Bob Parks
It has been four years since Bob Parks retired as Eastern Michigan University's track and cross country coach. Although he now splits time between here and Florida, his influence and impact on Michigan athletes, coaches and programs continues.

Eight of Parks' athletes have been Olympians. Hasely Crawford won a gold medal for Trinidad and Tobago in 1976 in the 100 meters, and Earl Jones a bronze for the U.S. in 1984 in the 800.

Parks' teams won 44 Mid-American Conference titles and nine NAIA or NCAA Divsion II championships. He was named MAC coach of the year 29 times and was NCAA coach of the year in 1990. His daughter, Sue, is a successful coach at Ball State.

Let's go back to play it forward. Parks was a middle-distance track star in the 1950s at Howell High School and Eastern Michigan. His first coach, Loren Willis, wasn't a track expert but a good motivator. At EMU, Parks ran for George Marshall, a man he considered a father figure.

Parks started his coaching career at the high school level, working at Ferndale and Redord Thurston before becoming an assistant to the legendary George Dales at Western Michigan University.

Parks, who took over at Eastern in 1967, found successful coaches to be well-organized, eager, enthusiastic, knowledgeable, hardworking and smart. From them he learned you have to cover all the bases and leave nothing to chance.

One of Parks' former assistants is Kelly Lycan, now head coach at Western Michigan.

"I wondered if Bob would ever retire," Lycan said. "I thought they would just bury him in the long-jump pit at whatever meet he died.

"He loved the chase and the challenge of a new season, the chance to beat back all his pretenders to the throne. He was fond of saying the only reason he kept going was to (bleep) off (former WMU coach) Jack Shaw.

"They were rivals, but two peas in a pod," Lycan continued. "At coaches' meetings the fur would fly between them. Since Bob's departure, the meetings haven't been the same. Bob didn't like to lose, and he didn't very often."

Parks' dual-meet record was 162-14-1.

The rivalry with Shaw didn't stop Parks from sending newsletters to Western Michigan track alums trying to help them get their program back. Parks is also writing a book about his experiences at Eastern, and he sends out a newsletter so his alums will be organized to protect the school's track and cross country programs.

"Parks was as much an artist as he was a coach," Lycan said. "He was just as artful at telling a story. The hours would fly by while I and others listened to his tales.

"Bob Parks loves track and field. In fact, he loves sports in general. He abides by the qualities the ancient Greeks held dear about sports: the beauty of bodies in motion, the honor in competing well, whether or not you win, and the ability to endure, whether pain, adversity, bad luck, whatever.

"Bob recognized the nobleness in the striving which takes place in sports and what makes our human race the amazing thing it is. That's why I think he took just as much satisfaction in turning an ordinary Joe into something else as he did in working with guys blessed with extreme talent."

Former Free Press Marathon winner Gordon Minty was one of those ordinary guys. When Parks started pursuing him, it took Minty by surprise. Minty remembers Parks' blunt honesty.

"He would say the outdoor track wasn't really all that good and needed to be resurfaced; they didn't have the budget to go to all the meets he would like to go to, stuff like that," Minty recalled.

But Minty, now a professor of manufacturing and construction technology at Indiana State, didn't think his experience could have been better.

"Coach was flexible, we were flexible," said Minty. "It was never his team, it was our team. I think every team he ever had felt that way."

One of Parks' favorite stories recounts a mistake he made by not putting Minty in the middle of EMU's starting box at the 1973 NCAA cross country championships. Minty had been unbeaten in every race up to then. Standing on the outside, he got bumped and fell, then had to wade through hundreds of runners before ultimately finishing third behind world-class runners Nick Rose (who went on to be a Crim winner) and defending champ Steve Prefontaine of Oregon.

A number of Parks' athletes have become successful coaches. Fred Laplante is now assistant head coach at the University of Michigan. Laplante loved the way Parks applied his knowledge of strategy to track.

"Every meet was important to Bob, and he passed it on to his athletes," Laplante said. "He used to say, 'Why put on a uniform if you aren't trying to beat your opponent?' When he made out a lineup, he could sense how each guy in every event would do against his teammates and the opponents.

"He would give some guys his take on how the opponent would run, then leave the race plan up to them. He would tell other guys how to run their race. He was right almost all the time.

"Bob wasn't overly high on praise. He expected good results, but if he ever did say you could do something or you had done something well, it meant a lot."

Derrick Jackson, elections director for Washtenaw County, has remained close to Parks because of the way the former coach changed his life.

"Parks has the rare ability to make people want to do better at whatever they do," Jackson said. "No matter what your background, the coach had a way of embracing you."

Minty summed up his feelings for Parks this way: "He may be a great coach, but because he cares for people as individuals, he will always be a better person than he is a coach."

Writer Doug Kurtis holds world records for the most sub-2:20 marathons (76) and marathon wins (40). He may be contacted at dkurtis@earthlink.com. MR