The Genius of Ted Haydon and the University of Chicago Track Club

by Knoedel, Jim

• ISBN13: 9798350989373
• ISBN10: 8350989378
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2025-03-03
• Publisher: BookBaby
• More Book Details
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Summary

Edward "Ted" Haydon was born in Saskatchewan Canada in 1912 and moved to Chicago in
1917 where he lived the rest of his life. He was renowned for creating the University of Chicago
Track Club in 1950, a unique blend of college and club that changed the way track and field
organizations were seen. Over the years seventeen club members qualified for the Olympic
Games – in 1956, 1960, 1964, 1972, 1976, 1980, and 1984 – Jan Johnson finishing third in the
pole vault in 1972 and Rick Wohlhuter also third at the 1976 Games in the 800 meters.
A 1933 graduate of the University of Chicago, Ted spent the first sixteen years of his career as a
social worker during the height of the Great Depression and WWII, one of the neighborhoods he
was responsible for the site of the 1929 St. Valentine's Day Massacre frequented by the likes of
Al Capone and Bugsy Moran.
Ted had a wit matched by few, his "Being a member of the UCTC is a state of mind. If you think
you are, then you are" one of the classic lines. The club coach and U of C varsity coach at the
same time, he opened the organization to people of all levels, espousing a Run For Fun motto
to his charges, the eight minute milers just as welcome as those who could break four minutes.
He was known to counsel athletes after a bad race with the quip "Don't worry about the race
today, I know you are capable of much worse" or "If you want to run faster times you'll need to
run shorter races." Ted's alibi list was legendary, complete with boxes to check the excuse,
handed out to all his new athletes and comprised of these examples – "I wanted to see what
they gave 3rd place" or "I felt great and that's always a bad sign."
He was an assistant coach for the 1968 and 1972 US Olympic teams; also coaching at the '63
and '79 Pan American Games, the 1961 Maccabi Games, leading US teams on European and
Russian tours in 1958 and 1975, inducted into the USA Track & Field Hall of Fame in 1975. It
would take a thesaurus to list all Ted's great qualities. He will always be remembered for his
sense of humor, a fedora on his head, and the two stopwatches around his neck.

Author Biography

For thirty-five years Jim Knoedel was a college coach with stops at Iowa State, Drake, Loyola, Northwestern, and the University of Illinois at Chicago where he spent the last twenty-one years of his career. He is a graduate of the University of Iowa and currently resides in Chicago with his wife Denise.