High school phenom?
High school phenom?
Graduate of Carl Sanberg High School in Orland Park IL in 1978. Won state XC and holds the new course record (Only raig Virgin ran a faster time but it was over the old course). Beat Jim Spivey in the state meet. Spivey ran the fourth fastest time ever.
Went to Auburn on a full ride. Messed up his foot and was never the same. Worked as a cop near Auburn.
How did I do?
I take it you read the article in the Chicago Tribuen today that alks about the fact that his son Griff Graves is running this weekend as an honorary member of the Sandbrug team at Peoria on the state meet course. His son is from VA. Graves was one of the legendary IL runners, with Spivey and Virgin.
greenliner wrote:
I take it you read the article in the Chicago Tribuen today that alks about the fact that his son Griff Graves is running this weekend as an honorary member of the Sandbrug team at Peoria on the state meet course. His son is from VA. Graves was one of the legendary IL runners, with Spivey and Virgin.
No, I was at that state meet and going off memory. But thanks for the heads up about the article
Linking running generations
Barry Temkin
The Chicago Tribune
September 15, 2006
It's hard to tell who's gaining more from the splendid, if unlikely, relationship between the Sandburg boys cross-country program and its most celebrated alumnus.
It could be Tom Graves, who not only has reconnected with his storied past but is tying his son to that history as well. Or it could be Sandburg's runners, inspired by Graves' achievements but, even more so, by his willingness to help them achieve their own glory.
It's like trying to choose Gino's East or Lou Malnati's, but in the end it really doesn't matter.
What matters is that a mutual admiration society is scattering benefits in all directions while proving that not only can you go home again, but you can run there.
Graves will, in effect, do that Saturday when he watches his son, Griff, a Virginia state champion, compete in the Peoria Notre Dame Invitational on the same Detweiller Park course the father covered on long-ago state title runs. Sandburg will run there, too, and make Griff an unofficial team member.
"I can't tell you how excited I am about this opportunity for Griff and me and my family to come back and kind of relive some history," Graves said.
This all started a decade ago when a Sandburg runner named John O'Malley, inspired by stories about Graves, decorated his bedroom with old clippings and pictures featuring the runner.
Graves was, and still is, among the greatest runners in Illinois history. He won Class AA state titles in 1976 and 1977 in cross-country and added four gold medals in track.
O'Malley graduated from Sandburg in 1997 and returned as a teacher and boys cross-country coach six years later. Last fall the Eagles finished eighth in the state meet with no seniors among their seven competitors. A team trophy, perhaps even a state title, seemed possible this fall, and O'Malley saw Graves as a means toward those ends.
"I always wanted to meet him and talk to him just because he's a legend and for us an example of what we could become," O'Malley said. "I decided I should try to get a hold of him to talk to our athletes.
"I wanted to let them know Sandburg is something special and has a great tradition."
Last winter O'Malley sent an e-mail to Graves to get that done. In April, Griff ran in a meet at Prospect, and the next day Tom Graves spoke to Sandburg's runners in his first trip back to the school since he graduated.
His talk covered everything from self-confidence to work ethic to putting team over self. The message was nothing new, but the messenger was.
"He believed in himself all the way," senior Kevin Adamowski said. "Everything he did, he went 100 percent.
"That just stuck with me--the late hours, the morning runs, practices after school . . . homework, tests. Just his tone, the way he said it, gave me chills."
Sandburg's team, meanwhile, impressed Graves, and he invited it to his home in Abingdon, near the western tip of Virginia, where Dr. Tom Graves is assistant superintendent of the Washington County Public Schools.
In July, 14 runners and two coaches drove 10 hours to the Graves' 10-acre spread. For two days and three nights, the Eagles ran, rode mountain bikes and swam in mountain streams with Tom, Griff and younger brother Dusty.
The team formed a tight bond with Graves, his sons and his wife, Sandy, but, more important, they formed a tighter bond with each other.
"We had been training hard, but it's hard to be motivated when you put in all those miles and you're tired and the meets are months away," Adamowski said. "We were only there three days, but after that I saw everyone connect to each other.
"We started to realize some of our weaknesses and help each other out."
It was also during that visit that the Eagles sold Griff, who had won the Virginia Class AA cross-country title the previous fall as an Abingdon sophomore, on running in Peoria. For Tom it was another chance to expose Griff to Illinois running, which is stronger than Virginia's, as well as to his own competitive past.
Friday the two will run the Detweiller course together, virtually the same one on which Tom set a Class AA state record that still stands.
"That will probably be a pretty emotional thing," Graves said.
Griff knows that Saturday's race will make comparisons with his dad inevitable, and although he's OK with that he believes he has a lot to live up to.
"I'll be so excited and at the same time really nervous," said Griff, who will warm up and cool down with Sandburg's runners.
"I'm just so pumped up to run where my dad ran and run against his old team."
