Rating A Hero’s Welcome Distance-Running Legend Lindgren Returns To Rogers High
Contemporaries of Gerry Lindgren’s magical run through the ‘60s tied his many accomplishments into a neat bow of inspiration, but it was the legend himself who best reached the students at his alma mater.
“I liked how he was so skinny, so small, and did all this,” Rogers sophomore Jush Smith said. “I thought it was pretty cool to have someone that famous from Rogers.”
Lindgren, a distance-running pioneer and Olympian who still holds state high school records set more than 30 years ago, won 11 NCAA titles and set a world record for 6 miles, was at Rogers High School Friday to kick off an alumni fund-raiser.
At a morning assembly he told the students, “When I first came to Rogers I couldn’t get in because I came in the front doors. The doors were so big and I was such a wimpy kid with a high squeaky voice that I couldn’t open the doors. I had to wait until a girl came in.”
He also told them his most memorable victory was the first time he reached the top of Beacon Hill east of the school.
“I didn’t think they’d know who I was. I’m an old guy, 48 already,” said Lindgren, Class of ‘64, after the assembly that began with a standing ovation as he walked through the packed crowd in the gym to the stage. “They need a mentor. There’s got to be somebody come into their life and inspire them… . My coach, Tracy Walters, is such a dynamic and outstanding person. Literally hundreds of individuals lives are better because of Coach Walters.”
It was Walters, who retired as a Rogers teacher in 1982 and is now the Voice of Bloomsday, who dramatically retold the story how a skinny high schooler from Spokane whipped the second- and third-ranked 10,000-meter runners in the world in a USSR-USA dual track meet in the Los Angeles Coliseum in 1964.
Also on the stage were former Lindgren teammates Len Long and Steve Jones and Ferris rival Rick Riley.
The theme was Lindgren as the inspiration for Spokane becoming a distance running mecca.
“They call it the Spokane mystique,” Rogers cross country coach Steve Keasel said. “It started in 1964 with Gerry Lindgren and Rogers High School. It elevated beyond the Spokane level, beyond the state level, to the national level and international level.”
Lindgren will be on campus today, running in the first Gerry Lindgren Fund Run. Between 10 a.m. and 2 p.m. walkers or joggers who solicited pledges can choose a variety of courses to cover. Rogers students have their pledged run on Thursday during Big R week. (Call 467-6346 or stop by the school to contribute or sponsor a runner.)
“I’d like to come back whenever I can be of service,” said Lindgren, who manages a large vegetarian health food store in Honolulu and extols the virtues of a meat-free diet. “I wanted to be able to give back to Rogers what I’ve gotten.”
He said he learned two lessons from Walters.
First, the coach told him he could do something for the school even if he never won a race.
“Because I’m such a wimpy kid with a high squeaky voice no one on the cross country team would want to lose to me … so if I could just get out there in the lead and even though I didn’t hold it, I could make it so they would all run faster because no one wants a wimp ahead of them.”
After the laughter subsided, he added, “The other thing Coach said to me that made a difference was … there’s got to be a reason for being here… . He said you’ve got to make something of your life. When you leave the world, when you die, the world has to be a better place because of something you’ve done, the effort you’ve made… . . You can do something but what you do with your life starts now.”