When the campus police arrived on the scene of a disturbance at the University of Guelph’s ancient cinder running track, they didn’t expect to find an ecstatic middle-aged man breathlessly clutching a $200 bottle of potent Islay whisky.
It was shortly after midnight on a chilly February evening and Dave Scott-Thomas had just completed a celebratory race around the Alumni Stadium oval. If the squad car’s arrival hadn’t scattered the crowd he was in the middle of high-fiving, the 47-year-old track coach would have been leading a toast to the success of a remarkable civic achievement – a million dollars raised in a 10-day blitz to fund a track that will focus Guelph’s determination to be one of the world’s great running cities.
