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Loras College Athletics

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Hall of Fame

John R. Mulholland

  • Class
    1962
  • Induction
    1984
  • Sport(s)
    Track & Field, Cross Country
  • The school's first all-American in cross country, Mulholland capture consecutive NCAA individual titles in cross country in 1961 and 1962.
  • A top mid-distance runner, Mulholland also helped the Duhawks dominate the Midlands Conference during the late 1950's and early 1960's.
  • Along with his athletic honors, Mulholland was voted the most outstanding member of his class in 1962.
  • When I came to Loras in1958, I was a freshman with only two years of track experience, no cross country experience and some real reservations about college life. I was only at school a few days when I ran across John “Doc” Kammer. Doc was the athletic trainer and seemed a rather odd character to me at the time. Our first real conversation came the first night of basketball practice my freshman year.
  • On a whim, I decided to try out for the basketball team even though I wasn’t very good. After the first practice, Doc took me aside and told me to forget about basketball and concentrate on running. He said the big men in basketball would kill me. I took his advice and that was my one and only night of college basketball.
    As time went on, Doc and I became good friends. I don’t know how much education he had but, to me, he was one of the wisest men I knew. He gave me practical advice you don’t find in a book and, as a result, I never missed a practice or a meet. He supplied me with vitamins, extra workout clothes, and his own brand of liniment that could take the knots out of a rope. I spent a lot of time around the Fieldhouse and so did he and I’ll never forget our conversations.
    I give a lot of credit for my success at Loras to Doc and I still miss him to this day.
    One of my fondest memories of my running career at Loras came at the end of my freshman season. My dad had graduated from Notre Dame and I was strongly considering going there. Notre Dame said they wanted me but wouldn’t offer me a scholarship.
  • My last meet of that season was the Central Collegiate Meet in Chicago. Notre Dame was one of the teams at the meet. I beat all their runners and not only got a lot of satisfaction out of it, but it also helped build my confidence to a new level. 
Story
When I came to Loras in 1958, I was a freshman with only two years of track experience, no cross country experience and some real reservations about college life. I was only at school a few days when I ran across John “Doc” Kammer. Doc was the athletic trainer and seemed a rather odd character to me at the time. Our first real conversation came the first night of basketball practice my freshman year.

On a whim, I decided to try out for the basketball team even though I wasn’t very good. After the first practice, Doc took me aside and told me to forget about basketball and concentrate on running. He said the big men in basketball would kill me. I took his advice and that was my one and only night of college basketball.

As time went on, Doc and I became good friends. I don’t know how much education he had but, to me, he was one of the wisest men I knew. He gave me practical advice you don’t find in a book and, as a result, I never missed a practice or a meet. He supplied me with vitamins, extra workout clothes, and his own brand of liniment that could take the knots out of a rope. I spent a lot of time around the Fieldhouse and so did he and I’ll never forget our conversations.
I give a lot of credit for my success at Loras to Doc and I still miss him to this day.

One of my fondest memories of my running career at Loras came at the end of my freshman season. My dad had graduated from Notre Dame and I was strongly considering going there. Notre Dame said they wanted me but wouldn’t offer me a scholarship.

My last meet of that season was the Central Collegiate Meet in Chicago. Notre Dame was one of the teams at the meet. I beat all their runners and not only got a lot of satisfaction out of it, but it also helped build my confidence to a new level.

- - - - - 

There were a lot of people at Loras (teachers, coaches) who had a great influence on me.

One of these was Jean Schneider, my cross country and track coach my first three years at Loras. I came to Loras without any financial aid and Jean saw to it I got some within 1 1/2 months after I was at Loras. He also set up an innovative training program for me, aside from the regular one.

I recall two incidents in perticular involving Jean. We were returning from a cross country meet where we lost and shouldn't have. We weren't taking it too hard so Jean stopped the station wagon and told us to get out and walk back. We didn't but we never took another loss lightly. Another time we were travelling to an invitational cross country meet at Quincy, Ill. It was night and we were in hilly country.

All of a sudden a car came over a hill and right at us. Jean dodged it, knocked over a mailbox and we went into a ditch. That shook him up a licle. We had a few bumps and bruises but no serious injuries.

He went up to the farmer's house (I'm sure he agreed to pay for the mailbox) and got him to pull us out of the ditch. The station wagon amazingly still ran okay. And off we went with Jean back in charge. I finished 2nd at the meet the next day (the only time I lost my last 2 years) but was just glad to be alive. Jean wasn't too upset either.

He was a great coach and friend and a great asset to Loras College.

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