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Linda Hartman was 15 years old when her big brother accidentally fell into a 14-foot deep hole on a construction site in Yosemite Park and drowned in shallow water.
Linda had spent time accumulating press clippings and ribbons and certificates in her big brother’s room that fall, intending to build a scrapbook — to give him at Christmas, 1986.
But when John Frank died that October, the air was pretty much sucked out of the holidays. The scrapbook became a family memorial.
Frank was one of the best high school distance runners in the U.S. in 1980 and remains something of a local legend in Northern California. At Central Valley High School, he was undefeated during league cross country meets in 1978 and 1979 and won the Northern Section and NorCal Championships his senior year. He won the U.S. Junior Olympic title that year as well, in New Jersey. He was the California co-runner of the year.
Then he went to Oregon State, where he ran for four years and forged friendships that have never been forgotten. He is remembered as a humble guy who put his teammates first.
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On Sept. 3, the Oregon State women’s cross country team will host the inaugural John Frank Memorial Invitational. Hartman, and one of her two brothers, will be there to represent the family.
“It’s hard to express the honor it is for our family,” Linda Hartman said. “He made a huge impact in our lives. He was so special, and he made an impact in the lives of so many others, as well.”
It is not the first time a race has been named in Frank’s honor. His high school began holding a John Frank Invitational track meet the following spring. And the local road race in nearby Redding, called the NorCal Run, soon became the John Frank Memorial Run.
It was fitting, too.
Frank grew up along State Route 151. His favorite loop, a seven-miler, was at Shasta Dam. When the road race changed its name, they moved the course to Shasta Lake – tracing over some of John Frank’s footsteps.
Frank would have been hurt by Oregon State’s decision in 1988 to cut the track and cross country programs, his sister said.
And he would be thrilled that they are slowly making a comeback. Women’s cross country was reinstated at the school in 2004. A group of football players dabbled with men’s track in 2010, highlighted by Jordan Bishop’s All-America citation in the NCAA high jump competition.
“Johnny was team-oriented and proud to be running for Oregon State,” Linda Hartman said. “He would be wanting to help bring (the program) back.”
By honoring the past, current Oregon State coach Kelly Sullivan hopes to forge a new future for the sport in Corvallis.
Frank ran a personal best of 14:14 in the 5,000 meters, good for fifth on OSU’s all-time list. It is a list has been frozen for 22 years.
Incidentally, at the time of Frank’s death, he was talking of pursuing his training and trying to make it to the 1988 Olympic Trials. He had picked his mileage back up and fueling his soul with the inspiring landscapes of Yosemite Park.
This October will mark 24 years since his death – after which time he will have been gone longer than he was alive.
But life and his story are not forgotten.
When she was still in college (in 1992), Linda wrote this about her brother:
“I was missing him.
I was reading. It was late at night. I was all alone and the memories came flooding back. The times we’d spent. The things we’d done and the things we had planned to do.
Many times we would sit on top of the hill, our hill. We would just sit and talk. Talking of nothing in particular.
Talking of whatever came to mind – future plans, fears, love, life. Tears began to run down my cheeks. The page turned
grey and wrinkled up in the little circular spots where the tears fell. (He’d find it funny that I noticed such things).
I loved to watch him run. The crowd would cheer when he came across the finish line. I was so proud.
He’d come to my races too. The only voice that would reach my ear. I couldn’t help but run faster when I heard his encouragement. He’d meet me at the finish line, tousle my hair and smile.
Oh, that smile, so beautiful, so comforting.
There’s another hill that I go to now … It’s a quite, lonely place; that hill overlooking the city.
I go there and talk. I talk about many things, as I did years ago. There is no reply but I know that he’s there with me, listening. I wipe away the dirt from the stone and read the inscription and know that he hears …
‘Give me strength for the rest of the race.’”
1996 NAL XC Championships tribute
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