Profile - Chris Downe '00
The Cardiac Kid
A Fond Graduation Farewell to Chris Downe '00 - A legend in his own time.
By Peter Slovenski, Track Coach
Covered in cinders and sweat, and scarred with blood from scrapes with opponents, a few terrific athletes have transcended their times in Bowdoin track & field through a courageous use of their speed, and an inspiring use of their charisma. Phil Good did it in the 1930's. Leo Dunn did it in the 1970's. I can tell when speaking to Bowdoin alumni of the 1930's that everyone knows Phil and shares a pride in what he accomplished as a world record- setter and 4th place finisher in the Olympic trials.
As a boy I watched from the stands as Leo Dunn rallied the Bowdoin teams of his era against the odds to become state champions as well as regional and national contenders. Leo was a tremendous competitor who inspired the rest of the team to greater sacrifice and performance through his leadership. He was a tenacious racer, and was admired across campus for the excitement he brought to the track.
And now Chris Downe '00 has joined the elite ranks of those men's track athletes who became campus legends in their own time. Chris was an electrifying runner who brought the crowd and our team to its feet time and time again with his come?from?behind finishes.
He qualified for the national championship in seven consecutive track seasons. He earned All-American honors 5 times in the 800 meter run including a runner-up finish in the 2000 indoor NCAA Division III 800 meter championship.
Chris set school records in the 400 (48.34), 500 (1:03), 600 (1:21), and 800 (1:50.68), and was also on school record?setting relay teams in the distance medley (10:09) and 4x400 (3:21).
But he meant so much more to our team and the campus than his fast times. He won our hearts and admiration with supreme dedication to his running and the poetry and courage of his races. He captured our imaginations with his graceful running style and miraculous accelerations on the final straightaways. In the final stages of his races his face was a window to his athletic soul. In his face you could see heroic determination, composure, pain, and even hope. Runners who hate to lose have a certain shallow expression on their faces. Chris' expression was filled with the hope and desire to win.
I've never seen a runner dig so deep into his reserves in the final 100 meters of a race. He was often up against runners on athletic scholarships, Division I runners, and other All-Americans in the big races. But in those elite sections, and among those champions, Chris was the guy straining for a few extra points or a few extra hundredths of a second for Bowdoin.
Chris was a fantastic team runner. It was all for the team, and I think that too is why we loved him so. There were few other runners in the region who could prevail over Chris, but there were none who could do it when the team needed Chris to win. The NESCAC conference meet is our biggest team meet of the year, and he twice won both the 400 and 800 in that meet. It's a very difficult double because there are only 30 minutes between the races. Fresh runners, national qualifiers and All-Americans from other schools, were ready and waiting for Chris in the second race. He did that double all four years at Bowdoin and in his last three years he got 5 firsts and one second place those 6 races.
When things were coming down to the wire in a state meet or a NESCAC meet, Chris was the runner we wanted on the line or with the baton. He never let us down.
And he had his best races in the biggest meets. He edged out the best runner from Kansas State this past spring in a big meet in San Diego in 1:51. As a freshman he overtook an All?American on the anchor leg of a 4x800 relay to give us an ECAC relay championship. He set all his school records in the NCAA or New England championships. And perhaps the most amazing of all was the sophomore state meet in which he won three events including a come-from-behind victory in the final relay to give us an upset 66-64 win over Bates. Our hearts raced right along with him as he closed on his opponents - and our opponents - in the final meters of a race. He was the cardiac kid, and he was so much fun to watch.
On May 27 while 410 of his classmates were marching to receive their degrees on campus in Brunswick, Chris was in Illinois racing against the fastest 800 meter runners in the country. He sacrificed his graduation for the good of the team. In his last 24 hours as a Bowdoin student he was breaking the school record and making the All-America team one last time. Ten teammates and former teammates from as far away as Maine traveled to Illinois to see Chris' final race. Twenty more of his teammates watched the race live on a computer in the Bowdoin library.
After the meet as the crowd headed for the exits, the President of North Central College in Illinois presented Chris with his degree in a satellite graduation ceremony. The public address announcer explained that this was Chris Downe's graduation day, and 400 people stopped and cheered for Chris one last time. He received his degree up where he had received so many other honors, on the award stand in front of a track crowd.
We got back to Bowdoin at 1:00 a.m. eight or ten hours after the rest of the class had packed up and left. The campus was empty. There was time to talk about the great races and great finishes, but it was the daily practice and everyday life of the team that we talked about most. I was proud that he had improved every year, and stayed healthy through four years in a demanding sport. "I was too sore or sick to run a few workouts," he noted, "but I never missed a race." The world loves talent, but it pays off on that kind of character.
I watched him drive off alone in the middle of the night for the last time as a Bowdoin student. I knew then how Jack Magee must have felt in 1936 when Phil Good left for medical school. And how Frank Sabasteanski must have felt in 1975 when Leo Dunn graduated.
The exploits of the great runners are remembered through the years by one generation of students after another who hear and retell the legends of famous races of the past. Thanks to Chris - and Phil and Leo - for your heroic efforts on Bowdoin's tracks and fields of mighty memory.