University of Tennessee Athletics
Louis Schneider an Ancient for the Ages
April 22, 2005 | Men's Track
April 22, 2005
By Nathan Kirkham, University of Tennessee Sports Information
nkirkham@utk.edu
Editor's Note: The following story about former Vol athlete and coach Lou Schneider was written following his death in April 2004 but never published. It has been included here as a tribute to Schneider on the first anniversary of his death.
"They say sports builds character," Louis Schneider, former Tennessee coach and distance runner, said. "I've never believed that. Sports reveals character."
Schneider offered up that bit of wisdom while captivating an audience two generations removed as the guest speaker at Tennessee's 2001 cross country team banquet.
Schneider was the Super Wal-Mart of character -- his elevated standard was on display 24/7 in abundant quantities. That was why he made such a good impression in his banquet remarks. He was a good speaker, and his message on point. But the most important thing was that each runner at the banquet could sense his pride in their accomplishments. The integrity of his eternal support of his Volunteers always shone through, both when success was served in feast portions or famine.
That was also why the news that arrived the first weekend of April buffeted Tennessee's distance program like the chilled wind of the dogwood winter embraced in its last waltz of the spring with the foothills. At age 77, Schneider passed away April 2 at his home in Pittman Center.
The Sea Ray Relays, the crown jewel of the Vols' home schedule, arrived on the Tennessee docket the next week. There were the customary early world and U.S.-leading marks and a bountiful crop of Olympic hopefuls. Plus, 2004 marks another Olympic year, which always creates a little more electricity with regard to U.S. track and field. It's all still possible now--the gold medals, smiling faces adorning Wheaties boxes, the lucrative shoe contracts and the victory lap with Old Glory in the home of the ancient Olympic Games.
But just a few days after his death, there was also plenty of thought about Schneider, and all the guys who ran for Tennessee in that era -- "The Ancients" they call themselves. They ran before the Vols placed a single man in the Olympic Games and the All-America torrent of today had just begun to trickle.
"This is a huge loss for the Tennessee track and field family," Vols head coach Bill Webb said. "Lou has been very involved in our program for many years since he ran here. He's an inspiration and encouragement for our guys."
Schneider was a founding member of The Ancients. The group claimed its membership from the Vols' cross country and track and field squads from the late 1940s and `50s. Maybe it was some of their experiences as volunteers of a different sort in World War II. Maybe it was the shared goal of uplifting track and field to "major sport" status at UT. Maybe they knew that many of the friendships planted and lessons learned during their idyllic days on The Hill would enrich their lives until they ran out of earthly races to run. Whatever the cause, constructing the foundation for Tennessee's track and field proud legacy seared a deep commitment to each other.
They didn't see each other that often, really. Though many members had remained close throughout the years, the first formal reunion of The Ancients didn't occur until 1993. Schneider arrived with a photo of a runner from the 1800s and christened the group The Ancients.
The Ancients held a much-awaited reunion every couple of years. The reunion usually coincided with a cross country race or track and field meet held at Tennessee. At each affair, as is the gift with old friends, conversation seemed to pick up where they left off last time. The Ancients had no need for conversational filler. The reunions were popular gatherings that the friends and comrades in orange looked forward to as soon as the previous one ended. Missing such an assembly was not a decision made lightly. Such is the composition of dedication, friendship and commitment.
If The Ancients fielded an Olympic team, Schneider may very well have been elected flag bearer in the opening ceremonies. He was an integral part. He had also seen the relationship from both sides, as athlete but also as interim coach when his university called.
"To some of `The Ancients' Lou was a teammate, to others a coach and to all a legend," teammate Frank Albertson recalled. Albertson became one of the great Tennessee runners of the period himself, an SEC cross country title in 1952 providing testament to the fact.
"Lou cared about everyone, whether it was one of The Ancients or one of our current freshman distance runners," cross country coach George Watts said. "Even though I came from a different era, Lou was a good friend of mine."
Although Schneider lived in different places at different times, he began and ended his life journey by choice in the hills of East Tennessee. Growing up in the Fort Sanders neighborhood bordering UT's campus, running home wasn't even a full distance workout. However, like so many men his age, before he came to don a Tennessee uniform, Uncle Sam had one he wanted Schneider to try on first. He served in the Army during World War II, drawing the dangerous duty of landing gliders behind German lines and engaging the enemy in the European theater. With the war won and the Allies dedicated to rebuilding Europe, Lou returned home to rebuild Tennessee's track and field program, on hold from 1943-46.
