In 1976 I was a failed miler (4:09.8), an aging past-prime marathoner (33 years old with a 2 hr. 35 min. marathon under my belt) and living in the sub-arctic wastes of northern Quebec where a nice day in winter might read -27 F on our outdoor thermometer. Don't even ask me about the cold days. And I was an interloper in a nationalistic French Canadian culture. I needed a respite from that environment, and I wanted to coach track and field in an American college. My sense of the pathway to that goal was to have a better understanding how the human body functions in response to putting it under a lot of endurance type stress via running down a road or around a track. I thought that would make me a coaching candidate for a track and field program at an institution of higher learning. I was wrong, but that's another story.
Somehow, I'm not sure where, perhaps in a purloined copy of Runners' World I read about the Human Performance Laboratory at Ball State University in Muncie, Indiana and the work being done with runners and other sports people by Dr. David Costill. It seemed to be my way toward achieving my goal. After all, I had an undergrad degree in marketing with a sterling 2.45 GPA, and was teaching phys. ed. in a high school. I wrote Dr. Costill and asked if I could come to Muncie and work on a masters degree. He said, "Why not?" He was probably hoping that I would not actually go through the application process. Somehow, I got through and with the help of the GI Bill was able to bring my family with two small children down to Muncie and spend an incredible three years at the Lab, culminating in teaching undergrad exercise physiology and anatomy during that third year. My first year was spent catching up on undergrad science courses, chemistry, anatomy, biology, physiology, et al and doing remarkably better than I had as an undergrad. I once asked Dr. Costill why he even accepted me into the program with my marginal background. He said he thought that being older and with a family, I might be a lot more motivated. As usual, he was right. That second or middle year was when I did the masters program. But anyone associated with the lab those days was constantly involved in multiple research projects going on there as a research assistant or as a guinea pig for the other students doing their grad work projects. It was constantly an exchange of ideas and information with guidance from Dr. Costill and Bud Getchell, the former Ball State basketball coach who got out of the game and founded the Lab. Bud specialized in adult fitness and ran one of the early programs in that area.
Long story short, I recently came cross a brief history of the Lab written by one of the principals of that institution, William Fink. Bill was a cornerstone of the Lab in charge of the actual biochemistry analyses done in all the experiments going on. His sense of humor, often self deprecating, was surpassed by none, and he shows that in this history of the Lab. Bill was a former English teacher and seminarian who came with his M.A. in English from Notre Dame University in South Bend. He never went after a Phd. He said he could not do that because his work was already published and you couldn't use already published material in your dissertation. If anyone is qualified to write this history, Bill is certainly the one. It could be hundreds of pages long, but he has condensed it into a readable synopsis that can be read and enjoyed even by a marketing B.A. with a 2.45 GPA. George Brose
A History of the Human Performance Lab link
Comments:
Thanks George. Bill was a great writer , but that’s another story.
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I worked with Dr. Ken Cooper at Lackland AFB in 1968 while an AF officer living on base, but training daily at Fort Sam Houston, for the 1968 Olympics in the sport of Modern Pentathlon. Dr. Cooper was working to developed the fitness program Aerobics, adopted by the Air Force and later most all of the military. We in the monitoring program were a bunch of mostly civilian Lackland workers and a few troops-we were known as Cooper’s Poopers, running daily around the golf course and streets of Lackland and being monitored for heart beat and general conditioning by exercise. I once ran a mile behind a TV camera in a van while wearing a heart monitor. The run around a 4:35 mile pace. The heart monitor stopped working part way through the run. It was to have been part of a national sports news program on fitness and performance- I think it was ABC Wide World of Sports? This was filmed in spring of 1968 but I don’t think it was finally used in the TV presentation.
During my time as secretary of the USOC AAC (1973-80), we were supportive of the USOC developing performance training and research at the new headquarters at Colorado Springs. There has been substantial changes in the public since the 1970’s when running marathons of 5K’s were just becoming popular. I took part in them thru 1980 when I had a knee surgery go wrong. But reading Dr. Castill’s biography info today, I realize that my body was trained to excel during my competitive days and keeps me in good heart condition as I approach 80 this year. Thanks for the good article!! Loren Drum
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