wow, check out for a bit and feel like I missed a ton!
One thing that impressed my about Falcon when I was there, and even more so now that I am older, was how he would do anything for the team. Some of my details may not be exact, for feel free to correct/add on.
Lots of Hogs 'sacrificed' ( although we didn't consider it a sacrifice ) for the Team, but Joe did so much.
His true freshman year in cross, he was young, 17 or a young 18 and he probably should have red shirted. But, to have any chance of winning NCAA's ( which would be our first cross title ever) we needed him to run. He had no problem stepping up to the plate. He ran the meet, running right where John told him to be, around 40th. Now David Swain ( who was having a great senior season) was up in the top 10 with Paul Donovan ( who had missed a ton of training due to various things that fall). With about a mile to go, Donovan's lack of training caught up with him and he started to drop places. John told Joe he needed to start moving up. Like clockwork for every place Paul lost, Joe passed someone. they met at the finish line in 23rd and 24th or so. Joe went on to get 7 the next year, then 2nd then 1st. Think if he had redshirted, he might have had a 4 year NCAA total of around 11 points!! Espen Borge (30's) and Gary Taylor (50th or so ) rounded out our scorers.
The next time I remember Joe offering to do a very tough double so we could have a chance at winning NCAA's was his sophomore year outdoors in 1987. We had 5 guys qualified in the 1500m including Joe. Instead of running the 1500m he offered to double the 5K and 10K to get more points for the team. The meet was at LSU, hot as can be. I remember thinking, man, this guy has some balls, he is volunteering to do that tough distance double in the heat just to give us a chance to win. He won the 10K, made the final of the 5K, but the pace was fast in the 5K and he didn't win. Due to a bunch of us running like shit, we had no chance of winning the meet when the 5K started, but he ran it and he tried to win.
Next was indoors in 88. We had won indoor nationals 4 times in a row, and this would be 5. Our team was lean that year. Back then they only had the mile and 3K indoors, no 5K and they had heats in the mile and 3K. He offered to double. 4 races in two days on a leg draining 10 lap to the mile board track. Joe made both finals. He won the mile ( 2:00 then threw in a 56 third quarter to blow the race open, and cruised to a 3:58,..fast for a board track - side note Matt Taylor came through huge in that race and got 3rd, 6 big points we would need all of them!).
It came time for the 3K. Joe had to be tired. John told him our only chance of wining was for Joe to run. If he got fifth, we stood a slim chance, 4th, better, 3rd or better, looking good. Joe went out, hung in 6th until 1K to go, then summoning strength from I don't know where, he started moving up. Coming up to the bell, he pulled into second and down the backstraight he took the lead for the win. Absolutely amazing! The only double in college I could compare it to was Rupp's 3 races at College Station a few years ago, but I saw both and I think Joe's was more impressive. Our team scored 32 points that weekend for the win, Joe had 20.
If you think about it, in the olympic year of 88, Joe won NCAA cross leading up to it ( fall of 87), did that incredible double at NCAA indoors and then won NCAA outdoors as well. Pretty amazing year!
I agree with Cush in that if you had to race Joe, it was hard to criticize him. You couldn't help but look up to him and the things he did. Perhaps from the safety of the stands it was easier to be more analytical.