mammoth WERE tough!

Tracy is truly a great guy. And as other people have said, a very humble person. I wrote a story about him for the Bend Bulletin one year, and it was great to talk to him. He went to Oregon State for a while but things did not work out for him.

Then he went back to California and in 1966 started working with Igloi as his coach. It produced some good results for him including finishing second to Ron Clarke from Australia in a two mile at the Cow Palace.

Lindgren was in the race, and Smith said he was nervous because Igloi told him to go out in 4:16 for the first mile (something he had never done before). Lindgren pushed the pace for the first mile, and then Clarke took over. Smith ended up finishing second in the race to Clarke in a time of 8:31 (if I remember correctly).

From that he was named to the U.S. Team for the World Cross Challenge (the pre-cursor to the World Cross Champs). Smith said he ran the best race of his life there and finished 3rd overall. He was excited because he was running against the Michael Jazy from France, and Mohammed Gammoudi from Tunisia (a couple of fast guys back then).

In 1968, there were two Olympic Trials. One in L.A. and one at Echo Summit outside of Lake Tahoe. Smith won the 5,000m at the first trials, and originally the runners were told the first finisher at L.A. would be selected to the team and the other two slots would be chosen at Lake Tahoe. But...when they got to Lake Tahoe that was changed, and the three slots were chosen from the race there. Smith ended up winning the 10K and made the team. He showed me some of the pictures from the race. Kind of different track to run at since it had a forest of trees in the middle of it.

ok after some digging and help from you guys here's some accomplishments i've found:

1963- 9:11.6 national 2 mile record

1965- ranked #9 in the US for 10k

1966- 2nd US Indoor Championships 3-mile 13:42.4

- ranked #8 in the World for 5k/#2 in the US

- ranked #1 in the US for 10k

- 1st place US outdoor nationals 10k 28:02.0. beats 1964 Olympic 10k champion Billy Mills

- 2nd place US outdoor nationals 3 mile 13:27.4.

1967- 1st place US Indoor Championships 3-mile 13:16.2

- ranked #3 in the US for 5k

1968- ranked #5 in the US for 5k

- ranked #1 in the US for 10k

- won Olympic trials in LA in the 5k

- won Olympic trials in Lake Tahoe in the 10k. qualified for Olympics

- won US championships in 10k in a meet record 28:47.0

- 11th place at the Olympics

1969- ranked #10 in the world for 5k

- ranked #1 in the US for 5k

- 1st place US outdoor nationals 3 mile 13:18.4. Beats Gerry Lindgren and Pre

1973- 1st place US indoor Championships 3-mile 13:07.2

it's hard to believe he was this good and i barely ever heard of him the past 6 yrs i've been studying the sport

I went to Alhambra HS at about the same time as his little brother was running for Arcadia. They usually, but not always, beat us in the dual meet and at the league meet (except for my senior year (67) in at least the JV race), but we often placed better at the first round of CIF XC. However, it was hard to beat them because they had that great tradition that was due in no small part to Tracy and the running of his brother. Everybody liked him, even the guys on our team and our coach.

The first "real" track meet that I went to (I think the Compton Relays, early June probably 1966) he ran what was probably the two mile; I was really excited, since I would see him at our meets with Arcadia some times. Ryun ran 3:53.3 or so and missed Jazy's WR by a couple of tenths (we had to wait forever for them to post the tenths up). That meet started the process of becoming a T&F fan.

1965 NCAA Outdoor

6 mile 4th

Tracy Smith Oregon State University 29:12.3

3 mile 6th

Tracy Smith Oregon State University 14:02.8

I did live in Mammoth at that time, but mostly winter as I worked for the ski area. But would drive up from Burbank to run those Chart House races.

we run the charthouse 10k when we're up there for our 10 day summer altitude training

I ran against him when he was an "old guy" back in the mid 90s - the guy was in incredible physical condition for his age, he was easily late 40s (??) and the guy was really cut. He ran upper 9:20s for a low key indoor 3k in Boulder.

CO-Runner wrote:

I ran against him when he was an "old guy" back in the mid 90s - the guy was in incredible physical condition for his age, he was easily late 40s

I know that he run in the 29s for 10K as an over 40 runner and believe set the masters AR for the distance...knew him fairly well at that time (1985ish) as he was one of our sponsored runners...just a real mild mannered stud.

MF

World Cross Country

3rd 1966

31st 1969

Tracy is a good guy in every sense of the word. The 'old guy' ran a couple of years back at a Washington State University indoor. I coached with him in Central Oregon and on the way up to the meet (bringing several high school students), Tracy agreed to wear one of our sprinters sprint suits and run in the 2 mile. Tracy must have been mid-60's at the time. He wore a school baseball cap and the sprint suit to the cheers of his team. The college runners toed the line and look at him curiously, unbeknownst to them, Tracy was the real deal in his time. It was awesome to watch and as usual, Tracy gutted it out with pride. Heck of a guy! Heck of a coach!