By JULIE CARLE
BG Independent News
Sixty years ago, the Bowling Green High School Cross Country team captured a trophy at the Ohio High School Athletic Association’s District meet that marked a milestone for the high school.
The 1965 cross country team, which was fairly new after being started in 1958 by Coach Warren “Bull” Ott, earned the runner-up trophy in a sport where the competition was fast and tough. It was the first trophy the team had won.
On Tuesday, three of the top runners from the 1965 team received that slightly tarnished, but still impressive, trophy during a Bobcat meet at Carter Park.
Mark Sheffer of Weston, Tom Claflin of Brighton, Michigan, and Mike Cheek of Belleair, Florida, graciously accepted the trophy, which at one point had been relegated to an unknown storage space.
“Mike and I were out there one time looking to see if it was still in the case,” Sheffer said, “I told Coach Pat Carney, ‘If you ever want to get rid of that, we’ll take her.’ And the next time we contacted him, He said, ‘Oh, that trophy’s long gone.’”
Carney admitted he wasn’t sure he could find the trophy, but he eventually tracked it down to hand it off to the three teammates.
“As Bowling Green High School prepares to move into the 21st century in a technologically advanced new building, we’re undergoing an initiative to place many of our trophies in a digital catalog that people will be able to view in the building and at home,” explained BGHS Athletic Director Michele Wolf during this week’s cross country meet.
“It is our pleasure to present to the three of you, the 1965 OHSA District runner up trophy,” she said. “Thank you for starting this legacy, and we hope to carry that on for you.”
The trophy was “a big deal to us,” Sheffer said, as he and his teammates reminisced. “We took cross country pretty seriously.”
And they agreed, they took it seriously because of their coach.
Coach Ott’s influence
Ott was a legend in Bowling Green and at Miami University, his alma mater. In college he earned three letters each in football and basketball and participated in track from 1931-34. He was selected as a member of Miami’s All-Time Gridiron Greats in 1958 and was inducted into Miami’s Athletic Hall of Fame in 1973.
He taught and coached at Bowling Green High School for 34 years. In addition to coaching cross country, Ott also served at one time or another as head coach in football, basketball and track.
Sheffer said Coach Ott had a knack for motivating people. One of the last meets when Sheffer and the team were hoping to qualify for the district meet, Ott told him, “Sheffer, you know what you want, go get it.”
That stuck with Sheffer from that point forward. “He (Ott) just coached us up all the time.”
In those early days, the team was packed with boys who wanted to be on the team. At one point, before the ninth graders were not included in the count, the cross country team had 65 members, Cheek recalled.
Ott taught freshman health classes and would talk up the cross country (and track) teams to the students and get them excited about joining the team. “He was so inspirational,” Cheek said. “He really got guys excited about that.”
“He made sure we understood about competition and what it took to get past the hard parts,” Sheffer said. “It’s important to learn how to suffer in life because you’re going to face it.”
Sheffer, who was in banking, said cross country and track were great experiences for building his life. “I’ve run several 5K races in my adult life just to compete, and my career in banking was very competitive with so many banks competing for the same business. I left it in the number one position. That feels pretty good.”
Not all cross country athletes were considered the star athletes, Cheek said, “But the number one requirement here is guts. We had the guts it took to compete. We were always told, ‘Run through the tape.’”
Memories from 60 years ago
Training can be grueling for cross country runners. The ’65 team had a long route from the high school to Liberty Hi Road and back, while the short route was Brim Road to Bishop Road and back.
One time, to push themselves, the team decided to run from the high school to Otsego Park, a 20-mile round trip. In hindsight, “it wasn’t such a great idea,” Sheffer said. “I got sick as a dog.”
The district runners-up trophy was one of the most significant memories.
There was also a dual meet against Clyde, which was coached by one of Ott’s nemeses.
“Coach Ott did not like him, and we beat them by one point,” Cheek said. The win was big for the team because it was big for the coach.
Teammate Phil Graue, who joined the team in their senior year, set the high school record during the Clyde meet. He ran the two-mile course in 10:25, breaking the record of 10:38 set in 1958 by Bill Morgan. Graue didn’t win the race, but settled for second. Claflin came in fourth at 10:30; John Jackson was fifth at 10:31; Cheek was eighth at 10:39; and Sheffer was ninth at 10:30. Their combined efforts put them ahead of Clyde by one point.
“It was a tremendous team effort. The greatest team effort ever made by a BG cross country team,” Ott was quoted in the local paper.
Originally, the Bowling Green High School’s course—a figure eight course that finished where runners started the course— was at Sterling Farm, where the current Bowling Green State University Music Building and Rec Center sit.
Once the high school was built, a course was set up behind the football field. The three remember it as being “awful.”
They competed in Toledo, Defiance, Fostoria and other area communities. When the team was at its largest, Cheek remembered how even the big teams in Toledo reacted with trepidation when they saw 60 members get off the bus.
The classic trophy represents a significant legacy for the high school and its cross country team. Sheffer took possession of it, but he intends to make it a rotational symbol of their success, sharing it with his teammates.
At the end of the presentation and before senior night recognitions, Carney had all of his team members shake hands with the three legends in BGHS cross country history. Sheffer, Claflin and Cheek appreciated the effort, noting the leadership and lessons of a good coach continues for the BGHS cross country team.
