Haggerty To Hang Up His Spikes

The conversation has become an annual tradition at Gordon Track.

Every year, following the holiday break, Harvard track and field coach Frank Haggerty ’68 gathers the team’s freshmen around for a pep talk, hoping to get them off to a fast start—on and off the track.

“I’ve probably done that meeting for I don’t know how many years,” Haggerty said. “Right after this meet—the first one after the break—I try to get them to focus on the process of their exams and not worry about the outcome.”

It’s the same approach he uses to gear the team up for competition.

“People who are focused too much on the result are going to worry and get nervous and tighten up,” he said. “But if they’re in tune with the process of what’s going on, they’re going to end up doing much better.”

That pre-exam pep talk was heard for the last time by a new batch of freshmen last weekend following a loss to Northeastern, the first meet for the Crimson since the holiday break. It also marked the first time Harvard took to the track since Haggerty officially announced his retirement.

“I told the team back in October, so this isn’t the first meet [we’ve competed in since the announcement],” Haggerty said. “The first meet we had after the announcement, that was kind of odd. It will probably feel odd more in the later meets, like Yale and Princeton.”

Haggerty concedes that his sentiments might get the best of him as some of those meets approach.

“It was a real short meeting [when I told them],” he said. “I don’t think it will hit me until after the outdoor nationals. I’m still very busy, still recruiting, and I’ve had a lot of mixed emotions.”

Those recruits who decide to come to Harvard next year will be entering a vastly different program—one that will be without Haggerty and the 31 years of experience he has provided the university.

A 1968 graduate of the college, Haggerty immediately made the transition from athlete (he had three NCAA qualifying times in the 440-yard hurdles as an undergraduate) to assistant coach, a position he held for the three years following commencement. The next decade involved a long stint as a high school teacher, with a few years in and out of Harvard mixed in. Eventually, in 1982, Haggerty took over as head coach of both the men’s and women’s track and cross-country programs. In doing so, he became the first head coach of both the men’s and women’s programs and only the ninth coach since the school began formal competition over 130 years ago.

His entire life, Haggerty has been around schools—as a student, a coach, a teacher, or some combination of the three. It will be that atmosphere, that aura of learning and teaching that will be most difficult for him to leave behind.

“That’s what I’ll miss most,” he said, “the teaching.”

What Haggerty won’t miss is the fact that, at a place like Harvard, recruiting is only half the battle in getting prized prospects to don the illustrious Crimson uniform.

“It’s particularly interesting when they come here with their parents,” he said. “Everybody’s looking for the secret or any tricks to getting in, and sometimes I might get frustrated if a kid doesn’t get in here but they get into Yale or Princeton or Brown.”

Still, despite the delicate balance between admissions and athletics, it’s apparent that Haggerty is more than satisfied with the student-athletes he’s had the privilege of coaching.

“I actually think they keep getting better,” he said. “It’s hard to explain, but I think they just keep getting better.”

After Haggerty concluded his talk with the class of 2009—smashing a piece of paper to the ground and getting a number of laughs from the first-years in the process—he reflected upon those talks and all the other speeches he will retire once the last day of June comes.

“I’m going to miss that, miss the audience,” he said. “When you’re a teacher, you have an audience, built in, whether you like it or not. I know I’ll miss that.”

With a number of important meets left, Haggerty doesn’t want people wishing him farewell just yet.

“My retirement is not effective until June 30,” he said. “I have a lot of work to do yet.”

“I’m going to be sad that he’s going to leave because he’s a really good coach,” said freshman long-jumper Becky Christensen. “Hopefully it will work out with whoever comes in next year.”

Most important for Haggerty is conveying to his athletes the fact that he has gained just as much from them as they have from him.

“I learn stuff all the time,” he said. “I hope they’ve learned a few things from me.”

—Staff writer Malcom A. Glenn can be reached at mglenn@fas.harvard.edu.