California Track & Running News Apr-June 2013, VOLUME 39 NUMBER 2 | Page 29

CTRN-APR-JUNE_2013--1_Layout 1 4/24/13 8:18 AM Page 29

interested in track & field? Was
there an athlete back then you
idolized?

Coach Bush in his
office surrounded
by photos and
memorabilia from 56
years of coaching.

CTRN: After an outstanding high
school track career, your college
career was marred by hamstring
injuries. What do you attribute
that to? Did you learn anything
from that to help you later as a
sprint/hurdles coach?
JB: I didn’t know that much about
track; you might say I was dumb. I
was a hurdler. No one ever
coached me; no one told me how
to start, or how to go over a hurdle. I used to hit eight out of 10 hurdles. And it was the same thing in
college. I thought, “When I become a coach, I am going to make
sure I know how to coach every
event.” Actually, it made me a better coach, because I just had nothing but problems. My ankles would
be swollen, and my knees would be
bloody. And that is why I have had
more great high hurdlers than any
other coach in history. The same
thing with the quarter-mile: I’ll
never forget. My goal was to win
the Fresno Relays. I won my heat in
the hurdles. After my heat, the
coach said, “Jim, my quarter-miler
is sick, I need you to run the quarter mile distance medley.” I didn’t
know how to run the quarter, so I
took off with the baton as fast as I
could go. By 200, I was practically
walking. We were so far behind
when I passed off the baton, I think
the crowd thought it was the start
of another race. And so then, that
evening when I had to run the high
hurdles, I was so tied up I couldn’t
win. That broke my heart, but it
made me a better coach.
CTRN: You started coaching cross
country and track at Fullerton College with no assistants, and took
them from worst to first in the
conference in your first year. How
was that possible?
JB: Those kids did everything I
asked them to do. And to me, that
was the most exciting two years I
have ever had. I put in a lot of
hours and I did a lot of hard work,
and it all paid off. The kids believed
in me, and I believed in them. n
For the rest of our Q&A with Coach
Bush, visit www.caltrack.com

Wayne Joness

JB: Yes, Jesse Owens. To me, he was
the greatest.