By Bob Hahn (Class of ’81)
He used to visit Coach Dean Carlson’s room while at Sandburg High School. He would go there to talk running. Long-time Eagle track coach for the boys in the 70’s and 80’s and girls cross country coach until 2004, Coach Carlson knew Sandburg track and cross country inside and out. Jeremy Borling would listen and soak it all in. The 1998 grad was an exceptional prep high school runner. He was one of 13 Sandburg CC Alumni to earn All-State honors. But he was also exceptional in another way. Most high school athletes are living in the now. They may be busy looking at their own press clippings rather than the alumni before them. They will have time for alumni stuff later, when their own children may start their foray into our special world of inflicting pain on ourselves, when they will wax nostalgic to their “distracted by teendom” kids who won’t really be listening. He was a little different. He was interested in the Eagle runners who came before him. Who paved the way. He heard stories of the legends like Bob Hicks and his climb to state champion in the mile and two time All-Stater in cross. He heard tales of Mike Keane and Mike Choffin. Choffin an All State miler in ‘79, and Keane a terrific prep runner and a Missouri Valley Conference All-Century selection at the collegiate level, while at Southern Illinois University. There was Dan Hahn and Steve Kaye, All-State in CC and part of the ’82 team that surprised everyone with their Sandburg best (at the time) 4th place finish in state. There was the incredible streak of conference championships in the 70’s and 80’s where lesser known alumni helped place their stamp on Eagle greatness. There was Andy Homoly, who put an exclamation point on the middle 80’s with his two All State jaunts at Detweiller. The pioneers…….Mike Novak, Tim Close, and the hijinks of Tom Smith could not be forgotten by Coach Carlson.
But one stood out in Jeremy’s mind. “THE” Sandburg legend. Tom Graves. There was the obvious:
3-time 2 mile state champ. 2-time Cross champ. Mile champ in ’78. Six titles in all. But it was how he dominated that impressed Jeremy. The stories behind the story. Carlson’s accounts of the frustration he laid down on the rest of the state of Illinois for 3 years. Total studs who had to leave Illinois if they wanted to win anything. USA running legend Jim Spivey having to duck him in ’78 so he could put one state championship medal on his shoulders. The McAllister twins feeling robbed when he capped off his prep career with “their” state championship in the mile. Nobody was safe. Except his own teammates. He was a humble leader. A motivator. He was easy to admire. He gave everybody else the credit. The coaches, his parents. In his mind, everyone counted. Bob Hicks pushed me, couldn’t have done anything without him. Jim Spivey helped me achieve my success. Craig Virgin is untouchable. Mike Keane is tough! He’d win a race in sub 14:30 but be going nuts over his 4th and 5th runners “studly” performance at 15:30. Building everyone up around him. But Carlson knew better. He knew he was an animal. A killer. No excuses…..cold, heat. Others would lay down or blow up. Gravy would think about cruising, for about a split second, before he blew your doors off on the final backstretch and left you watching his back as he won again.
North Central College journalism major was working for Chicago Athlete Magazine, writing elite athlete profiles when he was plucked out of that job to help Pinkowski organize his premier event, the Chicago Marathon. He’s in charge of organizing the elite athlete field. Now he gets to meet the world class legends. He gets to know guys like Kenyan Sammy Wanjiru. Sammy won Olympic Gold in the marathon in 2008 and set the course record in Chicago while winning in ’09 and ‘2010. These are the kind of guys he gets to hang with these days. Pretty cool.
ethic but somehow he still felt like something was missing. He wanted to run with the big boys, be a front runner. His guess was that it was confidence that he was lacking. He didn’t feel like he belonged with the elite runners in the state. That all changed in the winter of ’97. Coach Pete Struck came to him one day with a letter from the “Prep Top Times”. Seems he had the 12th best time in the state in the mile and approaching the end of the indoor season they wanted Jeremy to come run in a meet in Champaign. Jeremy related how coach Struck wasn’t sure it would be a good idea to go
down there and compete. He thought his training wasn’t strong enough and didn’t want him to go down there against the state’s elite and get blown away. Didn’t want him to lose confidence. But Jeremy was curious how he might stack up. After all, he was among the top twelve runners in the state in the mile. Why not? So they packed their bags and it was off to Champaign. Coach said he wanted to see two things if we go. One……. I want you to beat 1 guy. Don’t finish 12th. Two……. have fun! I want to see a smile on your face when you pass me. So the race gets underway and Borling is settling in near the back of the pack, things were going well, the pace was real comfortable. So on his way by at the half he gives Coach Struck a giant exaggerated smile and that took care of goal number one. About goal number two: He proceeds to beat 9 competitors and nearly wins the race! His third place finish in 4:21 was the turning point of his career. He beat some real good names and now had the confidence to feel like he belonged at the top. It was that confidence that he gained indoors in the mile that helped him to a fifth place finish outdoors for his second All-State medal.
recruited him into the defending cross country national championship program at the division 3 school in the near west suburbs. Now there was no time for individual goals or thought processes. It was about team. Team championships. Don’t care how it gets done, but I am going to motivate you to win as a team, type of deal. And win they did! Freshman year Borling finished 63rd in the nation to help NCC to another National championship finishing as their 5th man. Sophomore year he moved up to 4th man and finished 30th giving him All-American status while winning another National championship title. Junior year they were once again the favorites but fell short of the team title. The 12th place All American finish seemed somehow a little empty. Senior year had all the makings of a fantastic season as Jeremy finished first at Pre-Nationals, but as we all know too well, sometimes things just don’t go as planned and the team blew up a bit at nationals and came up short of expectations. But Borling was proud to say he finished his collegiate career with his third All-American run, a 5thplace finish in the steeplechase at Nationals to cap off a fantastic career at North Central.
After college he put his well-tuned body to work running a few marathons culminating with a terrific race at Chicago in 2005 finishing in 2 hours and 27 minutes. He wasn’t overly impressed with himself, but was blown away when he received a prize award check in the mail for finishing as Illinois 2nd runner! Then it was off to grad school in Boston were he kept his training up with the well known Boston Athletic Association. He made a lot of friends and had some great training partners that helped him to another excellent finish at Boston in 2007 finishing once again at 2:27 on the more demanding Boston course. That brought him full circle back to Chicagoland with his beautiful family and his job with Carey Pinkowski organizing the Shamrock Shuffle, the Chicago Marathon among other golf, charity and hospital functions.
Now, like Tom Graves before him, he is a bit of a legend himself, or at least he is among the blue and gold of Carl Sandburg cross country alumni. Wilson and Struck. Hicks and Graves. Keaner and Choffin. Kaye and Hahn. Dahleen and Adamowski. Glaza and Smith. Williams and Close. Parker, McMahon and Novak. Homoly, Verzbicus and Borling. Welcome back to your roots this weekend Mr. Borling. You loved hearing about the lore of Eagle cross country and track. You and your high school running soul mate John O’Malley (’97) have always been aware of the history of this program. Now all of the sudden you wake up and find yourself part of the history, the lore. Didn’t see that coming, did you? Sneaks up on you! See you soon……………