Oregon Legend Jim Grelle Ran with the Best
Runner started at Lincoln High, went to UO, then all the way to the Olympics
By Gary Henley, The Daily Astorian
GEARHART, Ore. — He’s the North Coast’s own running legend.
And while Jim Grelle takes as much pleasure nowadays playing and talking about golf, he still loves reminiscing about his running days, which took him from Lincoln High School to the University of Oregon to the Olympics.
For nearly three decades, he ran with and against some of the all-time legends of track & field.
Most Oregon track afficionados know the current names by heart – Ashton Eaton, Galen Rupp, Matthew Centrowitz, Andrew Wheating, etc.
And Duck fans are certainly familiar with the names of the past. But few saw them compete, and even fewer know them personally. When those legendary names are mentioned, they’re usually attached to statues, trophies, buildings or races – e.g., the Bill Bowerman Building, the Bill Dellinger Invitational, the Steve Prefontaine Classic.
Jim Grelle, you might say, is the source if you want to talk Oregon track & field history. He ran with Knight, ran with Dellinger, ran for Bowerman… and he did a whole lot more after his college days were over.
And you can still find Grelle, 76, in Gearhart. Not so much on the track; you're more likely to run into him on the golf course.
Running, however, is still one of his favorite subjects. Get him talking, and Grelle remembers times and places of races even strategies and specific laps of specific races that took place more than 40 years ago.
The Early Days
Before the Ducks and before he became an Olympian, Grelle was one of the states top high school runners as a student-athlete at Portlands Lincoln High School.
As a junior in the spring of 1954, Grelle won the state title in the 880-yard dash.
I was lucky to win it that year, he said. It was just exciting to catch this kid (Bob Drynan) from Albany. And then my senior year, I was under two minutes and nobody else in the state had ever broken two minutes for 50 years.
Later that year, Grelle finished sixth overall in the 1954 state cross country meet, helping lead the Cardinals to an impressive team title.
Back on the track in the spring of 55, Grelle won another state title in the 880, finishing in a state record time 1:58.0. The fourth-place finisher was a Cleveland High School senior named Phil Knight.
And it was Knight who teamed up with Grelle at the University of Oregon, as the pair lettered the same three seasons (1957, 58, 59) with the Ducks.
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