North Central College Coaching Legend Won 19 NCAA Division 3 Cross Country Titles
By David Woods for DyeStat
Photo courtesy North Central College
Coming out of high school in the 1990s, Rob Harvey and a friend had NCAA Division 1 scholarship offers in track and field. They visited North Central College, a Division 3 school in Naperville, Ill. Yet Harvey’s friend was insistent on going Div. 1, and said so.
Which school, North Central coach Al Carius asked. Illinois State, the friend replied.
There, during a recruiting visit to North Central, Carius telephoned the Illinois State coach and encouraged him to make an offer.
Up to then, Harvey was uncommitted. He made his decision: He would run for Al Carius.
“If he was willing to do that,” Harvey said, “what would he do for me when he’s coaching me?”
Carius is so respected that in 2000, the U.S. Track and Field and Cross-Country Coaches Association designated him coach of the century. USTFCCCA honored a man who didn’t send runners into the Olympics but into, well, coaching – middle school, high school, college.
“I could make the case he’s got more than 500 coaches out there,” said Harvey, a coach at Wheaton-Warrenville South IL.
That is a better way to measure Carius’ impact than other numbers, like the 19 national titles and 16 runner-up finishes in Div. 3 cross country. As head coach or assistant, his track teams won 12 national titles, six indoors and six outdoors.
Carius died Tuesday (Sept. 9). He was 83.
There will be a celebration of life from 1-4 p.m. on Sept. 21 at the college’s Merner Field House, followed by a ceremonial lap around the track.
The Morton, Ill., native belongs to six halls of fame. The USTFCCA’s D3 program of the year award – given to the top average finish across cross-country, indoor and outdoor track – is named for Carius.
He ran in college for Illinois, winning two Big Ten titles in cross country and two in the two-mile. He finished 12th at the 1962 NCAA Championships in cross country.
Carius arrived at North Central in 1966. He retired as head coach in 2020 after being diagnosed with stage four bone cancer.
“Run for Fun and Personal Bests” was his motto, and also the title of his book and a documentary about his life. In the book, he wrote success is “accessible to every individual, founded on their voluntary choices each day to better themselves through self-growth . . . by reaching their personal goals, competing solely against…
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