CHAMPIONSHIPS HISTORY: What If The Bowerman Trophy Existed Before 2009?

NEW ORLEANS – While preparing for our TrackTown Live show (tune in on Monday and Tuesday), we watched Ashton Eaton’s 2010 Bowerman Trophy acceptance speech. It’s filled with the usual Eaton humility and intelligence; at one point, he says “If I were Sam Seemes, you would all win Bowerman Trophies, but I know it doesn’t work like that.”

But the line that really piqued my interest comes right before: “This should have started much earlier.”

Yeah, it should have. But it didn’t! Let’s take a look at a few athletes who would have carried extremely heavy trophies out of crowded ballrooms before the first one was handed out in 2009.

Research for this article is based on multiple documents from our wonderful history book, but particularly the highest scorers (single season) PDF.

The Pre-Indoor Era

The outdoor collegiate championship dates all the way back to 1921, but the indoor meet began relatively recently—in 1965. So for the four-plus decades before that, identifying these hypothetical Bowerman winners should be relatively easy. All you need to do is figure out who had the best outdoor season. (The winners in this section necessarily will be men, as the NCAA only began sponsoring a women’s outdoor championship in 1982 and an indoor championship in 1983)

Other than Jesse Owens, no man or women has won more than two open events in one NCAA outdoor meet—he won four two years in a row. Even if you penalize Owens for winning the 220 yard hurdles, a since discontinued event, his double triple is still unparalleled in collegiate track & field history. Also, he singlehandedly defeated Hitler, or something like that.

The Ohio State Buckeye won the 100, 200, 220 hurdles, and long jump in 1935 in Berkeley and 1936 in Chicago. In 1935, they contested the 100 yards and 200 meters; the next year, both events were in metric. The sprint times were unspectacular, and hand-timed anyway. The long jump marks were mind-blowing. He leapt 7.957 and 7.893 meters for his two long jump wins—marks that eighty years later would still be in the top ten on the national descending order list.

If you hear about Edward Cheserek tying Owens’ career individual titles total next week, be impressed. But know that Ches has had six NCAA meets to do what Owens did in two. Ches might be the King, but Owens will always be the G.O.A.T.

Still tied for the fifth highest-scoring NCAA outdoor meet ever is Cal’s Jack Merchant. Though Merchant was tremendously a product of his era, no one else from his or any other era displayed the type of versatility that he did in 1922. In the second NCAA meet ever held, Merchant won the shot put and hammer and took fourth in the long jump. I can’t find versatility of that quality anywhere else in our enormous history book—the closest is Michigan’s Bill Watson, who got second in the disc and shot and took fourth in the long jump in 1939.

The Post Indoor-Era

Apologies to Gail Devers, Dawn Sowell, Diana Guthrie, Sheila Echols, Amy Acuff, Ginnie Powell, Suzy Favor Hamilton, Jackie Joyner-Kersee, Suzy Powell, Randy Givens, Meg Ritchie, Quincy Watts, Joaquim Cruz, Erick Walder, Renaldo Nehemiah, John Godina, Carl Lewis, Justin Gatlin, Jim Ryun, Kerron Clement, and many more studs who are worthy of fictitious Bowermans for their finest seasons.

The athletes on the list above are particularly great, and some of them—especially Guthrie, Devers, Clement, and Sowell—would be among the most deserving Bowerman winners ever.

These are just five campaigns that I found particularly impressive, presented in chronological order.

The year: 1978
The athlete: Henry Rono, Washington State
The résumé: Outdoor national champion in the steeplechase…Indoor NCAA runner-up in the two mile…Set indoor collegiate records in the 2k (5:11.2) and two mile (8:18.3)…That two mile converted to 3000 meters is still the No. 2 time in collegiate history…Set NCAA meet records in the steeplechase (8:12.4 in the final) and 5000 (13:21.8 in the heats)… Set still-standing collegiate records in the steeplechase (8:05.4h) and 5000 (13:08.4h)…Those steeple and 5k times were world records at the time.

In 1978, Rono raced fifty-two times and broke four world records in eighty-one days. (Thanks to Malmo for his helpful organization of all the data from his epic campaign) The first two were in collegiate dual meets! Those marks are still collegiate records, so while Bowerman voters tend to emphasize competitive success at national championships, it seems safe to say that they’d recognize greatness in their midst even if it only resulted in one NCAA title.

His 13:08 5k (the only time a collegian has ever broken 13:15 in-season) was run at a triangular meet against Arizona State and Cal, and his 8:05 steeple wasn’t against much deeper competition at the Northwest Relays. Even with his 10k and 3k world records from the summer not being eligible for Bowerman consideration, two world records are good enough. As we approach the fortieth anniversary of Rono’s epic year, NCAA distance running has still seen nothing like it. It likely never will again.

