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As the school year started in September 1965, Paul Sweet had been track and cross country coach at UNH for four decades. He could be proud of the fact that four of his runners had been individual champions in the New England intercollegiate cross country meet. Among his trackmen, Edmund Styrna '48 and Richmond "Boo" Morcom '47 had been multiple event winners in the IC4A championship meet. Morcom had gone on to reach the finals in the pole vault in the 1948 Olympics. you," he says.
Sweet was no stranger to championships both from winning them and missing out on them. He was captain of the University of Illinois track team that won the Big Ten Championship in 1923. He was member of a championship 4x440 relay team. He was also Big Ten individual champion in the quarter-mile run in a time of 48.2 seconds, nearly two seconds faster than Horatio Fitch ran in winning the U.S. national championship that year.
One championship Sweet missed out on was the 1924 Olympics. Sweet had to make a choice. He could train for the Olympics, where he would have a good chance of winning the 400 meters, or he could start his coaching career. He could not do both. A coach was considered a professional athlete under the rules at that time and he would have been ineligible to participate in the Olympics. Newlywed Sweet chose to start his coaching career and provide for his family.
The 400-meter race in the 1924 Olympics was immortalized in the 1981 multi-Oscar award-winning movie Chariots of Fire. In the movie and in real life, Britain's Eric Liddell won Olympic gold in the 400 meters. Winning the silver medal less than a second behind Liddell was Horatio Fitch. Had Paul Sweet been there Liddell might have lost and the story would have come out differently.
Four decades of coaching without a conference championship team was probably not on Paul Sweet's mind that fall. There was another season of coaching ahead. One thing Sweet didn't have to worry about was the allocation of scholarship money. There were no scholarships for track or cross country runners. There were athletes to coach, mentor and encourage—encourage to excellence in their sport as well as excellence in academics. As with any other season there were problems and opportunities.
One problem involved some outstanding runners who had graduated in June of that year. Jeff Reneau '65 and Don Dean '65 (UNH record-holders in the 2 mile and 1 mile, respectively) had been excellent cross-country and middle-distance runners. Their experience, along with that of other graduating seniors, had been lost. For the 1965 season Sweet could count on only two seniors. George Estabrook '66 would undoubtedly be his best harrier. Rick Dunn '66 had been plagued by injuries and was inconsistent. Interestingly, Estabrook had not run track or cross country until he was a junior in high school. Dunn had not run competitively until his senior year in high school.
An opportunity involved the previous year's freshman cross-country team, which had been the best in recent memory and possibly the best ever for UNH. George Estabrook's brother Bob '68 was among a crew that included Rick Bell '69, Charlie Morrill '68, Mark Springate '68 and Steve Young. With the two seniors, this added up to seven runners. In cross country, the low score wins. Five runners count in making a team's score. A perfect score is obtained by finishing 1-2-3-4-5 for 15 points. Two other runners count in adding to the opposing team's score. If the team's next runner finishes 6th, the lowest score the other team's first runner can get is 7. A cross-country team can field other runners and UNH had a few more, but only the first seven to finish have an impact on the outcome. While his team was small, had enough runners to score winning points and add to opposing teams scores.
Cross-country courses were not standardized. The one at UNH was about four and half miles (the longest track run was two miles). Segments of the course had different surfaces and topography and were know as "loops": the board track loop, the lumber yard loop, the campus loop and field house loop all of differing lengths. The "board track loop" was so named because it circled a 147-yard outdoor banked wooden track. There was no indoor track at UNH back then. In winter, the track men had to shovel snow and chip ice from the board track before running on it in freezing weather in the dark—and no scholarship!
It is probably just coincidence that a footrace of about four and half miles roughly equates to the dolichos, the third event added to the ancient Olympic Games. Cross country runners wearing just shirt, shorts and shoes with no special gear and few rules governing their event may come closer to the original idea of athletic competition then participants in many other sports. Perhaps like those ancient Greeks runners are seeking arete. Then again maybe they just like outdoor activity and the freedom of running.
This was the era of the Vietnam war. This was the '60s—well, sort of. New Hampshire and UNH of that era were not exactly Haight-Ashbury. Most of the members of the cross country team were in ROTC. As a land-grant college, UNH required two years of mandatory ROTC was required for male students up to this time. However, the two seniors had continued into senior ROTC and were commissioned after graduation. In the first year when ROTC was made optional one-fourth of UNH male students signed up. Yes, there were anti-war protesters on campus that year but there were more anti/anti-war protesters and "Stay in Vietnam" banners than on the other side.