Afterward, the Graves and Sandburg families will gather at Detweiller for a barbecue. They expect to greet former Lebanon star Craig Virgin, who in 1972 became the only state meet runner from any class to cover Detweiller faster than Graves would.
The day will be one more step in a relationship that has continued to grow the last two months with e-mails, notes and calls between Abingdon and Orland Park.
"We basically are each other's fans now," O'Malley said.
He no doubt figures he's getting the best of the deal, and though it really doesn't matter, Tom Graves would disagree.
"I can't tell you how much more this has meant to us than to them," he said. "What they are getting out of it me, my family and Griff are getting 10 times more."
Graves ran a 13:56 on that 3m course as a high schooler
Graves was a solid collegiate runner on an Auburn team with Chris Fox. I recall running the 5000 at Penn one year and hearing his name mentioned during the open race he was competing and immediately it rang a bell. One of the all-time great HS runners.
zep wrote:
Graves ran a 13:56 on that 3m course as a high schooler
If memory serves, Spivey finished second at 14:00. One of the fastst non-winning times ever.
Auburn in that era was loaded: Fox, Graves, Hicks, Tuttle, Jones, Clark,... I know I am missing a few others. I don't think Abshire overlapped with this group did he? They had a couple of monster recruiting classes in a row. Graves was definitely a great runner.
Whatever happened to coach Sullivan? He recruited me and Abshire was there at the time a little later than Graves.
They also had a very good 5000 runner that ran around 13:37 at Penn but his name escapes me.
slaps wrote:
Whatever happened to coach Sullivan?
I think Graves and the guys I mentioned were recruited by Mike Muska (sp?) who left for Northwestern before they dropped their program.
let me get that one for you, his name, Brian Jaeger.
Here's a link to a few photos of Graves in HS and at Auburn. He won the SEC XC title as a frosh and won the 5k/10K double outdoors that year. Big strong front running guy, similar to Eric Hulst. Ran his 13:50 5k pr that year.
In HS, he ran 9:00 as a soph and 8:51 his jr and sr years. Believe he won the IL state 2 mile all three years.
As mentioned earlier, he had a foot injury either his soph or jr year at Auburn and never recovered. Mike Muska built a strong team and they won 2-3 straight SEC XC titles before he moved on. Head track coach at that time was Mel Rosen, I believe.
Pretty amazing race from what I've heard. Spivey and Graves came through the mile in 4:37, then Graves threw in a 2:05 for the next half mile and got some separation from Spivey but it was still close the rest of the way.
Old Runner Guy wrote:
zep wrote:Graves ran a 13:56 on that 3m course as a high schooler
If memory serves, Spivey finished second at 14:00. One of the fastst non-winning times ever.
Graves ran the same course as Virgin.
Old Runner Guy wrote:
Graduate of Carl Sanberg High School in Orland Park IL in 1978. Won state XC and holds the new course record (Only raig Virgin ran a faster time but it was over the old course). Beat Jim Spivey in the state meet. Spivey ran the fourth fastest time ever.
Went to Auburn on a full ride. Messed up his foot and was never the same. Worked as a cop near Auburn.
How did I do?
slaps wrote:
Whatever happened to coach Sullivan?
I think Graves and the guys I mentioned were recruited by Mike Muska (sp?) who left for Northwestern before they dropped their program.[/quote]
Correct: Mike Muska recruited most of those guys. It was also he who recruited most of the team that finally won the Heps for Cornell in 1977 or 1978.
Last I knew, this is what Mike's doing nowadays:
http://www.polyprep.org/program/college/default.asp?bioid=802551its slightly off to make it sound like VA xc isn't very good, his son was by no means dominate last year within the state, he is a nice kid though. does anyone have any result on how he ran?
Believe Mike Muska was at Oberlin as AD (only openly gay male AD in US) before Vin Lanana. Oberlin had Tommie Smith (1968 Olympic 200m champ) as track coach for a while.
Kelli Sullivan is coaching in Oregon (Willamete ?) and developed 1:45 guy (2nd or 3rd at USA's)
mdobb wrote:
Here's a link to a few photos of Graves in HS and at Auburn. He won the SEC XC title as a frosh and won the 5k/10K double outdoors that year. Big strong front running guy, similar to Eric Hulst. Ran his 13:50 5k pr that year.
In HS, he ran 9:00 as a soph and 8:51 his jr and sr years. Believe he won the IL state 2 mile all three years.
As mentioned earlier, he had a foot injury either his soph or jr year at Auburn and never recovered. Mike Muska built a strong team and they won 2-3 straight SEC XC titles before he moved on. Head track coach at that time was Mel Rosen, I believe.
http://www.runningentertainment.com/Running%20Shots-6.htm
There's also a pic of Graves(slightly obscurred) finishing the Jr Int. x-country championship race.
Correct. Graves, Fox, Clark, Van Valkenburg, Tuttle and a host of others were recruited by Muska. Muska was a great XC coach. Graves won the SEC XC title as a freshman. He also won the title as a sophmore.