John Blair, Millennium Hall of Fame

Richard Dunn

A walking, talking history book of Orange County cross country and

track and field, veteran coach John Blair is a pioneer of sorts and also

the first to carry the victory torch for Corona del Mar High.

Once known as “Smokey the Blair” during his athletic days at BYU in

the 1950s, the longtime area guru was ahead of his time in a runner’s

world and, in addition, helped pole vaulters make huge strides in the

early 1960s.

Blair, who implemented ideas for road running events before the term

10K or 5K race became common, started the famous Corona del Mar Fun Run

that served as the origin of the Orange County running boom in the 1970s,

then later launched other events, such as the Around the Back Bay in May

Race.

“The long-distance running scene in the ‘60s was almost nonexistent,”

said Blair, who organized some of the county’s first road races when UCI

opened its doors in the mid-60s, a set of runs called, simply, the UCI

Road Races.Blair, who retired from teaching in 1995 following a series of

heart surgeries but remains at Corona del Mar as an assistant track

coach, was the first to create age-group divisions in five-year

increments at road races and the first to include a division for

200-pound runners.

“I was always over 200 pounds,” said Blair, who also formed the

Newport Beach Runners Association in the late ‘70s, which, at times, had

over 400 members.

A former baseball pitcher with a nasty curveball, Blair graduated from

BYU in 1958, managed a retail store for two years, then began his

teaching and coaching career at Lincoln Junior High in Bakersfield, where

he stayed for one year. His track teams won everything in sight, but his

wife, Colleen, had a hard time living in the warm, dry climate.

So Blair moved his family to Costa Mesa in 1961 and took over the

Physical Education Department at Kaiser School, then a junior high, and

remained there for four years, building a track and field super power.

In the spring of ‘62, Blair discovered that the father of one of his

students made fishing poles out of fiberglass at his shop in Costa Mesa.

Soon thereafter, fiberglass poles for pole vaulting were being made and

the specialty sport took off at Kaiser.

A year later, Blair made a foam-rubber landing pit for the pole

vaulters, but got a letter in the mail demanding that he “cease and

dismiss” the use of it, because it was “infringing upon patent rights”

from an individual who supposedly invented the Port-a-Pit.

That man, named Wally Gordon, just happened to be the same guy who

attended BYU with Blair and wore a costume while serving as the Cougars’

mascot.

“I called him up and asked, ‘Are you Cosmo the Cougar?’ And sure

enough it was ... and I said, ‘Well, I’m Smokey the Blair,”’ said Blair,

who soon became reacquainted with his old college classmate and was given

the green light to use the foam-rubber landing pits.

Blair and his wife also started a race T-shirt business out of their

garage, which is still in operation today. “We make all the race

designs,” said Blair, the latest honoree in the Daily Pilot Sports Hall

of Fame.

Blair’s biggest impact on the track world might have come at Corona

del Mar, where he became the school’s cross country and track coach in

1965 -- following his stint at Kaiser.

For 18 years, CdM produced dominant track and cross country teams

under Blair, who was assisted by Jim Tomlin, who later became head coach

and was assisted by Blair.

“We had a lot of success, but I never really paid much attention (to

statistics and wins and losses),” he said.

In 1990, Blair began a four-year term on the board of the National

Rules Committee for high school cross country and track and field, and in

‘93 served on the U.S. men’s national track team at the World University

Games.

Blair, also a longtime track and football official and basketball

referee, graduated from Glendale Hoover High in 1952 and played baseball

for one year at USC under Rod Dedeaux, but was forced to transfer to

Pasadena City College for academic reasons.

Blair toiled in semipro baseball for a couple of years, then

eventually landed at BYU, where he played baseball for three years.

Blair and his wife have been married for 43 years. They have six

children (five daughters and one son) and 21 grandchildren. “We’re a good

ol’ Mormon family,” he said.