Hey guys,
Thanks for the kind words.
As to the "negative aspects" of so many great athletes back in that day in one place at one time. I don't think there was that much, and remember we also had Athletics West in town too! Imagine the atmosphere around town, guys running past each other in the streets, on Pre's trail etc. It was crazy amazing. And it wasn't just our crew, we had the tail end of Pre's teammates, we had Kenny Moore and Jon Anderson, and Mike Manley, Craig Virgin, stud almuns passing through town. It was quite a time.
The thing is, you did not go to Oregon unless you had the ability to be national class, or were committed to giving it your all - we knew where we were, and what we were there for. We were there to be the best. Very few people get to be elite, like Pre or Salazar, but you know, you either had a great time going for it, or you left.
One of my first few days there I ran into Paul Geis and Scott Daggatt (
http://www.seattlepi.com/othersports/374743_where13.html) out for a run near Hendricks...I was still trying to figure out some good routes to run, I introduced myself as a new freshman recruit, and they invited me to run with them. Both, great guys. I did however noticed that the Oregon "easy run" running pace was a tad faster than my high school days, lol.
Negative aspects? I didn't seen any jealousy back in that day. The thing is, I think to have had the ability or potential to run at the level the top guys did, you had to believe you were their equal and just hadn't reached it yet...so our teammates, at least or me, were inspiring. You either had the inner strength to stick it out, or you didn't.
There were things like the occasional transfer student coming in cocky and not being accepted, but that is kind of to be expected when people had already shared frosh and soph years together etc. And as has been reported elsewhere, occasionally someone would get too energetic and race in practice, Dellinger would always nip that in the bud. Some guys couldn't make the transition to college training with college studies -- we had some very promising big talents drop out, or transfer. Dellinger would have been better suited at the time to somehow get more volunteer assistants, and train athletes more like his mentor, Bowerman. There was very little individual attention, and we all over trained in those days, it wasn't just at Oregon, according to my buddies at others schools, it was pretty pervasive at alot of the elite programs.
As to Billy?
I think if he could have strung together 3 strong years with out injury, that he would have run under 13:05. He was tough as nails, there was nothing untough about him.