Jim Spivey is great!

Last I checked he was at Vanderbilt coaching the women's team. Did something change over the past few days?

Jim coached at Chicago for several years, then moved to Vanderbilt in the last year or two. I may be wrong on this, but I read somewhere where his move to Nashville had something to do with his wife's career more than his coaching.

I think that until recently he was on the All-time Top 5 Americans at 1000, 1500, mile, 3000, and 5000.

Jim. You just can't get enough of yourself. Did you really need to start a post reminding everyone of about your career?

Jim Spivey one of America's great milers and a great person as well. Most americans know that Jim and Stev Scott were tremendous runners; however, I wished that they ran more taticfully sound races in championship events.

Jim Spivey is the man. No questions asked. And yes, he is coaching the women's team at Vanderbilt, and doing a damn good job, too. It's a young team, and look for them to make an impact in the SEC in the next few years. Without the numerous injuries they suffered this year, they stood a good chance of making nationals. Guess that will have to wait until next year.

I live in the suburbs of Chicago and can tell you that Jim Spivey is one of the most arogant people I have ever met. He has a very hard time letting go of the good old times when he could run.

I?d have to say that Jim Spivey was one of my idols when I started to run. It was disappointing to see him miss the Olympic team in ?88 and exciting to see him win the trials in ?92. That?s why it was so inspiring that Spivey was in the race in ?96 when I was trying to qualify for the Oly trials for the 1500 in a twilight meet at Northeastern. There was a pretty solid pack of runners with the likes of Eric Nedeu , Paul Vandegriff and Ronnie Harris who wound up winning the race in 3:40. I pretty much just followed Spivey all the way and I couldn?t believe that I was right behind him with one lap to go. I kept up the pursuit all the way and finished in 3:42.1 to Spivey?s 3:41.1. I hit the provisional standard and wound up qualifying for the Trials. It is very inspirational to be effectively rabbitted by one of your running idols while running the best performance of your life. Thanks Jim.

I've watched Spivey for years on TV and saw him in person at the Drake Relays several years ago when he ran as a master. Then, after the Notre Dame XC meet a couple of years ago, one that he ran in as well as 3 of my kids, I had a chance to talk to him. He shared things with me freely and was very gracious. He was not full of himself and was interested in helping young runners.

Maybe you got him on a bad day.

I think you have mistaken Spivey for Virgin. Many people in Illinois dont like Craig Virgin, sighting that he is very arrogant and loves to talk how he was so much better than most, if not all, of todays current h.s. runners. Spivey is great, just like what the top thread says. He is a class act.

Doesn't Spivey still hold the AR in the 2000? Seems that that odd distance was his best.

Did you guys all know that the now famous Art Siemers attended the same high school as Spivey.

Vipam wrote:"I wished that they ran more taticfully sound races in championship events."

I could not disagree more with this statement after recently watching a tape of the 1992 1500 Olympic final. Spivey ran a brilliant tactical race. Put himself off of the shoulder of the leader. He had Cacho boxed in with 400 to go and was in perfect postion to win. Problem was that he couldn't run 50 flat the last 400, Cacho passed on the inside going into the final turn and blasted away. With 250 to go he was still in 3rd.

As for Scott, I agree that he did not run tactically well in the Olympics and he talks about that in his very well written autobiography

BF

BFULLEM,

I couldn't agree more with your post. I was about to basically state the same thing, as I watched the same SKIZZIM.com video, but you beat me to it.

Spivey ran as good a tactical race as could be run.