For University of Oregon junior Travis Thompson, the decision to become a runner was his own.
And that’s what makes it so cool.
The former Class 3A state champion in the 400 meters from Newport High School will compete in the first round of the 800 at the 2010 Pac-10 Conference Track & Field Championships at Edwards Stadium in Berkeley, Calif., on Saturday.
He’s also on the Ducks’ 4x400-meter relay team.
When he steps to the line in the 800, he’ll do so knowing that 42 years ago, at the 1968 NCAA championshps, his father, Terry Thompson, ran in the same race in the same stadium.
There’s just one difference.
The elder Thompson wore the orange-and-black singlet of Oregon State.
He placed second in the 800 with a time of 1 minute, 47.7 seconds at the NCAA meet as the Beavers finished sixth in the team standings.
Terry Thompson came into the national meet as the Pac-8 champion at 880 yards, and he still ranks fourth on the all-time OSU list in the 800 with his personal best of 1:47.3.
“I haven’t sat down and talked to Travis that much about those kind of things,” said Terry Thompson, a longtime commercial fisherman and local politician in Newport.
“I want to see him do his own thing. I’m so excited that he has managed to get this far.”
Travis has heard a few of the old stories about the intense rivalry between Oregon and OSU in the late 1960s, but he’s just now waking up to the idea that he’s following in his father’s footsteps.
“Until I came to Oregon, I didn’t realize how cool it was that my dad was doing the same thing I was,” said Travis Thompson, a transfer from Lane Community College in his second season with the Ducks.
“He never pressured me to become a runner. So, to know that I decided to do it on my own makes it even better, and now I have a chance to be faster than my dad. That’s my goal.”
Road goes through LCC
Travis Thompson traveled a circuitous route to Oregon.
Basketball was his first love, and he didn’t run track until his junior year in high school. Despite winning the 400 state title in 49.94 as a senior in 2006, he was lightly recruited and ended up going to George Fox University in Newberg.
“They were the only ones that talked to me,” he said.
He left school after just two days, however, and within 24 hours, he received a phone call from Grady O’Connor, the director of athletics at LCC, offering him a scholarship to run track.
“It was a perfect fit,” Thompson said.
O’Connor quickly discovered he had a gem on his hands.
Thompson won the 400 at the Northwest Athletic Association of Community Colleges championships, but his relay splits were even more impressive.
“I can’t tell you how many times Travis chased somebody down, 20 to 30 meters out, as a freshman,” O’Connor said. “He really handled himself well. He fit right into the program from the get-go and was a quiet leader on our team with an amazing work ethic.”
As a sophomore, the plan called for increasing Thompson’s mileage and moving him up to the 800.
Unfortunately, he developed a stress fracture in his fibula from over-training during the winter, and he was still out of shape when the Titans headed to their first meet of the outdoor season at the Willamette Invitational.
Thompson was in uniform and begging to run, but O’Connor was hesitant.
“I just didn’t feel right,” he said. “We needed him, but something told me that this young man needed to rest this injury.”
Thus, the decision was made to redshirt Thompson, and when Oregon came calling later that season, he showed up at Hayward Field with three years of eligibility.
“I’ve been lucky the way things worked out,” Thompson said. “I started training with Chad (Barlow) over the summer, and it was such a good feeling to say I was a part of that team. Coming from Newport to George Fox to Lane, it made me appreciate things more and how much hard work I put in to get there.”
A breakthrough race
Thompson’s initial season at Oregon ended with a PR of 1:49.11 in the preliminary rounds of the 800 at the NCAA West Regionals at Hayward Field last year.
He was the fastest non-qualifier for the final.
This year, his breakout race in the 800 came two weeks ago at the Oregon Relays. Unbeknownst to his coach, Robert Johnson, he decided to go out hard, running close to 52 seconds for the first 400. When the pacesetter stepped off the track, Thompson was clear of the field by more than 20 meters.
“I looked back and realized they were all pretty far back,” he said. “It was a weird feeling. I was just hoping I could hang on.”
Thompson managed to hold off all but one runner, UO senior Andrew Wheating, who caught him at the tape with a season best of 1:47.71.
Thompson was ecstatic with his second-place peformance of 1:47.94, which ranks 10th on the all-time UO list. He currently stands No. 11 in the nation among collegians, No. 5 in the West Region and No. 3 in the Pac-10 using outdoor marks.
But he still had to answer to his coach.
“Me and coach (Johnson) are pretty close and he said some stuff you wouldn’t want to write down,” Thompson said. “But in the end, he said, ‘I think we found your new race plan.’”
Thompson’s father was standing on the rail that day, in front of the videoboard, with a huge grin on his face.
“I give all the credit to the Oregon coaches,” he said.
Later, he would harken back to his OSU days, recalling one particular race at the 1968 dual meet between the Ducks and Beavers at Hayward Field that was won by OSU, 80-65.
Still holding a grudge from the previous year, when a couple of UO runners flashed the victory sign as they crossed the finish line, Thompson and his teammate, John Lilly, surged into the lead on what is now known as the Bowerman Curve.
“When we got to the top of the turn, me and Lilly burned those Oregon runners, and then we turned around and waved at them,” he said.
“You know what? I want to apologize to them today. Until my son ran here, I never understood what it was to be an Oregon track fan. I should have been waving to the crowd.
“It was the wrong thing to do.”
Advice from Dad
Terry Thompson’s track career came to a premature end.
A 4:10 miler at South Salem High School, he earned a scholarship to Missouri and ran track for two years.
But he had bought a salmon troller during high school, and it was difficult to maintain the boat from so far away.
So, he transferred to Oregon State, ran unattached during the 1967 season — he posted lifetime bests of 3:59.8 in the mile and 1:47.3 in the 800 that year — before rejoining the OSU squad in 1968.
Under coach Berny Wagner, the Beavers were a powerhouse with high jumpers Dick Fosbury, Steve Kelly and John Radetich, sprinter Willie Turner, discus thrower Tim Vollmer, hammer thrower Steve DeAutremont and pole vaulter Dennis Phillips, among others.
After taking second in the 800 at the 1968 NCAA meet in Berkeley, Thompson was one of the contenders to make the U.S. Olympic team.
But he chose not to run at the Trials.
Instead, he went back to Newport and his 38-foot boat.
“You have to remember the time and the situation,” he said. “There was no money in track and field in those days, and I made a decision that I was going to be a fisherman for the rest of my life. ... Now that I’m older, I regret that decision, but it was my choice.”
He still had one more season at OSU, but he failed to advance to the final in the 1969 NCAA championships after getting “boxed in” during the qualifying round. That would be his last official race.
“I always give him a hard time about not competing at the Trials,” Travis Thompson said. “I ask him, ‘What were you thinking?’
“But he explained to me that it was a completely different world back then.”
Today, at the age of 64, Terry Thompson is retired from fishing after more than 4,000 days at sea, but he still serves on the Lincoln County Board of Commissioners.
The former state representative also volunteers his time as the Newport Middle School track coach.
Does he have any advice for his son this weekend?
“Yeah,” he said. “Don’t get boxed in.”
