By Larry Scott
In many ways, he was a most unlikely candidate for empire-building. A few cheeseburgers shy of 128 pounds as a senior at tiny Halstad High School, Terry Harrington was largely a recruiting afterthought for most college track coaches, but he found a home at Minnesota State University Moorhead, a satisfying stay that generated a batch of memories and spawned a remarkable professional career.
A 2000 inductee into the Dragon Hall of Fame, Harrington recently retired after nearly 40 years teaching and coaching at Fergus Falls High School. He filled both track and cross-country coaching roles for the Otters, relying on some of the lessons he learned early on at Moorhead State to build character and champions.
It’s a swell story for sure, but his rewarding track career almost never got off the ground. Raised near Hillsboro, ND, Harrington spent much of his time on the 240-acre family farm on the west side of the Red River, and his options as a lad were limited. “It was mostly (about) farming; there wasn’t anything else,” he remembers.
When Harrington reached high school, however, new opportunities surfaced and sports held a special appeal for him, despite his slender frame. “In high school, I played basketball and went out for football my senior year. I scored three touchdowns and an extra point, and then I broke my arm in practice the next Monday.”
“I still had the cast on all the way through basketball season,” Harrington remembers. “I got it off on a Wednesday before our first track meet at Mahnomen on Friday, but I broke my arm again when I landed in the hard sand in the high jump. At least I had one day without a cast.”
Despite the cumbersome cast, Harrington’s hurdling career began to take full flight, and he climbed to second on the individual prep hurdle rankings. He also qualified for the Minnesota State High School Championships in St. Paul. His hopes of a first place finish slipped away, however, and while he was disappointed he was far from discouraged. It only motivated him more.
“I never lost until the finals of the state meet at Macalester and was tied for second best in the state, but there were all those bright lights, and maybe there was still a lot of North Dakota farm boy in me.”
Despite his banner senior year, Harrington wasn’t sure about his next move.
“I didn’t even know if I was going to college, but a few coaches still came around and I thought that was remarkable,” Harrington said. “UND was going to give me a scholarship, but they told me I was too small to run the hurdles.”
Harrington had a few doubts of his own as well.
“I had a teacher and counselor who told me ‘you’ll never make it.’ I’m not sure if he was just trying to scare me, but it worked, and for the first two years (at MSC)
I studied very hard. I saw a lot of guys who were smarter than me, but they played cards all the time and by spring quarter they were gone.”
Harrington may have wondered if he really belonged at college, but head coach Al Holmes was patiently building a quality program at Moorhead State and needed some hurdle help. Holmes was sure Harrington was ready. “The stopwatch doesn’t lie,” Holmes said.
“Holmes was really impressive, very nice, and I enjoyed him a lot,” said Harrington. “I came in not knowing a whole bunch, and he spent a lot of time helping me. Al and his assistant, Marv Fink, had a lot of knowledge, talked confidently and sold me. He brought in guys like Larron Swanson, Ron Monsegue, Tony Jones, Clint Chamberlin, Bob Brophy, Ken Nygaard, Dick Kimball and others.”
The coaching baton was passed from Holmes to Ron Masanz in 1968, and the intensity level took a sizable spike for Harrington and his pals.
“Ron was a tremendous motivator, and that hasn’t changed at all. You couldn’t outwork him, and he’s probably the best thing that ever happened to the university even after he retired. He still keeps everybody’s feet to the fire.”
Harrington knew he was part of something very special, building a rock solid foundation that would last well into the next century, but the Dragons’ first Northern Intercollegiate Conference championship would have to wait until after his hurdling career was over.
“We did very, very well, but we just didn’t have enough depth.”
Harrington faced some major challenges when he arrived on the collegiate hurdling scene.
“There were two big adjustments. First, the hurdles are three inches higher, and I’m a little height-challenged vertically, and second, in high school, you’re not used to having somebody come up on you. I was a great starter, fast out of the blocks, so I really never saw anybody. It’s hard to run and keep your focus with somebody right next to you.”
Harrington will never forget his first collegiate meet, a special invitational at Winnipeg, Manitoba that attracted some of the world’s top athletes, especially in the hurdles. Among the select were Olympic champion and world recordholder Willie Davenport of Southern (LA) University.
“There were about 8,000 people there but it seemed like a 100,000 to me,” said Harrington. “You had to qualify all day for the finals at night, and they only let one person get in. They had already seeded (the field), including Davenport, another hurdler from Southern who was a runnerup to Davenport at nationals, a guy out of Yankton, SD who was second in the Olympic trials, and the Canadian champion. Oh, and me.
“It was the first event of the night, and after they played ‘God Save the Queen’ they sent us out into the spotlight to get into our blocks. I looked around and there was Willie with his nice uniform, with patches on from all over the world, and I had on a faded pink uniform with about a hundred stitches. Oh, I finished fifth out of five, but I ran against Willie several times in the future, and we got to be good friends.”
Harrington qualified for National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics Indoor and Outdoor Championships and placed seventh in the 120-yard high hurdles at the 1969 NAIA Outdoor. He was elected captain of the Dragons as a senior in 1969 and was saluted as the Most Valuable Track athlete. He was also honored as the Outstanding Senior Athlete at Moorhead State in 1968-69.
Harrington graduated in 1969 and accepted a graduate assistantship at Moorhead State the next year. Uncle Sam was interested in Harrington as well, and the following summer he was drafted.
“I went to Fort Lewis, Washington, and Fort Gordon, Georgia. We had 200 people in our company (at Fort Gordon), and all but 11 went to Vietnam. They put me in the MPs, and I ended up at West Point for two years.”
It was a stroke of good luck for Harrington, and it also introduced him to a larger sporting state.
“It was a great place, and they had every NCAA event imaginable. We watched national championships in a lot of different sports that we didn’t know existed back then, like lacrosse, rugby, fencing and swimming. I also got to run in a few track meets.”
After completing his military obligation, he applied for the only fulltime job he would ever hold.
“Denny Anderson was just named the head basketball coach at Moorhead State, and he told me there was a track coaching opportunity back at Fergus Falls. I applied for the job and got it. It was the only job I ever applied for.”
During his run at Fergus Falls, Harrington developed a lot of talented athletes, including hurdling whiz David Knutson, a four-year letterman at the University of Wisconsin, Jon Pontius, a dominant force in the high jump, long jumper and triple jump at United States Military Academy at West Point, and distance specialist Eric Loeffler, who placed 28th at the 2010 New York City Marathon.
He worked with student-athletes with a wide range of talent and dedication, including those of limited skills who over-achieved and those who parlayed natural talents into something special. “I enjoyed working with both types. You can’t hold it against kids who are gifted, but the question is how are you going to use that gift?”
As always, Harrington was there to help them find a way.
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