Fifty Years Later, Craig Virgin's Victory Over Nick Rose At NCAA Cross Country Remains One Of The Most Memorable In The History Of The Meet

By David Woods for DyeStat

There are lows in the career of every runner. This might have been the lowest for Craig Virgin.

In the 1974 NCAA Cross Country Championships, as an Illinois sophomore, he tried to match strides with Western Kentucky’s Nick Rose at Bloomington, Ind. With less than two miles left in the six-mile race, Virgin was third. He was passed by nine runners, including seven in the last half-mile and three in the last 220 yards. His waffle racing shoes kept accumulating mud and sticks, weighing him down.

He finished 12th.

One explanation might be he was experiencing symptoms of pericarditis, an inflammation of the sac lining around the heart. He wasn’t diagnosed until four months later.

“It was a terrible, painful, humiliating and denigrating experience,” Virgin recalled.

That is one reason the 1975 nationals were so momentous. This is the 50th anniversary of that race, one that remains memorable for other reasons.

It was a nationals after the era of Gerry Lindgren and Steve Prefontaine, and before an East African takeover. At the next eight NCAA meets, East Africans won six, three by Henry Rono. The 1975 race also prefaced another epic Virgin/Rose duel on a world stage.

I was a kid journalist in 1975 for the Champaign News-Gazette, and this was a big out-of-state assignment at State College, Pa. What I vividly remember was watching Rose and Virgin from a distance -- except you couldn’t be sure it was two runners. They looked like one, stride for stride and so close together.

It was a day when cross country was combat. Arms and elbows tangled as if on an indoor track. Virgin nearly forced Rose into a tree. Rose reciprocated by leveraging Virgin into a pole. Neither surrendered an inch.

“And it never got dirty. It was always legal, but just barely,” Virgin recalled.

By November 1975, he was confident and committed. In what was then called the district meet, back at Indiana, Virgin’s six-mile time of 29:18.6 broke Rose’s course record of 29:22.0 from the year before.

Indiana coach Sam Bell was impressed, predicting Virgin would beat Rose at NCAAs.

“I punished that course for what it did to me the year before,” Virgin said.

Quality of competition rivaled any race at NCAAs, before or since.

There were four reigning NCAA champions in the field: the 23-year-old Rose; Washington State’s John Ngeno, three-mile and six-mile; UTEP’s James Munyala, steeplechase; BYU’s Paul Cummings, mile. Also: Providence’s John Treacy, an Irishman who won world cross country titles in 1978-79 and Olympic marathon silver in 1984; Washington State’s Josh Kimeto, a future NCAA champion; Penn’s Dave Merrick, an Illinois high school superstar who hadn’t raced Virgin since the 1971 state track meet.

“I felt like it was the Illinois guys against the world,” Virgin said. “And it was literally the world.”

Virgin was lodged in a single room at the Nittany Lion Inn. He psyched himself up listening on his portable stereo to a song by a young artist named Bruce Springsteen: “Born to Run.”

Virgin said he annoyed teammates by running too fast on the eve of the race, testing the layout on Penn State’s golf course.

“But I was bouncing off the turf. I was so mentally ready,” he said.

He had coped with kidney, heart and foot ailments earlier in his career. This time, he was fit.

His pre-race diary entry:

I have visions of a good race. I must be cool and calculating. Must not burn out my first 2-3 miles. I must work on staying near the front and yet not blowing my wad. Must recognize real challengers and move accordingly! Most of all I must look at myself during the race and commit myself even when it hurts. You have to be the toughest SOB out there to win.

Rose had a different take on Virgin:

“He’s the hard-training, clean-living All-American boy and I’m the long-haired lay-about who likes to stay up late every night and drink alcohol at parties.”

Importance of the race in Champaign was underscored at a service club meeting that day. Before cellphones, livestreaming or Internet results, Illinois track coach Bob Wright was getting updates over the telephone and delivering those to Illini fans. The News-Gazette published a story about the race at the top of Page 1 of that Monday afternoon’s newspaper.

On race day, temperatures reached into the 40s, causing the snow on top of the surface to melt. Virgin wore gloves and a long-sleeved turtleneck under his singlet.

