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St. Louis Post-Dispatch

Lee Enterprises

Friday, September 5, 2008 11:07 PM CDT
Walt Crawford Alumni race today at EIU

By JG/T-C Staff
sports@jg-tc.com

CHARLESTON -- Eastern Illinois men’s and women’s cross country is to kick off the 2008 season today with the Walt Crawford Memorial Alumni Meet.

The event will start at 5:30 p.m. at the EIU Panther Trail.

The race will consist of current EIU cross country team members along with about 30 returning cross country alumni. The men are cover a distance of four miles while the women’s will compete at 2.1 miles.

The alumni meet is named in honor of Walter Crawford who died on Aug. 11, 2006. In his memory, a memorial distance running scholarship at Eastern Illinois is awarded every year.

Crawford was an inner city athlete from Chicago who ran the streets, trying to avoid rival gang members as he became one of the better “distance runners” in the city. He came to EIU, but we had no scholarships for anyone, so like everyone else, Walt walked on in the late 1960s.

After a couple of years, he joined the Marines. When he returned to EIU in the mid 1970s he was developing into a very good runner. After he became very successful in longer runs. He placed sixhth in the 1978 Chicago Marathon and in the early-mid 1980s, he was the best American born black long distance runners in the country. He was very successful in 50-mile and 100K events).

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