“The things that he did for track and field are just too much to put into words. Besides building one of the best track facilities in the entire country – it still is one of the best track facilities in the countries, he then started up invitational meets to put together the best collegians and post-collegiates. Usually, these were sponsored by Pepsi and it was just known as the Pepsi Invitational. It started in the late 70s and that meet went on until it finally ran out of gas at about 1990 or 1991. Those meets brought in more than 10,000 fans every year. Drake Stadium hosted several U.S. Championships in the 1970s. He finally passed away in 2017 at the age of 90 after battling prostate cancer. As far as a man who had an effect on both growing the sport in terms of competitive level and in terms of fan interest, nobody did it better than Jim Bush.”

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To kick off the Track and Field History podcast, I floated out the question: “Your pick for greatest ever college T&F/XC coach?” In this episode, I explain why I picked UCLA head coach Jim Bush.

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This is the Track and Field History Podcast with Jesse Squire. Subscribe and catch all the latest episodes on Apple Podcasts, Spotify and Anchor. Got anything you’d like to hear on the show? Shoot us an email trackhistorypod@gmail.com or tweet at @tracksuperfan.