Upload a Photo Upload a Video Add a News article Write a Blog Add a Comment
Blog Feed News Feed Video Feed All Feeds

Folders

Featured (975)
All (1183)
 

 

Bill McChesney Sr., Patriarch Of Eugene, Oregon's 'First Family of Running' Dies

Published by
DyeStat.com   Apr 6th 2020, 11:42pm
Comments

McChesney Was One of the Cornerstones Of Eugene's TrackTown Heritage

By Doug Binder, DyeStat Editor

Peter Campbell-Thompson (Photo)

The family of Bill McChesney Sr. remembered him as "competitive" and always "encouraging" on the evening after his death Monday morning at the age of 91. He was surrounded by his family.

McChesney was a prominent member of the Eugene running community even in retirement and held numerous age group records. His claims to fame included a 4:50 mile at 59 years old and a world age-group record marathon (3:50) at the age of 76. 

But the home he shared with his wife of 67 years, Marcia, was also an open door to athletes traveling to Eugene for meets, from the Olympic Trials to the Prefontaine Classic and many others. 

"Mom and dad invited the whole world to our house and three-quarters of them came," Steve McChesney said. 

Marcia was known within the local running community as a seamstress who would sew and repair torn uniforms for Mary Slaney and other professionals, as well as members of the Oregon Ducks track team.

Bill Sr. was born in Glendive, Mont. in 1928 and was a successful high school miler in the 1940s. The family was in Brookings, on the south Oregon coast, before moving to Eugene in the mid 1960s. 

Tom, Steve and Billy Jr., spaced two years apart, helped fuel a distance running dynasty at South Eugene High and all three of them later ran at the University of Oregon. 

Bill Sr., as a member of the Oregon Track Club, helped Eugene win the bid for its first Olympic Trials in 1972. He was there to help move the East grandstand of Hayward Field 20 feet closer to Agate Street when the track was renovated to metric.

He also returned to running, like his sons, in the 1970s and completed the Butte To Butte 10K road race in Eugene more than 40 times. He broke numerous age-group records and Master's meets along with Marcia, while their sons cheered them.

The tight-knit family ran together and motivated one another.

One year at the Lowell Turkey Trot in Massachusetts, the family won "four or five" turkeys as age-group winners at the event and gave all but one of them back.  

"One of the greatest rivalries in sports was Middle School Ken versus Master's Dad," Steve said. 

Bill Sr. was also a long-time meet official at Hayward Field, where he called off the splits for generations of runners at the track and at the OSAA Cross Country Championships. 

McChesney was preceded in death by two of his four sons. Tom McChesney died in an automobile accident in 1986 and Billy McChesney Jr, an Oregon star and 1980 Olympic team member, died in a 1992 accident. 

"There are only a few legends of TrackTown, and Bill is one of them," Oregon track announcer Paul Swangard said.

His other two sons, Ken and Steve, are both high school coaches. Steve McChesney coaches the Newton South High program in Massachusetts and Ken, who ran at the University of Montana, like his father, coaches at Veritas School in Newberg, Ore. 

EUGENE REGISTER-GUARD VIDEO



More news

History for DyeStat.com
YearVideosNewsPhotosBlogs
2024 1091 356 13762  
2023 5382 1361 77508  
2022 4892 1212 58684  
Show 25 more
 
+PLUS highlights
+PLUS coverage
Live Events
Get +PLUS!