THE FIRST time Bob Wood knew he loved running, and running loved him, was in a Wyoming cow pasture. The high school coach in Ten Sleep, Wyo. (pop. 314), made the introduction when he pointed Wood, a ninth grader, toward some orange cones he'd placed in the pasture that adjoined the gymnasium, and told him to run around them. Wood did as he was told, and when he got back he discovered that not only had he just run the first mile of his life, but he'd set the school record.
He was a high plains high school phenom. He won the Wyoming state championship in the mile four years running. In the 1967 state meet, in his last race for old Ten Sleep High, he set a state record of 4:29 that's still on the books.In one form or another, Wood has been involved with running ever since. He was a scholarship runner for the University of Utah, worked for the Utes as an assistant coach for a couple of years (back when they had a track program, not to mention a track), and, for the past 15 years, he's been a runner's agent, representing athletes from all over the world, including Olympians from 25 different countries. In addition to that, for the past four years he has served as chairman of men's long distance running for USA Track & Field, an unpaid position.
Through it all, Wood, who lives in North Salt Lake - proving the adage that old Wyoming-ites never die, they just move to Utah - has not lost his affection for the simple sport of putting one foot in front of the other as fast as possible.
Which is why he is trying to overthrow America's running czar.
You may have missed the news last week, even though the story ran in virtually every major newspaper in the country. It was mostly buried among the "legal jurisprudence" type items. But the insiders of American track & field didn't miss the news: At a meeting of USA Track & Field's executive board in Tempe, Ariz., Bob Wood led a charge that resulted in a 12-9 vote to get rid of USATF executive director Ollan Cassell.
Cassell, a former Olympic gold medalist (4 by 400 relay, 1964), has been America's track & field CEO for the past 31 years - dating back to about the same time Wood ran around those orange cones in Ten Sleep - and in Wood's opinion, track & field has suffered for 31 years as a result. While other sports - pick a sport, any sport - have mushroomed in the self-indulgent 60's, 70's, 80's and '90s, track has somehow managed to decline. There were more sponsors in 1966 than there are now. And there was considerably more interest. In the race for the public's attention and enthusiasm, track & field has been lapped not only by the likes of basketball and football, but soccer and golf.
As a member of the USATF executive board, Wood decided to see if he could shake things up in Tempe. After sending a letter spelling out his concerns to his colleagues, the result was a first-round victory. When the board voted to recommend that Cassell's contract not be extended at the end of this year, it sent a clear message to the general board - which is scheduled to meet in San Francisco on Dec. 3 - that a majority of the sport's insiders feel it's time for a change.
If a majority of the 94 members of the general board feel the same, Cassell will be out.
It's still a longshot that it will happen. Many people on the general board have been placed there, directly or indirectly, by Cassell himself, and for many of them, a vote for the status quo means their plum trips or favors will remain untouched. Wood is calling for the memebership to vote "their conscience more than their perks."
He knows the next six weeks will be a drag. The incumbents will do their best to halt his assault on the Cassell regime, and he'd bet his latest commission that their best won't make his life more pleasant. But at least they can't cut his salary, or, for that matter, take away his Wyoming state record.
"The part of running I've always loved is that it's what you do that counts," Wood said this week from his home. "It's not who you know or how much the coach likes you. Running in its pure form is anything but political."
"But unfortunately, when it comes to the people who run the sport, sometimes it's all political, and when that happens, it's the sport that suffers."
He is trying to do something to dillute the politics. That's where Bob Wood is coming from. Call it a grass-roots effort. Interspersed by orange cones.