On this day 48 years ago, Richie Shay won the prestigious Dudley Hare Memorial Run, hosted by Ossining High School.

The Dudley Hare run was a pseudo-State Championship for the Brook, whose participation in the Ivy League left them out of the public school postseason competitions. But Ossining’s innovative coach, John Covert, sought to create a race that would put the best of the best on one course. Here is a description of the event from a website celebrating Coach Covert’s career:

Not content with winning state championships in both Class A and B divisions during his years at Ossining, John Covert, created a super-sized cross country event to be held annually in Ossining, the Dudley Hare Memorial Run. Why? He knew that it was not enough to be the best across the line in a “sectional” race, where only the top public schools in each section competed.

What those state championship runs left out were the top running schools from New York City, and the top parochial schools in the state. He felt that to be the best you had to compete against all of the best in one super cross country meet. So began the Dudley Hare Memorial Run.

Stony Brook was a regular participant at the Dudley Hare Memorial throughout the 1960s. They even took away the team title in 1966 by a 39-40 margin over Ossining, who was ranked the #1 cross country team in America that season by Track and Field News. The Blue & White won the individual title four years in a row thanks to Peter Randall (1963 & 1964) and Dan Stevens (1965 & 1966). Richie Shay added his name to that list to cap a memorable ’68 season.

Despite two early injuries to key scorers, Stevens led the Brook to an undefeated dual meet season in 1968, including victories over Cheshire and Choate. In the St. John’s Invitational he handed Rice High School’s Denis Fikes his first loss in two years by taking the individual crown. By the time Fikes graduated he would hold the New York State records in the one, two, and three mile runs before going on to a sensational career at the University of Pennsylvania.

One week later Shay would become the third Brooker to win the Eastern States Championship and then added the Ivy League crown to his trophy case while helping the Brook win a 14th consecutive team title. Then, against the best New York had to offer, Shay was victorious in Ossining’s annual run.

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