Suggestion from coach turned ex-UA Wildcat George Young into four-time Olympian – Arizona Daily Star

Then Carl Cooper, the Wildcat track coach, came up with an idea: “I’d like you to run in the AAU national meet in the steeplechase,” he told Young.

“What’s the steeplechase?” Young asked.

Not only would Young quickly learn about the 3,000-meter steeplechase, but he soon became one of the best U.S. athletes in the event and one of the world’s best distance runners of the 1960s and early 1970s.

Young became the first U.S. runner to compete in four Olympics. He won a bronze medal in the 1968 Olympics, and he set U.S. records six times and established two indoor world marks.

Looking back at his running career and his quarter-century of coaching at Central Arizona College, Young said: “It seems like a fairy tale,” with all the fortuitous turns of fate. But he said “it was hard work every day” that brought him success.

The Casa Grande resident said he was inspired by his mother’s advice: “You can do anything you want to do as long as you set your mind to it.”

In 1959, Young set his mind on mastering the steeplechase, which wasn’t a collegiate event then. Cooper and Young cooked up an improvised course at Arizona Stadium with bales of hay substituting for the barriers used in the race’s water jumps.

Just a few weeks later, Young ran his first steeplechase and, in a surprise, finished second in the AAU national championships.

That qualified him to compete in the U.S.-Russia track meet, a competition that carried extra importance during the tense days of the Cold War rivalry. As a rookie in the steeple, Young finished fourth among four runners.

Young began his Army tour later that summer and, much to his amazement, learned that the Army wanted him to train for the service’s Olympic team.

“That sure sounded a lot better than going to Korea in the infantry,” Young, now 82, recalled with a smile in a recent interview.

That Army assignment was only the latest unexpected twist in George Young’s life journey.

After completing high school in Silver City, New Mexico, he enrolled at the UA because his girlfriend would be attending the school the next year. He had played high school football, basketball and had run the sprints in track but had not earned an athletic scholarship.

With little money, he pledged to Theta Chi fraternity and washed dishes in return for room and board. For his tuition and other expenses, he unloaded rail freight cars, worked at the dog track and did field maintenance at Arizona Stadium.

Theta Chi insisted that Young run in the intramural cross country race.

Running in his old Converse sneakers, Young won easily. Cooper immediately invited him to join the team.

Over four track seasons, he improved consistently in the mile and two-mile runs. His times were good but not exceptional. Young said he just stayed near the races’ pacesetters and then turned on his after-burners in a finishing kick.

Because he competed in varsity track his freshman year, an NCAA rule (since dropped, of course) made him ineligible to vie for the NCAA championships.

In any case, Young’s running thrust him toward a bigger stage over the next dozen years:

1960: Young set a record in winning the U.S. steeplechase trials, qualifying him for the Rome Olympics. He was among the favorites to medal, but he hit a hurdle in a steeplechase heat. He missed making the finals by one-tenth of a second.

1964: Young achieved a career goals by capturing the steeple in the U.S.-Russia meet in 8:42.1.

Young again won the Olympic steeple trials. But at the Tokyo Olympics, he went out too fast in the final race, faltering near the end. He finished fifth.

1968: Young shattered the U.S. record in the two-mile run in a career highlight.

“That race was loaded with great runners,” Young said of the event, which, including Ron Clarke of Australia. Young won in 8:22.0.

In another highlight race, he improved the U.S. steeple mark to 8:30.6.

Later that year, Young proved his extraordinary versatility by winning both the steeplechase and the marathon at the Olympic trials.

At the Mexico City Olympics, Young missed winning the steeplechase gold medal by one second. Young placed third in 8:51.8.

Four days later, in the marathon, Young was in 10th with about three miles to the finish. But being inexperienced in the marathon, he didn’t consume enough liquids during the race and suffered leg cramps. He finished 16th.

1969: Young blazed to a world indoor record of 13:09.8 in the three-miles race.

1970: Young went to NAU to study for a doctorate. He began running again and found he was still in “pretty good shape.”

1971: Returning to competition in the 5,000 meters, Young surprised the running world anew by setting a U.S. record in 13:32.2. He says he wishes he had concentrated on the 5K earlier in his career.

1972: Young, then 34, became the oldest runner of that era to break the four-minute mile “barrier,” clocking 3:59.

In the Olympic trials 5,000, Young took on Oregon runner Steve Prefontaine. Young stayed close to the 21-year-old “Pre” but fell back in the final laps. Young finished second, qualifying for his fourth Olympics, but he was not happy.

“I have more training to do,” he vowed.

Dave Murray, who coached UA cross country and track from 1968-2002, said that when Young trained, he “ran all-out, straining to the point of pain.”

That, in fact, was Young’s mantra: Train til you’re hurting — and then run some more. But, looking back, Young agreed that he overdid it after the Prefontaine race.

Back in Flagstaff, he trained by running up the road to 9,300-foot Mount Elden.

“Somehow, I injured my lower back,” Young said.

He was not at his best at the 1972 Munich Olympics and failed to qualify for the final.

In that era of amateur competition, athletes were not allowed to receive compensation. In 1962, Young began teaching general science and coaching cross country and track at Casa Grande Union High School.

In 1971, he launched a 25-year career as cross country and track coach at Central Arizona in Casa Grande. His 1988 cross country team won a national championship, and Young was named Coach of the Year.

Young became athletic director and Central Arizona won 14 championships in seven sports. The college recognized his achievements by naming its arena the George Young Activity Center.

Young has two children and three grandchildren. He married Nancy Bates, a teacher, 36 years ago.

Now retired for more than 20 years, Young vividly remembers the day Cooper told him about running in the 1959 AAU championships.

It was a moment and a race that transformed his life.