Blaine Newnahm a columnist for the Seattle Times has written a column about the award of the 2008 US Olympic track trial to Hayward Field at the University of Oregon in Eugene. He states:
"Hayward Field was track and field's Carnegie Hall, a "Chariots of Fire," Ebbets Field kind of place, where the crowd intuitively knew when a runner was on record pace....
That's hallowed ground," said Craig Masback, head of the U.S. Track and Field Association in awarding the meet to Eugene over Sacramento, Calif. He was talking about Hayward Field, where he had competed as a distance runner.
In Eugene, the meet is about the love of a sport, an appreciation that created victory laps, that made rhythmic clapping before a jump or a vault appropriate.
While crowds of more than 20,000 were announced in a makeshift football stadium in Sacramento, and the warm weather delighted sprinters, last year's meet had little of the sweetness or drama of Eugene. And there was no comparison in intimacy and involvement of the crowds.
Sacramento thinks Nike money persuaded the USTFA to return to its roots. Maybe it did. Nike paid for Eugene's presentation, and will spend at least $1 million on the new meet to be held every year.
The lingering hope is to make track and field again something that happens more than just every four years before and during the Olympics.
If that was the goal, then Eugene is the place."
To read the entire column click on the title above for a link.
