Jim Bell

 

 

On the tenth anniversary of his passing, the 1st inductee into Chasing the Standard’s Hall of Fame is Jim Bell.  His memory lives on for his passion, dedication, commitment, ability to share knowledge, and inspire.  Jim was the greatest of track fans, and he cared about all athletes and individuals of all ability levels.  In addition to those qualities, he maintained towsontrack.com for years, compiling the Towson University top 10 lists, while also filming each meet and making DVDs for everyone on the team.  

Originally Published on Running Maryland October 19, 2011

“Life is on the track.  Everything else is just waiting.â€

On September 3, 2005, I went to the first cross country meet of the season for the Towson women at Oregon Ridge.  I was just going to watch as a spectator, much like Jim did, when he moved here from Lexington.  Then for some reason, an idea popped in my head and I went up to Roger and asked if he needed any help with the team.  He said he would call me that Monday.  That evening Jim called me up and said the first day of fall track was the following Monday.  I was excited and showed up, not knowing what to expect.  I still remember it vividly.  It was a hot, sunny day and the team was gathered by the long jump pits, at the 100 meter starting line.  I walked up to some old guy and asked if this was the track team.  Indeed it was.  We proceeded to run 300s.

Since there was no men’s team at Towson, I helped out the women’s team while I was there, though more than anything I served as Jim’s apprentice.  I kept track of splits at practice, emailed all of them to Jim every night, helped him with video and pictures at meets, and most importantly I carried his purple chair.  He was very unassuming, but as I spent more time with him, I realized this was somebody special.  He was very passionate about everything, and above all, track and field was his passion.  I probably learned more from him in a week than I did throughout college.  I think anyone would agree that what made him a good coach is also what made him a good person.  He was incredibly attentive, meticulous, personable, understanding, and intelligent.  Even when he was tired, he gave everyone all of his energy, insight, and analysis.

Jim cared about everyone on the team and would counsel anyone.  He was always encouraging and believed in everyone even when someone didn’t have their best workout or race.  In addition to all the time spent at the track, he would spend countless hours thinking about workouts, studying the results, and analyzing the individual.  He was a follower of Bill Bowerman and his principles that a coach needs to provide motivation, inspiration, and structure.

Over the past six years I have countless memories.  I could write a book about all the things I remember, like him knowing my 800 PR before I even knew him, traveling to meets, watching football, working on DVDS, and discussing worldly events.   I’ll relate three anecdotes: In 2008, I shared a hotel room with him for the conference meet at William and Mary.  After the first day’s events, we went back to the hotel and watched “The Big Lebowski†and “Chariots of Fire.â€Â Â After that, we then fell into a long discussion about the day’s events and the performance of the team.  It was probably 1 in the morning before we had to force ourselves to go to bed;  The day after Obama won the election, he called me up just to talk about it and its implications, especially for someone his age who lived through the civil rights movement.  That set the stage for all our further political conversations;  During the entire 2010 indoor and outdoor season, instead of taking the bus to meets, we would drive ourselves to meets, arriving just in time for the first event and leaving right after the 4×4.  Once while traveling with his best friend from his childhood, we got lost in D.C. while going to Mason because we failed to read directions before we left.  The entire time we were on 66, he wouldn’t stop complaining that we were going to miss the 1500.  If you have a DVD of the meet, you know we were on time.

Certainly a hallmark of a great coach is building relationships with their athletes.  On Sunday at his memorial service, at least 100 people were crammed in his house.  Whether it was a family member, former runner, or current runner at Towson University, the most recurrent theme was the care and support he showed for his athletes.  He certainly had his quirks, like absolutely needing to know the forecast, overanalyzing someone’s workout, or talking so much he never finished dinner after a meet, but all those were because he was so focused on the team and its performance.  A few people asked me if he gave me any words of wisdom before he passed away.  Yes, for six years he did.