So it comes as no surprise when he returned home to Knoxville to begin his delayed start to college, the rigors of distance running didn't seem too fearsome for him. He became a good distance runner, logging enough training mileage to make a Tennessee walking horse weak in the knees. Schneider held both the mile (4:20.5) and two-mile run (9:50.9) school records. He reset the mile standard at 4:20.5 at the Southeast AAU meet on June 4, 1949. Almost exactly five years earlier on June 6, 1944, Schneider's focus, like the rest of the Western world's, was on defeating a far tougher enemy on the D-Day beaches of France.
Things were beginning to turn around for the Tennessee cross country and track and field squad. While team titles in track and field were still a few years down the road, the cross country squad captured its first SEC title in 1949 and proceeded to win four straight. Schneider lettered from 1946-48 and was elected team captain for a 4-1 track campaign in 1948. Certainly, an increase in the incoming talent level helped, but a strong belief in each other proved more lasting and a solid foundation for Tennessee's future success.
His contemporaries recall Schneider displaying the same abundance of character. Schneider offered up friendship and Southern hospitality to Marty Korik, a freshman pole vaulter, not at all sure of his new surroundings in the Valley of the Vols. Korik ended up making his mark, as well. He became the Vols' first Penn Relays champion with consecutive wins in the pole vault in 1949 and `50 and updated the school record five times.
"He was one of the first friends-to-be whom I met upon arrival on campus, far from home, in September of 1946," Korik recalled from his home in Margate, N.J. "Now, here it is almost 58 years later and miles apart and I feel the void in knowing that he will not be able to join The Ancients at our next reunion in Knoxville."
Schneider left the program better than he found it upon his graduation. In spring 1951, he was in the midst of tackling graduate school when the athletics department called upon Schneider to lead the Volunteers in a different way. Vols head track and field coach Carleton Crowell left for a position at Army, leaving his team without a commanding officer. Out of love for the program and that everpresent heaping helping of character, Schneider agreed to take the interim coaching job to steer the Vols' ship to calmer waters, though his life would have been much easier had he politefully declined.
As coach, Schneider brought many of the same qualities to the job as during his athletic career.
"There wasn't much difference in age between Lou and the team," Albertson said about his coach and friend. "He related to the guys in a different way than the previous coach. However, he wasn't bashful about telling you what you weren't doing. He organized things well."
Schneider led the Vols to a third-place team finish at the 1951 SEC outdoor meet in his season at the helm, the best in school history at that point. Tennessee joined the SEC in 1933 and had finished no better than fifth before Schneider got the horses pulling in the same direction in 1951.
Schneider also had the unenviable task of asking Gen. Robert R. Neyland, the athletics director at the time, for money to send Herb Neff, a high jumper and UT's first field events All-America selection, and Albertson to the NCAA meet in Seattle, Wash. The track and field squad was already over budget, but Schneider figured he'd ask the General for enough money to fly Neff and Albertson out, and they could make plans to hitchhike back. Lou hoped the General would deem hitchhiking unnecessary and grant enough money for round trip tickets after the promising season. He didn't.
After a good NCAA meet in Seattle, Neff and Albertson hitchhiked 800 miles to Berkeley, Calif., where they decided to compete in the national AAU meet. After staying free in fraternity houses and living on a "training diet" of hamburgers and doughnuts, Albertson won the AAU Junior 1,500-meter title, and Neff took third in the high jump. Then the two hitchhiked all the way back to Nashville, where they split their remaining money, a whopping $3.40 each.
"Of course the competition is a lot tougher today," Albertson humbly noted. "But so is hitchhiking."
In his season at the UT helm, Schneider saw Alf Holmberg, the world-class Swede runner and likely one of the first foreign athletes at Tennessee, take the SEC by storm, even to the point of inspiring fear in some of his competitors. Holmberg became the first Vols cross country All-America selection courtesy of a runner-up finish in 1951.
"The press and other coaches expected Alf to break records every time he ran," Albertson said. "In the SEC mile championship, Alf could have won easily but waited on two teammates for the only ever three-way tie in the SEC. Lou got a lot of flak, but he absorbed it all."
Holmberg remembered his coach taking up for him. Holmberg, who lives in his native Sweden but is also a charter member of The Ancients, would frequently stay and visit with Schneider on his reunion trips.
In a reminder that character and loyalty know no offseason, Schneider spearheaded a movement by The Ancients to establish the Alf Holmberg Scholarship.
"Lou was the primary mover and instigator in that," Albertson said. "He deserves credit for being where it is."