Paul Sweet's team was not bothered by campus unrest. The question was whether the team was talented, trained, fit and healthy enough to be competitive in its meets. Cross country runners arrived on campus several days before the general student body. Training began and even included two-a-day work outs. Compared to what has been learned about training methods since then, and even the most advanced knowledge of that era, it was pretty basic. Most of the guys had done some running during the summer. The longest regular run was the Madbury loop of about seven miles. Runners today would consider this much too short to count as a "long run" in preparation for a 4-plus mile cross country race. Still, the team worked hard and seemed to gel competitively but also having a sense of camaraderie. George Estabrook was the captain in more than name only.
Another thing that is hard for some to contemplate today when running (jogging) is so popular and so much is known about it is that it was not always so. Kenny Moore, in his excellent book Bowerman and the Men of Oregon (Rodale, 2006), says "runners in those days were regarded as eccentric at best..." In the '50s and early '60s, it was not uncommon to wear a white T-shirt and white shorts when running ("Mama, look at the man in his underwear"). This was not recreational jogging but competitive, performance running. You had to run near your limit and being on the edge was excruciating but more in a psychological than physical sense. Runners knew nothing of cellular metabolism nor had they heard of fast twitch and slow twitch muscles. Most cross country runners knew, however, that if you ran too fast early in a race you would pay later in pain and a poor performance. A few knew this had to do with the word "anaerobic" and the phrases "lactic acid build-up" and "oxygen debt." Even in a well-paced race a runner could encounter frustration when he willed himself to run faster and his body just would not respond. Another kind of frustration was to finish and realize you had something left. You had not given your all! This sort of running could, however, also bring a joyful sense of body and mind melded in common and satisfying purpose.
So there was Paul Sweet nearing the end of his coaching career with a cross country team filled with sophomores. Of course he couldn't know there was a freshman on campus on a basketball scholarship (not Carlton Fisk, whose second sport was baseball) that would become arguably his greatest trackman. Jeff Bannister '80 would win the U.S. Olympic trials and make it to the Olympic finals in the premier event—the decathlon. Jeff fell in the high hurdles in that tragic 1972 Olympics. Those were the Olympics where Israeli athletes were massacred and which gave rise to the popular motion pictures Prefontaine and Without Limits. For Paul Sweet, his chances of ever winning a Yankee Conference championship were coming down to just a few seasons. The cross country meet against St. Anselm's should be a walk over but how his team would fare against other competition could not be predicted in advance.
The gun went off and UNH harriers battled the runners of Northeastern University across hill and dale. The first important meet of the season was a loss. Whatever optimism may have existed in the pre-season must have become as dreary as an early winter. That autumn proved to be a dismal one for UNH sports teams—for all UNH sports teams except one.
The next three meets were dual meets against Yankee conference rivals. George Estabrook led the way and the sophomores held their own. The result was successive wins against Rhode Island, Maine and Massachusetts. New Hampshire was beginning to look like a cross country power house. The next meet was different. It was a three-way meet between UNH, Bates College and Boston University. Boston University was not to be taken lightly (Dave Hemery, future Olympic 400-meter hurdle champion and world record holder attended BU.).
The meet was held at Bates in Lewiston, Maine. An exciting duel for first place resulted in George Sharkus of Boston University edging out George Estabrook to win. Estabrook was followed by Charlie Morrill, Rick Bell, Bob Estabrook, Mark Springate and Rick Dunn. Runners from Bates and BC separated the leading UNH pack from Steve Young. The result was an impressive UNH win. New Hampshire—20; Boston University—53; Bates—63.
The following week, Oct. 30, 1965, was the Yankee Conference championship meet held in Durham. Earlier wins in conference dual meets did not guarantee a win in the dynamics of a larger field of runners. Would the Wildcats success so far prove a jinx or "hex" as one newspaper suggested? Or was this the year? Six teams and over 50 runners lined up at the start. They included a strong Rhode Island team and a Massachusetts team led by last year's conference champion Terrone Carpenter. The meet was held to coincide with half-time of the football game that Saturday. The start and finish could be observed from the stands accommodating a few thousand fans. For those that craned their necks much of the race could be followed before the runners entered the woods. During the last mile the runners would emerge from the woods, run down the road adjacent to the railroad tracks, disappear behind the field house before emerging to run the last few hundred yards past the end of the stadium and behind the stands to the finish.
The gun went off. The broad phalanx of runners rushed forward with much jostling before it converged and bunched and then began to string out as the procession began its miles-long trek. Some in the stands watched in interest or curiosity. The runners trooped their way around the course loops alternatively visible and obscured from the view of those who cared to watch. The lead gaggle thinned out. It became apparent George Estabrook was dueling with the top runners from other schools, including Terry Carpenter, the previous year's individual champion.
