Men's Cross Country: Then and Now

As soon as Marc Steinsberger crossed the finish line at the IC4A Cross Country Championships on Nov. 18, Bill Mahoney, a 1968 graduate and cross country All-American, texted head coach James Snyder with a congratulatory message for Steinsberger.

"I said to Coach Snyder, 'congratulate Marc, I believe he is the first Temple runner to win it,'" said Mahoney. "He has made history."

Mahoney knows all about making history; he was a member of the 1966 men's cross country team, the first Temple team to win a race at the IC4A Cross Country Championships, and the 1967 team, the first Temple team to ever win the Middle Atlantic Conference Championship.

As he watched the results from his home in Florida, Mahoney was filled with great pride for the program he and his teammates helped create and the legacy of Temple cross country that is being restored.

"The people from the 1966 team were really proud this current group was able to do it for themselves and add to the list of accomplishments we started over 50 years ago," said Mahoney. "We respect and value what we did as individuals and as a group and we appreciate being valued. We really respect how this team is us now at a younger age and in a newer time."

The 51 years between the 1966 championship team and the 2017 championship team have not been easy for the men's cross country program.

In 1985, 19 years after the program won the first IC4A championship in Temple cross country history, the program was cut.

"A couple of my friends and myself were all very mad about it," said Joe Smith ('68). "There was only a requirement of seven student-athletes that had to travel to cross country meets at the time, it was a very low-cost budget. To us, it did not make sense to get rid of the program based on the budget. As alums, we didn't understand why they were cutting cross country."

The program wasn't reinstated until 2005, 20 years later.

In its first year back, the men's team was made up of all walk-ons and placed 13th out of 14 teams at the Atlantic 10 Cross Country Championship.

Four years later in 2009, the team won the IC4A University race and did so again in 2010. Once again, the program took a hit when the men's track and field program was cut in 2014 – none of that did much to help bring back the legacy that Temple men's cross country once left.

"No one really knew who Temple was and if they did it was like, 'Oh they're just there, they're not going to do anything,'" said junior and team co-captain Johnathan Condly. "They just kind of overlooked us; no one was really threatened or thought we could do anything at any of the big meets."

But that perception is starting to change.

"We were very happy," said Mike McSweeney ('68). "I say 'we' because all of the guys from the 1965-68 teams have stayed friends over the years, so when they brought it back it made us all very happy."

In addition to keeping in touch with each other, Mahoney, McSweeney, Smith and other members of the 1966 team make it a point to keep in touch with the current team.

This past fall, some of them made the trip to Belmont Plateau to watch the Owls run at the American Athletic Conference Championships, where Temple finished third, its highest finish since joining The American in 2013.

"The present team has accepted us old guys," said McSweeney. "They had a party at Belmont Plateau for the conference championship and we walked over and introduced ourselves and they made us feel at home. The camaraderie is just great."

The way the 2017 team gets along is evident to the members of the 1966 team and reminds them of themselves.

"The essence of it is the loneliness of the long distance runner, it's all about the person," said Mahoney. "What Coach Snyder has done for the program during his time here and what we did all those years back is the value of the team."

Snyder, who was hired as an assistant coach in 2013 and promoted to head coach in 2016, came in with hopes he would restore Temple's cross country program.

"I was originally attracted to this position for the opportunity to build a competitive men's cross country program in a place where it had never been done before," said Snyder. "When I accepted the job in 2013 the team was going through a few coaching changes in a short period of time and lacked stability. While the results on paper weren't always stellar, we began making strides and people started buying in."

Snyder's job was made even more difficult the following year when the men's track and field program was cut, but he used his athletes' decisions to stay in the program and their successes to his advantage.

"Recruiting the next classes of young men became easier because of the success our guys started having," said Snyder. "All of a sudden people began believing that you could still be successful both individually and as a team in a cross country-only program."

Each year, Temple has been expanding its recruitment; the men's team currently features three international students, which is one of the biggest differences between the 1966 and 2017 teams.

"It's great that there are some international athletes, which wasn't the case for us," said Mahoney. "Being foreign for us was whether you were from the suburbs or from Philadelphia. It adds quite a bit of diversity to the team."

While Snyder has made great strides in closing the gap between the 1966 team's success and his own, he is not done yet.

"I think we still have a long way to go to realize our full potential here. I want to be up front and honest about that," said Snyder. "Winning the IC4As this year and having our best finishes ever in The American and at the NCAA Regional were fantastic accomplishments, but I know the guys in our locker room are thinking about much bigger goals moving forward."

The members of the 1966 team could not be happier about that, but more importantly they are happy the life skills that were instilled in them are now being carried over to the next generation of runners.

"They respect each other, they build on their strengths, they continuously improve," said Mahoney. "They're not a group of individuals competing for individual success; they are individuals seeking group success. That's been proven by what they've accomplished in such a short time, which is to Coach Snyder's credit."

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Men's Cross Country: Then and Now

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