After he left The Hill, Schneider founded two businesses in Louisville, Ky., Schneider Advertising and Jogger - Runner - Racer. However, his Vols were never far from his heart. It's also a safe bet that during Tennessee's run to SEC supremacy and even a couple NCAA titles in the 1960s and `70s, that the Vols could count on a dedicated fan in Louisville.
Schneider didn't give up running, either. He maintained his love of tactics and competition, becoming a more elite runner at the master's level than in his solid collegiate career. He clocked an impressive 2:12 in the 800 at age 52. He was competitive in the World Master's Championships, and even made the finals in the 800 and 1,500 in his age group.
He remained a great track supporter during his professional career. "He was a great half-miler and miler, but also a great promoter of the sport," Missy Kane Bemiller, former Lady Vols Olympian, said. "He was just a diehard track fan. He'd organize races in Kentucky when he lived there, and he'd always invite Tennessee people."
He was a runner throughout his life, ruled by the clock ticking away the narrow margin between success and failure with a cold, mechanical precision. However, at the same time, he loved hiking in his adored Smoky Mountains, where only the sun kept time of days spent studying God's majestic craftsmanship. After he retired, Schneider moved back to the Smokies. The move also allowed Schneider to keep even closer tabs on his Vols and attend meets and banquets at his leisure.
"He was a great fan even in the lean years and in bad weather," Kane Bemiller said. "Lou would still be there. He was really proud of the way the program was headed. Lou really respected George [Watts, Vols distance coach], and he really liked what J.J. [Clark] was doing with the Lady Vols."
In a unique way, Schneider got to do some coaching again. His respect for Watts was mutual. Watts took advantage of any opportunity he could to listen and learn from Schneider.
"He understood tactics quite well," Watts said. "He would always test me and ask how Marc [Sylvester, a Vols 800m SEC champion] would run his 800 at the SEC meet. He would never disagree, but he'd put in his two cents if he wanted."
One of the great joys of his last eight years was serving as host and guide for the cross country squad's annual trip to run Greenbrier near Gatlinburg. As a local, Schneider would show the squad the best spots to run.
"He'd ride in the van and talk strategy for the upcoming cross country season with me while the guys were running," Watts said. "After the run, we'd go over to his house. The freshmen would have to cut Lou's grass and split some wood for him. It became one of our favorite traditions. He'd get a big kick out of that."
He had a great affinity for his former Vol teammates, both The Ancients and those of other eras. However, Schneider was also the rare former athlete as interested in what a distance Volunteer "is" and "will be" rather than what "we were."
"He was always genuinely interested in finding out about the new recruits and how guys were doing academically," Watts said.
A group of those very same guys Lou had been checking up on came to pay respects to one of The Ancients at his memorial service the Tuesday night before the Sea Ray Relays. Current Vols Sylvester, Matthew Lapp, Doug Brown and Kenny Schappert joined recent grad Patrick Gildea and Watts and his wife, Karen, in paying tribute to Schneider, a friend, coach, teammate and legend.
"His family was touched that George [Watts] would bring those distance runners to Lou's funeral in the middle of Sea Rays week," Kane Bemiller said.
But it wasn't an assignment for the Tennessee contingent attending Schneider's service. They came to repay something he had given so generously to them--an abiding respect due a Tennessee man.
"The dedication he had for Tennessee track and field is amazing to me," track co-captain Sylvester said. "It's a great model for all of us in the future. Just by the tradition of being elected captain at Tennessee, you're connected to all these great men thoughout the years. If he was as dedicated to his team as he is now, then he was one hell of a captain."
The old truth wisely offers that chopping wood warms you twice, once while you're cutting it and again in the fireplace. In a truly fitting way, Schneider mirrored the lumberjack lesson for every green freshman taking a turn with tradition in his woodpile. However, Schneider axed the limit of twice warmed, as he thawed many an orange-blooded heart every time he had a chance.
"He came down for conference [cross country championship]," cross country co-captain Lapp said. "He told me I was going to have a good race. It was great to hear that from someone like him. To have someone like Lou, who has been there through all the tradition and still cares about us is special. He didn't have to open his home to us or come to all those races. I think that speaks to how much he genuinely cared and took a special interest in people."
Yes, Schneider had a lengthy dossier of good deeds from his work with the Gatlinburg Presbyterian Church, Gatlinburg Rotary Club and Salvation Army Advisory Board, but that's not the reason the Tennesseans came to his funeral service.
Schneider was right about sports revealing character. The Volunteers came because Schneider cared about them. He had been one of them and always will be.
"Lou was a distance runner in the full sense of the word," Korik, a fellow member of The Ancients, said. "He went the complete stretch from then until now as a dedicated and loyal alumnus whose love for UT never faltered."
