Class of 1968 at Homecoming Weekend

It’s always nice when Homecoming (Alumni) Weekend coincides with an off (bye) weekend for our cross country team. This allows us to visit with the many loyal alumni – not only of the college, but especially of our cross country and track teams. We saw the usual amalgam of relatively young Forever Foxes around campus on Friday and Saturday. A special treat was a visit by several members of the Class of 1968, men who were among the founding fathers of the track program here at Marist. Do the math. The Class of 1968, those of whom are still around, are in the early 70s. They showed up at our Cross Country and Track Alumni Tent (yes, we had that this year, in the middle of campus, and it was neat) and offered us some history lessons, complete with great stories and great photos from a loooooong time ago. Some of those photos are shared here. Marty McGowan (Marty! We missed you!) has provided me with some great historical photos (like these) from his attic.

One great story of which I was not aware: In the winter of 1967, the men of the cross country team staged a 100-hour relay as they embarked on forming a student-run track team. This four-plus-day relay was a big deal and got a lot of attention in The Circle and the Poughkeepsie Journal. All these years later, these guys were proud of their efforts in this 100-hour relay and they made their dream of putting together a track team a reality. Like the loyal alums they are, they groused about the fact that we still don’t have a track on campus. But it was great to meet these truly great men – John Forbes, Charlie DiSogra, Brendan Burke, Dan Kuffner (who lives locally and who I’ve gotten to know very well through the years) and others. Ours is a rich history, one that we are trying to keep building each year, and we are very proud of it.