Can we settle the debate? Is Mike Seeger a prime example of a talented U.S runner who could have won Olympic glory but sold out for the riches of corporate America? Or is he simply a successful guy who made the right decision to quit running and take the fat pay-check?
---------
The Philadelphia Inquirer
Frank Dolan, Sports Editor
Sunday, April 29, 1990
...And it's Mike Seeger, the tall, slender, emotional senior who wanted desperately to run on a winning relay team this weekend, and didn't quite make it. On Friday he ran a strong leadoff leg for the distance medley team that wound up fifth; yesterday he took the baton on the anchor leg of the 4 x 800 with the slimmest of leads only to get beaten by Georgetown's Michael
Jasper in the stretch.
"I cannot believe this weekend," Seeger is saying as he sits on the steps outside the locker room, where the Georgetown team is being interviewed by the press. "The last thing I thought it would come down to would be a
50-yard, neck and neck [battle to the finish line]. A thousand times in my head I've had it with either me down and passing at the 200 [to go] or me in the lead and just pulling away at 200.
"I came off the shadow [on the long, last curve] and I went at 200 and I could see in the sunlight that Jasper was still with me, and I went again,and he was still with me, and I said, 'God!' And then I thought, 'Oh, it's all right. The straightaway is so short; I'll just hold him off.
"And then there's still 20 yards to go and you get that panic. 'Oh my God, I'm out of gas.' I was just saying 'Keep going, keep going,' and then I heard the crowd cheering and I knew they weren't cheering for me. I went
and went and then I saw him, and he was a step ahead of me, and then it was over.
"I just stood there [beyond the finish line] and I thought, 'I haven't slept in two months for this -- to lose by a step. I could 'see' [former Villanova coaching legend] Jumbo [Elliot] belting me in the face. I could
see everyone up there in the stands, all those Villanova guys that won so many watches and we can't even get one. You focus all year. It's 'eight weeks to Penn Relays, seven weeks to Penn Relays ... a week to Penn Relays,' and then it's Penn Relays week and you lose by a step over two miles. I don't believe this."
It is, indeed, an unbelievable event they've been holding at Franklin Field here.