Bureau County Hall of Fame: Twice as nice for Princeton cross country

Jaimie Dow is forever grateful that Logan Junior High track coach Mike Coates recommended to his brother, Gary, the head coach down the street at Princeton High School, that he should ask Dow to join the Tigers cross country team his freshman year.

“Mike coached track at Logan Junior High and I ran the half mile because no one else wanted to run that distance and I wasn’t very good at anything else,” Dow said. “Gary cornered me in the hall after school one day and told me that his brother thought I should join the team. After being cut from every other sports team I tried out for, it meant a lot to be asked to join, even if there wasn’t any expectation that I would succeed.”

Succeed he did, along with the Tigers’ cross country teams. Dow played a lead role in Princeton’s back-to-back runs to runner-up finishes in IHSA Class A State cross country meets in 1979 and 1980.

Those Tigers teams are the next inductees into the Bureau County Sports Hall of Fame for the class of 2025.

“I consider it a great honor to be part of these teams and to be inducted into the Bureau County Sports Hall of Fame,” said Dow, who will be inducted into the North Central College Sports Hall of Fame in October as a member of the Cardinals’ 1981 and 1982 Division III National Championship teams.

The Tigers had a 8-2-1 record in dual and triangular meets in 1979. They won the Princeton and Minooka invitationals and the District and Sectional meets and were the runner-up at the NCIC meet.

At state, the Tigers came in second behind Petersburg PORTA (76) with 136 points. Rival Hall (210) placed fourth.

Dow (sixth) and Tim Elliott (15th) were named all-state. Other state finishers were Craig Martin, Dave Larson, Tom Hodge, Tom Caldwell and Dan Darling.

The Tigers came back strong in 1980, undefeated in 12 dual meets while winning the Princeton and Minooka invitationals and the District meet at Amboy and Sectional meet at Woodstock. Dow repeated as District champion and was runner-up at sectional.

Again, they were runners-up at the NCIC meet with Dow repeating as conference champion.

Back at state, the Tigers again finished second with 123 points, this time behind Peoria Bergan (89).

Dow moved up three spots at state with a third-place finish, the best in school history. He was followed by Tom Hodge (30th), Tom Caldwell (33rd), Leon Archer (56th), Dan Darling (67th), Dave Larson (70th) and Mike Rieker (90th).

“I believe our 1979 team maybe had a little more talent, but it was our first trip to the state meet and a little more unnerving. It was also the longest season that the cross country team had experienced by going all the way to state,” Dow said. “We were definitely more prepared, both physically and mentally, for the 1980 season and state meet. After four years, this team was closer and more focused on our goal.”

The cross country success “definitely fueled” the Tigers’ track team in the spring, Dow said, particularly in the 4x800-meter relay with Caldwell, Rieker, Hodge and Dow winning the gold medal while setting a Class A state record that held for 25 years.

Dow praised the 1977 varsity team his freshman season, a group consisting of Steve Arch, Dave Bangert, Rich Ellis, Tony Robbins, Bill Halberg, Craig Martin, Tony Makransky, Chuck Cools, Peter Durbin, Barry Clayton, John Loving, and Paul Scruggs, for being “fantastic role models as athletes, students, people and friends.”

“Their example of love and brotherhood carried on through the next three cross country seasons and hopefully continued for years after,” he added.

Gary Coates, who also guided the Tigers to top 7 state berths in 1974, 1984 and 1987, and assistant Bruce Anderson were fantastic coaches, Dow said.

“They were great men that treated their teams with respect but pushed hard enough to get the best out of them. They coached for success but clearly cared greatly about their athletes,” he said.

While he has great memories of championships and trophies, Dow said most of his favorite memories are the times the team spent being together away from the cross country course.

“Thursday was always a long-distance day for training and we were supposed to run 8-10 miles. On more than a few occasions, we would go to a baseball field and play with a wooden bat and tennis ball for an hour and a half or play tag in the empty livestock barns of the Bureau Valley Fairgrounds instead. Both were still a great workout,” he said.

“The camaraderie and team building that came from those events could never be replicated in any way. ... My cross country teammates were my best friends in high school and beyond.”