The year: 1983
The athlete: Merlene Ottey, Nebraska
The résumé: Won the 100 and 200, ran a leg on the runner-up 4×100, and took third in the 400 at the NCAA outdoor championships…Broke her own meet record in the 200 (22.39), a record that would stand for six years…Ran 22.11 in the regular season, which is the second fastest all-conditions 200 in college history

No woman has ever won two open events and taken second in a single outdoor championships—though Jenna Prandini is a decent threat to do so this week—but in 1983, Ottey came as close as anyone ever has. She won the 100 and 200, and took third in the 400. (Ottey’s Fake Bowerman edges out that of Brianna Glenn—who won the 200 and long jump and took third in the 100—because Ottey threw in a leg on a runner-up 4×100 meter relay)

Ottey won the first two NCAA 200s, and those times are still two of the nine fastest times in meet history. Like real Bowerman winners, Ottey’s legacy after college was impressive: she won nine sprint medals across five Olympics from 1980 to 2000 and still has the world indoor record in the 200.

The year: 1985
The athlete: Mike Conley, Arkansas
The résumé: Won the long jump, won the triple jump, took second in the 200, and ran a leg on the sixth-place 4×100 at outdoor NCAAs…Won both jumps at indoor NCAAs…17.54m (57-6½) triple jump from outdoor nationals is still the best low-altitude collegiate triple jump ever, and the second best regardless of altitude…17.40m (57-1) triple jump from indoor nationals was an indoor collegiate and championships record that lasted for one year…Is still the second best collegiate indoor triple jump ever.

In decades of Arkansas domination, Conley’s 1985 season may have been the best ever by a Razorback. No doubt Alistair Cragg, Wallace Spearmon, Erick Walder, Joe Falcon, and others have a strong case, but Conley’s contributions to that triple crown (NCAA team championships in cross country, indoors, and outdoors) were historically great. His indoor and outdoor triple jump bests—achieved at the NCAA championships—are still No. 2 on the all-time performance lists. And his 28.75 points at the 1985 outdoor meet are the most of any athlete not named Owens. Our man below Conley came the closest in the thirty years since.

Conley will definitely be watching this year’s NCAA finals in Eugene. His daughter Sydney is a long jumper for Kansas; the junior has the nation’s fourth best mark this year at 6.57 meters. (Her older brother Mike is the starting point guard for the Memphis Grizzlies)

The year: 2006
The athlete: Xavier Carter, LSU
The résumé: Won the 400, took second in the 200, and ran on the winning 4×400 for what’s tied for the third most points by a male athlete in one NCAA indoor championships…Won the 100 and 400 and ran legs on the winning 4×100 and 4×400 for the fifth highest scoring NCAA outdoor championship ever…Along with Owens, one of two men to win four gold medals in a single NCAA meet… Times in the 200, 400, and 4×400 are all in the indoor all-time top ten…His 44.0 split anchored the LSU 4×4 to a still-standing national record of 2:59.59 in the 4×400.

When Carter ran 19.63 the summer after his senior year, it was the fastest time in the world in ten years and the second fastest 200 ever. It turned out, though, that Carter’s sophomore year of college would be the peak of his career. Legal problems and injuries stopped him from ever having a better year.

But what a year it was. He was the first man ever to win the 100 and 400 at one championships, and he’s still the only man to have pulled off the feat. He was the best collegiate runner in the 100 and the 400 and the best sprinter in the world at the 200.

Only Walter Dix stood between Carter and an insane seven gold medals that year, beating him by 0.03 in the 200 at indoor nationals. Out of all of Dix’s illustrious accomplishments, beating the X-Man in a national championship sprint final in 2006 is right up there.

The year: 2008
The athlete: Sally Kipyego, Texas Tech
The résumé: Won the 5000 and took second in the 1500 at outdoor nationals…won the 5000 at outdoor nationals… Her 15:31.91 indoor 5k was at the time the fourth fastest collegiate 5k ever…Her 15:15.08 outdoor 5k is still the NCAA outdoor championship record…earlier that outdoor season, she ran 15:11.88, then the second and now the fifth-fastest 5k time ever…Her runner-up time of 4:06.67 in the 1500 is the second fastest time in NCAA championship history and the third fastest collegiate time ever…Set a collegiate record in the 10k (31:25.45) at Payton Jordan before electing not to defend her national title in the event.

The toughest thing with reviewing Kipyego’s candidacy is picking a year. Her best indoor times are from 2007 and 2009, and her championship meets were equally good in 2007 and 2008. But 2007 has it all: a collegiate record, a national meet record in a different event, an epic race (the outdoor 1500 against Hannah England), and two titles and two

The only thing Kipyego’s great 2008 was missing was Jenny Barringer. Their battles in 2007 and 2009 on the conference and national levels are still the defining college women’s distance rivalry of the 2000s, and both have followed up outstanding collegiate careers with all-time great professional careers. (Kipyego has an Olympic medal, while Simpson has two world championship medals) But in 2008, Barringer skipped the indoor season and then focused on the steeplechase outdoors. With that in mind, Kipyego probably could have coasted to double outdoor national championships in the ten and five, a year after winning the ten and taking second in the five. But she opted for the much, much tougher 15/5 double, and I’m rewarding that risk-taking with a Fake Bowerman.