Rose led through a 4:35 mile. Rose and Merrick hit two miles in 9:20, followed by Virgin, Kimeto and Penn State’s George Malley. By three miles, it was Rose, Virgin, Kimeto and Ngeno in 14:04.

Rose and Virgin opened a 20-yard gap before a major hill, a half-mile grind between the lowest and highest points on the course. They went through four miles in 18:38, five in 23:37.

Rose and Virgin were still together when they reached a 300-yard hill in the closing mile. Virgin pulled away, stumbling briefly through a dip in terrain 120 yards from the finish.

His time was 28:23.3, leading 47 men under the course record. Rose was far behind -- 15 seconds -- in 28:38.8.

“He did everything he could do to pull away,” Virgin said that day. “So many times I almost gave up. I thank God I didn’t. I don’t know how I hung on.”

Ngeno was third in 28:52.4 and Oregon’s Terry Williams fourth in 28:57.9. Munyala was sixth, Cummings seventh, Merrick ninth, Kimeto 14th and Treacy 21st.

As Virgin came through the finish chute, Illini coach Gary Wieneke came up to shake his hand and congratulate him.

“As we walked down the chute, he put his arm around me,” Virgin said. “It was the first time he put his arm around me in three years. That was a huge display of affection for him.”

The victory nearly had a tragic postscript.

Days later, Virgin was driving near his Lebanon, Ill., home, tried to pass a semitrailer on snowy Route 4 and lost control. The car crossed the center line, spun 360 degrees and landed in a ditch. The car’s frame was bent, but neither Virgin nor sister Sheree were hurt.

“I’m just lucky none of us got hurt except for the car,” he said.

Virgin rode his momentum into track, notwithstanding another loss to Rose. In the 1976 NCAA Indoor Championships at Detroit, Rose won the two-mile over Virgin, 8:30.91 to 8:33.71.

Virgin, at age 20, qualified for the Montreal Olympics. In the trials at Eugene, he set a collegiate record of 27:59.43 in the 10,000 meters and finished second to reigning Olympic marathon champion Frank Shorter.

Virgin coped with Achilles soreness as a college senior. He was beaten in the 1976 NCAA cross-country meet at Denton, Texas, by Washington State’s Rono and Samson Kimobwa.

Fifty years later, Rono (28:06.6), Kimobwa (28:16.8) and Virgin (28:26.5) remain the fastest in meet history over a 10K course. Moreover, Kimobwa and Rono were the next two world record holders at 10K on the track.

Virgin and Rose reprised their NCAA duel less than five years later.

In the World Cross Country Championships at Paris in March 1980, Rose built a lead before he was overtaken first by West Germany’s Hans-Jurgen Orthmann and ultimately by Virgin. Virgin, the only American ever to win the men’s world title, covered 12.58 kilometers in 37:01 to Orthmann’s 37:02 and Rose’s 37:05. Video of the finish is compelling:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LYr-anCd300

Virgin was in the shape of his life in 1980, lowering his American record in the 10,000 to 27:29.16 in July, also at Paris – then No. 2 in history. He was denied a chance at a medal by the U.S.-led boycott of the Moscow Olympics.

In March 1981, at Madrid, Virgin repeated his world title. The month before, in the nationals at Louisville, Ky., Virgin had beaten Rose by two-tenths of a second.

Rose also had a distinguished post-college career.

He set a half-marathon world record of 1:02:36 in 1979 and later lowered that to 1:01:03. His British record of 8:18.4 in the indoor two-mile stood for 24 years.

At the Olympics, Rose did not make the 5,000 final in 1980 and was 12th in the 10,000 in 1984. Virgin qualified for the 1984 Olympics but was eliminated in heats of the 10,000.

Too bad they couldn’t match strides on an Olympic stage.

“We had so much piss and vinegar, blood-and-guts duels – indoors, outdoors, U.S. cross country, world cross country,” Virgin said. “If us two were in the race, it didn’t seem to matter who else was in it.”

Contact David Woods at [email protected]. Follow him on Twitter: @DavidWoods007.