(Photo by Bill Allen/NJ SportAction) SPECIAL JOURNEY: Marc Anderson and his wife, Jan, visit the Great Wall of China in 2007 during the Princeton University track team’s tour of China. Anderson is completing another journey this Saturday as he gets inducted in the Princeton High Athletic Hall of Fame in recognition of his achievements while serving as the PHS track coach in the 1970s and ’80s. Anderson, who moved on to a part-time coaching role at PU in 1991, continued to work as a phys ed teacher at PHS until his retirement this past June.

Answering Telegram in the Summer of 1970 Started Anderson on Path to PHS Hall of Fame

Bill Alden

Marc Anderson’s connection with Princeton began with a telegram out of the blue in the summer of 1970.

Anderson, who had just graduated from Central Michigan University after a stellar track career, was looking for a teaching and coaching position.

The Michigan native was focusing his search on the midwest until he got an unsolicited communication from the Princeton school system.

“I got a telegram from Princeton back in Michigan,” recalled Anderson.

“I had interviewed for some teaching and coaching jobs and the telegram said they were interested in talking to me about a position. They said they had an opening for a health-ed teacher and I should call them if I was interested. They must have gotten my name from a placement office.”

Seeing the chance for a little adventure, Anderson responded affirmatively.

“I had never been to the east coast so I thought it might be cool to be there for a while,” added Anderson.

“I didn’t have much money and they flew me out and put me up in a hotel. I saw Princeton and I fell in love with the town. They told me it was a one-year job and that I was a sabbatical replacement. They said some other opportunities might arise; 38 years later I was still there.”

Now, Anderson’s presence at Princeton High will be felt for many more years to come as he will be inducted this Saturday into the fourth class of the PHS’s Athletic Hall of Fame in recognition of his achievements as a track coach in the 1970s and ’80s.

Anderson will be joined in the class by Ted Drake ’47; Jim Carter ’49 (deceased),; Paul LeCompt ’49,; Edgar Riddick ’59; Jack Hawkins ’60; Mary Ann Cook ’66; Bob Zinsmeister ’74; Scott Gabrielsen ’82; Wagner Marseille ’89; Abel Kahn ’93, Sikira Backus ’98, and Betty Hewel, an innovative coach in the 1960s and ’70s. The banquet will take place at the Nottingham Fire Company Ballroom.

Shortly after arriving in Princeton, Anderson learned that coaching success was going to take a while.

“I came in as a hot-shot college star and I thought I could build a winner overnight; I soon realized that it didn’t work that way,” said Anderson, who started out as the head coach of the winter track team and became the head coach of the outdoor team by the mid-1970s.

“We had to build a foundation, we had to promote the program. We needed to get attention in the newspapers and get kids interested in the program.”

By the late 1970s, Anderson had built PHS into a track powerhouse. He guided the Little Tigers to state indoor and outdoor titles in 1981 and the indoor title in 1982.

While Anderson’s specialty was the 600-yard run, it was his distance runners that laid the foundation for PHS’ title run.

“We turned out some very good distance runners,” said Anderson, citing distance specialist Royce Flippin as a driving force in the program’s success which saw it win 58 straight meets between 1979-1981.

“I’m not sure why. We did insist that the athletes work hard. They became hard workers and the kids bought into it. The kids would run in the morning before school. If a kid didn’t show up, they would run by his house and throw rocks at his window.”

After achieving so much success in high school track, Anderson went across town to Princeton University to try his hand as that level, joining the men’s program as a part-time coach in 1991.

“It’s been wonderful, I have enjoyed it immensely,” said Anderson, who has focused on the PU sprinters in the afternoons while continuing to teach phys ed at PHS.

“I have been working with wonderful kids. They are not there on a track scholarship. They are there because they want to be successful track athletes.”

Anderson has helped the Tigers to plenty of success as the program has won numerous Ivy League Heptagonal indoor and outdoor titles during his tenure.

“The success in general has been the main thing,” said Anderson. “We have won a lot of Heps titles and when we haven’t, we have been close. It’s been fun to be the dominant program along with Cornell. We ask the kids to work hard and they respond.”

Anderson enjoyed the response he got at his day job at PHS, from which he retired this past June.

“It was a wonderful place to work,” said Anderson. “I had great students and I loved the faculty. The people in Phys Ed department were fun to work with and share ideas with.”

One of Anderson’s ideas was a PHS Athletic Hall of Fame, which he played a major role in founding along with Bob James of the Friends of Princeton Athletics.

“PHS has such a wonderful athletic history,” said Anderson. “We wanted to honor people who have been part of that and let the current students know about the past.”

Anderson was floored to learn this summer that he had been called to the hall he helped create.

“I missed an organizational meeting this summer; I think it was the first one I had missed,” said Anderson with a chuckle.

“When I came to the second meeting, Bob James told me they had decided to make one choice at the meeting I had missed. I thought that was a little unusual and I asked who it was and Bob said ‘you.’ I was very honored; it is a wonderful thing that they would think so highly of me. I was not all that keen about it but they told me it was a done deal and there was nothing I could do to change it.”

Anderson has been happy to have the chance to change the lives of his athletes.

“I have had kids who have told me they never realized how hard they could work until I coached them,” said Anderson.

“I have had kids who have told me that they needed some structure and discipline in their lives and that I gave it to them. I’d like to think I have helped a few of them over the years.”

And those kids can be thankful that Anderson answered that telegram out of the blue 38 years ago.

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