With the first half of the race behind them the procession of runners disappeared from view into the woods south of the stadium. It was too early to parse what team might have the advantage though the blue trimmed white outfits of the New Hampshire runners seemed to be well represented in the first half of the pack. Carpenter drifted back, leaving George Estabrook in the lead. In the woods, two Rhode Island runners closed in on Estabrook. They gained in confidence as they ran through the conifers and over the pine needle strewn path.
Rhode Island runners McGinnis and Cook had enough confidence and breath to exchange a few comments. Barely ahead George Estabrook was close enough to hear the words "Let's pass this guy, he's no good" and was incensed. Somewhere inside himself he found additional resolve and energy. He quickened his tempo and headed onto the hardtop opening his lead on the Rhode Islanders. The hill up and behind the field house was in sight. The race to the finish was on.
As George Estabrook pounded his way toward the field house and drew away from McGinnis and Cook yard by yard, others were emerging from the woods and into view from the stands. White singlets and shorts with blue stripes and piping were evident but not in overwhelming numbers. The meet seemed still up for grabs. Football half time festivities had concluded or were not garnering the crowd's attention as more and more people seemed to take notice of the race that was about to course a circular path around the campus side of the stadium, behind the field house and to the finish on the far side of the stadium. Many spectators left the stands to cluster along the closing stretch of the race or near the finish line.
Cross country runners do not routinely hear much cheering but this was different. Hundreds, or more likely thousands of voices were shouting and encouraging runners to the finish. Estabrook came off the hill from behind the field house into the view of the crowd alone! He had opened a lead of more than 100 yards on his erstwhile rivals for first. After a gap came the two Rhode Island runners. Then Carpenter of Massachusetts...Maine...Bob Estabrook...Connecticut...Rick Bell...Rhode Island. Passing runners in the last few hundred yards and barely failing to catch third Rhode Island man was Rick Dunn. The cheers were simply like nothing the cross country runners could remember. Rhode Island had three runners in the first ten but New Hampshire had four. Paul Sweet hardly needed to do the math to understand that with four runners in the first ten victory was within his team's grasp. A runner from Massachusetts crossed the finish line...Maine...then an "NH" singlet, Charlie Morrill, in thirteenth place sealed the win.
George Estabrook set a course record of 23:20.8. Twenty seconds behind him was Charlie McGinnis of Rhode Island. The final result: UNH—38; Rhode Island—51; Massachusetts—65; Maine—88; Connecticut—114; and, Vermont—180. New Hampshire was Yankee Conference cross country champion. Paul Sweet had his championship season.
The following March, Paul Sweet was honored when the first phase of the new UNH field house was dedicated and named the Paul Sweet Oval. Members of the championship UNH cross country team received hefty medals—the UNH Athletic Achievement Award—granted to members of UNH teams that achieve a winning record for the season and a conference championship. None of them had even known such an honor existed. Paul Sweet also took pride in the fact that of 22 UNH athletes from all sports to make the first semester Dean's list that year, 10 were from his small cadre of track and cross country athletes. That same month George Estabrook won a double victory (mile and two-mile) in the Yankee Conference championship indoor track meet. Rick Dunn set conference championship, Vermont field house and UNH records in winning the 1000-yard run in the same meet.
For Paul Sweet, that first championship was just the beginning of a string of successes his teams would win in the closing years of his coaching career. With a stable of swift runners, some strong field event men (including Steve Seay '69, another athlete with a basketball scholarship) plus a future Olympian on campus, Paul Sweet could work with a depth of talent that had seldom if ever been available to him. In following years his teams won additional Yankee Conference championships as well as New England Intercollegiate championships. Paul Sweet retired in 1970. He was honored again by UNH on his 100th birthday. Paul Sweet passed away in 2001. His legacy lives on in the excellence UNH has achieved in track and cross country; and, in the grateful memory of the athletes he coached. ~
Richard L. Dunn is a private consultant providing advice on the implementation of technology in the military and civil sectors through innovative means; he analyzes laws, policies and practices and their impact on the development and deployment of technology. Mr. Dunn served as Visiting Scholar and Senior Fellow at the University of Maryland (2000-2007). He was General Counsel of the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (1987-2000). Previously he was with the Office of General Counsel, National Aeronautics and Space Administration; private legal practice and served nine years on active duty with the U.S. Air Force. Mr. Dunn has been appointed to serve on several task forces of the National Academy of Science and Defense Science Board. He has law degrees from the University of Maryland and George Washington University (Highest Honors) and a bachelor's degree cum laude from the University of New Hampshire. Mr. Dunn and his wife Karen reside in Edgewater, Maryland. They have an adult son.