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Bison, The request came earnestly. Could I read your running logs? It came from a current team member, a distance runner and a rising senior. He asked me several months ago, late in the indoor season. He wanted to know if I could bring all four years of my logs to campus the next time I visited, so he could read them. Letter from Coach Art Gulden to the 1974 Bucknell Cross Country Team. Glenn is a reference to Glenn McLaughlin '74. July 26, 1974 He knew of the tradition of Bu

from Coach Donner Dear Bucknell Spiked Shoe Family, The 2026 collegiate Track and Field season is now in the books and I would call it a very successful spring outdoor season, with our men finishing in 3rd place in the Patriot League with 99.5 points, and our women finishing 4th with 115.25 points. For the men, it was our highest place since 2021 when we were also 3rd, and our highest point total since 2018. The 115.5 points on the women's side was 29 points higher than 2025,

By Tori Chace '26, Grant Kern '26, and Trent Dinant '26 The Penn State to Bucknell run has long been one of Bucknell cross country's most unique traditions. Beginning in 2003 (more information on the history found here: https://tjr013.wixsite.com/stuccorunningclub/psu-to-bu) this challenge/rite of passage is an entirely unforgettable experience. This spring, the three of us had the privilege of becoming part of that tradition. We began under gray skies with a singular lap aro

Bison, It was a winter night in January of 1973. I'd made my way from my home on Long Island to Madison Square Garden in New York, where I was to meet Art Gulden and his team competing at the Millrose Games. I was a high school senior, a distance runner, being recruited by Bucknell. Gulden had asked me to come to the Garden so he could take me to campus with the team for the weekend. When I arrived at the Garden and walked up into the stands, I began searching the track for B

Bison, A rumor started to swirl around the stadium on the second day of the Bison Outdoor Classic that Evie Bliss '27, our legendary javelin thrower, was going to try for 200 feet in the event today, a distance she'd never before reached in her extraordinary career. She'd thrown 199' 6" last year, setting a school record just short of 200'. She'd thrown superbly at the Colonial Relays the previous week, winning her first competition of the season with a throw of 196' 8", rank

Bison, The weather of spring in the first weeks of outdoor track was austere, as if gray was the only color. The wind came at us relentlessly, unapologetically, arrogantly, at the plateau of Pheasant Ridge overlooking the valley, on the long stretch of Furnace Road on an Old Farmer's, at the crest of Appalachia. It'd swirl around the stadium in twisters, carrying bits of cinder from the track, grazing our faces. It whipped us no matter which way we ran. The weather made for w

Bison, I spent this past weekend wondering about excellence. I was at Boston University for the Patriot League Indoor Track & Field Championships, there to watch Bucknell's finest throwers, jumpers, vaulters, and runners compete, the latest generation to do so in the modern history of Bucknell Cross Country and Track & Field, going back to our time half a century ago, the latest generation to aspire to excellence in our sport. As I walked about the infield of the track, and I

Bison, I made a note to myself to take up the recommendation of Baron Powell and Keith Downing and view Miracle: The Boys of '80 , the newly released (January 30, 2026) Netflix documentary on the 1980 US Men's Ice Hockey team and its journey to gold in the 1980 Olympic Games in Lake Placid. I just finished watching the film, and I want to echo the recommendation to you all. The film is remarkable, especially in the many ways it brought back our experience on our team, with ou

Bison, I found myself in two places at once in January. I was at Bucknell, then and now, invited by Head Coach Kevin Donner to spend several days with his team members. I spoke with them for a few hours one morning in the Forum of what we called the University Center, what's now called the Elaine Langone Center, looking out from the podium at a hundred or so jumpers, vaulters, throwers, and runners, seated where I sat half a century ago, when I listened to one speaker or anot

Bison, I remember an indoor meet at around this time of the year, a little over half a century ago, sometime between Christmas in 1974 and New Year's Day in 1975. The meet was at the musty, old 168th Street Armory in the Washington Heights section of New York. I'm sure many of you remember the Armory, not only from our Bucknell days but from our high school days, when athletes from the region would compete there on its flat 220 yard track, created by placing makeshift rails o

Bison, What follows is a story about an extraordinary moment, across generations, in the history of Bucknell Cross Country and Track & Field, a poignant and powerful story of a young woman's strength and perseverance, intelligence and maturity, wisdom far beyond her years, ultimately heroism and triumph in the face of a very real threat to her life. And it's a story of an impressive celebration of her accomplishment by a Bucknell teammate, a Bucknell coach, and a Bucknell alu

Bison, December was still, a quiet interlude between seasons. The campus felt muted by the cold, softening all sounds, slowing all movements, the walk from Davis Gym up to the UC for dinner taking a little longer, buffeted by the wind. Cross country had ended, a memory now. Indoor track was just beginning, with maybe a meet before winter break, but with the heart of competition starting after, in January. Our ritual was the same, morning workouts, afternoon workouts. But with

Bison, The afternoons were darkening by October, the hazy warmth of September giving way to chilly twilight, a world of color slipping...

In the early weeks of September, the summer miles of training behind us, the cross country season ahead of us, the first steps of a race...

Amidst a packed Hayward Field in Track Town USA, Evelyn Bliss delivered one of her best performances and earned the crown of United...

The moment was surreal. I was running a mile on the old boards, at four in the morning, in perfect darkness, on a frigid February night....

Dear Bucknell Spiked Shoe Family, Here on campus, we are currently in final exams, and it’s hard to believe, but another academic year is...

Bison, I remember standing one day in Coach's office, that musty old cell of his on the second floor of Davis Gym. It was sometime in my...

It was in April, after the long months of indoors and the early months of outdoors, that I’d see the remarkable emergence of a team, the...