I'm not aware of any multisport cross country guys other than the obvious cc/nordic combo. I'm not talking about Kirk Heinrich having great running talent that was wasted or anything like that, I'm talking about people who could have gone either way when they were in high school. If you can provide examples of anyone who was very good at another sport in addition to distance I would really appreciate it.
Mark Blackmon-West Charlotte-2011-qualified for Foot Locker Nationals, did not even run it, had a Basketball conflict, went on to play Div I Mid Major Basketball somewhere.
A high school teammate of mine --
- Football (All-County safety, later started for Harvard)
- T&F (All-County miler)
Better at football than 8k XC so he stuck with FB.
Decades later, along comes Ford Palmer.
It would be a stretch on the running side but Wilt chamberlain. If he spent most of his amazing athleticism trying to get 26-25m 8k, and 31-32m 10k, he would lose much of his basketball strength and ability but would still be good enough to hack it in D1 basketball. Chamberlain after leaving the NBA played pro? Volleyball, power lifted, etc. in high school (and college) he did track and field: 400m, shotput, high jump. He was probably one of the greatest athletic and genetic superlatives of all time. He would just need to have ample time and motivation to train for xc, along with a physical therapist and masseuse to aid in logistics. That would be the biggest impediment. If you're Wilt Chamberlin the ladies man, why would you make such sacrifice for the ignominy of running? Sigh such is the undervaluing of running in our society doe
I ran Div I cross country and came very close to playing DI basketball. The team I would have played for started out 15-0 and rising to top 5 in country before a rash of injuries. My high school friend (who was not as good as me) ended up starting for the team. I could have walked on and played but had no desire to.
Wilt Chamberlain is the only obvious one who comes to mind.
Muggsy Bogues seems like an obvious choice, given he is about the same height as many great distance runners. He might be too much on the explosive side for XC though. Then again, "running" XC seems kind of vague. I'm sure even if he ended up as like a 30 minute 8K guy, he still could have found a team that would have him.
Carnivore 69 wrote:
Wilt Chamberlain is the only obvious one who comes to mind.
Yea. This thread made me think about a lot of pro basketball (even though we're talking about collegiates here) players who have pretty decent middle distance running chops. But big difference between "decent" middle distance chops and competitive D1 xc times in xc 8k and 10k. D1 xc is no joke and requires more than just athleticism and time. It takes long blocks of intense motivation, dedication, hard hard work, on top of running-focused, running-exclusive individuals who were already talented to begin with.
John Parker (the guy who wrote once a runner) played basketball at Portland and was quite good, but hated the weather up there. So he transferred to play at Florida, but the coach at Florida who had recruited him left and the new coach basically wanted to use him as a practice dummy, so he went back to track, which he'd competed in alongside basketball in hs. Sometimes the truth is stranger than fiction.
There was a kid from my high school that was on a state championship BB team and went on to play for Boise State where he was a starter for a couple of years. He hated running but did varsity XC and ran track his senior year. He ran a 2:01 800 in high school coming in pretty cold, like now winter training and taking a month off after basketball. Probably could have been a decent miler.
Erin Donohue
Perhaps Steve Nash.
Kaylie Rhynard is a freshmen at Division 2 GVSU and competing in XC and softball. She was an alternate for their national championship XC team and will play some catcher and center field for their softball team. 1600 PR of 4:58. Her brother is XC all American Caleb Rhynard from Michigan State. She may have had the chance to do both in division 1 but would have been more the walk on level for both sports, especially when trying to do both.
Muggsy was like 5'4" and was built nothing like a distance runner? He was thick and muscular, like a sprinter. He was also a super quick NBA player
Basketball_Then_I_Ran wrote:
he would lose much of his basketball strength and ability but would still be good enough to hack it in D1 basketball.
Understatement of the century.
Matt Santangelo (Gonzaga, late 90s) went to my high school and always jogged the mile in around 5:00 flat in gym class. He played hoops year-round, though. Too big of a basketball talent to consider fooling around with track.
He could also jump off both feet and 360 dunk at about 6'1". I don't know what year this graphic is from, but he recorded a 43" vertical jump at the NBA combine.
Oh yeah, I blocked one of his shots in a pickup game once. Probably the greatest athletic achievement of my life.
I bet there are a bunch. You've got to remember, just as there are some D1 schools whose track programs are terrible, there are some D1 schools whose basketball teams are terrible.
There was a guy on my XC team in college (D1 school) who was recruited to play on the basketball team. He wouldn't have been a star, but he definitely could have been on the basketball team at my school if he wanted to.
I think the more likely option is you get a ton of point guards with great endurance that could run D1. It's unlikely that these guys would have been All-Americans, but I bet a guy like Allen Iverson would have been a solid XC guy.
Back in the day john havlicek was known as one of the most highly conditioned basketball players. You can google him and get the story of him running everywhere as a kid because his parents didn't let him have a bike, etc. Three sport star in high school, but football was fall and baseball was his spring sport. Don't think that he ever ran competitively, but he was the kind of guy who generally succeeded at whatever he put his mind to doing. If he had wanted to run competitively, I think he would have been at that level.
Walter Mcarty was a member of the 1996 Kentucky national championship team and was a starter/6th man. That team was loaded with NBA talent. However Watler was also a 1:57-58 800 kid in high school and i believe he may have won state in the 800 in Indiana. I am pretty sure he could have transitioned into cross country. I dont know if he would have been great but there are plenty of sub 2:00 minutes guys in the 27-28 range for 8K
