Stan Druckrey, Part 1: Coaching, Hurdling, and a Life-Changing Encounter

Editor’s note: Like many of our club members, Stan Druckrey chalked up some great track achievements earlier in life. Stan and his wife, Nancy, are snowbirds who return to The Villages every January and February.  

I had a good running career as a student at the University of Wisconsin – La Crosse. After graduating in 1970, I got a position as a graduate assistant for cross country & track at North Dakota State University in Fargo, North Dakota. Fargo has a reputation for tough winters, but as Wisconsin natives my wife Nancy and I were used to snow and frigid cold.
 
That fall taught me a lot about coaching cross country and hosting meets. One of our distance runners, Mike Slack, qualified for the Division 2 national meet and finished second in the 3-mile run. Mike went on to win the D2 cross-country title in the fall of 1971 and ’72. I also worked with the hurdlers on our track team.
 
The university had just opened a state-of-the-art field house with a 200-meter track. This helped me stay in good shape through workouts and races with my hurdlers. That spring our team traveled to Texas to participate in several meets, and I competed there, too. At one meet I won the 120-yard high hurdles (equivalent to the 110-meter high hurdles), but no one got my time. Our team’s hurdler was second in 14.1, so I figured I had raced under 14 seconds. This got me thinking that I should continue racing and try to qualify for the Olympic Trials the next year.
 
A life-changing encounter
 
At the Division 2 nationals in California, Mike Slack qualified for the Division 1 national meet in Seattle. The head coach didn’t want to go to Seattle, so I accompanied Mike. At one of the coaches’ functions, Bill Toomey described the training that led him to become the 1968 Olympic decathlon champion. That talk changed the way I trained for the rest of my life. I started doing speed workouts that summer.
 
After summer school ended and I received my Master’s degree in physical education, Nancy and I moved back to Wisconsin and I took a job teaching physical education and history at South Milwaukee Junior High. I didn’t coach that fall, but I did continue my speed training.
 
When cold weather arrived, I ran indoors at Whitefish Bay High School, which had a 10-lap-per-mile indoor track. The principal, a track fan, knew who I was. He said I could run hurdles after school as long as I didn’t interfere with the students’ basketball practice. I was really lucky. This helped me get in great shape.
 
A little side story: In 2016 I went to watch the Olympic Trials in Eugene, Oregon, with my two granddaughters and their father. As we waited for our flight at the Portland airport, two young men came up and asked if I was Stan Druckrey. They introduced themselves as former students at Whitefish Bay who used to watch me run hurdles. We had a good time talking about those earlier days.
 
1972: It was a very good year
 
In January 1972, I raced at indoor meets around Madison, WI, and Chicago. I had been a member of the Kegonsa Track Club since my sophomore year in college. Bill Kurtz, the club’s coach, was a great gentleman who helped a lot of young men continue their running ambitions after college.
 
Coach Kurtz found meets for me to compete in. At my first meet of 1972, I turned in a very good time in the 50-yard high hurdles, and I’m positive this was due to my speed training. My finishing time allowed me to enter some big meets in the Chicago area.
 
In February, Coach Kurtz got me into a meet in Toronto, Canada. I ran a great race and finished in a dead heat with three other hurdlers. We were all given the same time (there was no FAT –fully automatic time – back then). Unfortunately, I was picked 4th. But it was still a great experience. The meet director gave me money to cover my expenses. Usually I paid my own way and the track club helped a little.
 
National indoors at the Garden  
 
My times qualified me for the national indoor meet at Madison Square Garden in early March. A school function the night before forced me to fly to New York the morning of the race. I made it to the semifinals but hit a hurdle and failed to reach the finals. Very upset, I caught a cab to the airport and flew home that night. The only good thing about that trip was talking to the wife of one of my best friends on the flight back home.

​Stan Druckrey
 
Next up, Part 2: Competing “Down Under”