Why Jim Bush Was The Greatest College Coach of All-Time
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"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 that 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." To kick off the Track and Field History podcast, Jesse floated out the question: "Your pick for greatest ever college T&F/XC coach?" He explains why he picked UCLA head coach Jim Bush.
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