Joe Newton, who coached the boys’ cross-country team at York High School in Elmhurst, Illinois, for nearly six decades, died on December 9 in Arizona. He was 88.
Under Newton’s guidance, York won 28 Illinois state cross-country titles, 12 runner-up trophies, and four awards for third place, giving the coach 44 podium finishes in 57 seasons.
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“Today is a sad day for not only myself and the Newton family but also the Elmhurst running community, with the past and present men of the York cross-country program,” said Newton’s son Thomas in a prepared statement.
The dynasty Newton built at York established him as arguably the most successful and best-known cross-country coach in the nation. His teams became known as “The Long Green Line,” an apt moniker coined by a sportswriter who regularly witnessed York’s dominating performances over Chicagoland cross-country courses.
A 2008 feature-length documentary by the same name portrayed Newton’s unique coaching approach. He scoured the hallways of York each fall, looking for freshmen who would be willing to try the sport, and his teams often had more than 100 runners. But he gave daily attention to each athlete, from national-caliber team leaders to the back-of-the-packers. Newton motivated them to put the team first, and as they did, they surpassed their own expectations.
Newton attended Northwestern University in Evanston, Illinois, on a track scholarship. He earned a B.S. degree in 1951 and remained at Northwestern a fifth year to complete an M.A. before being drafted into the U.S. Army in 1952.
He arrived at York in 1956 to teach physical education and assist with the boys’ track program. Despite no background in distance running—he had been a sprinter in high school and at Northwestern—Newton was named head cross-country and track coach in 1960 and won his first state cross-country title in 1962.
That first championship trophy remained Newton’s favorite over the full course of his career. “It was pure ecstasy when we got that trophy,” he told Runner’s World in a 2016 interview. “Oh boy.”
In 1988, Newton was named to the U.S. coaching staff for the Seoul Olympics, the first U.S. high school coach to be so honored.
Newton moved to Arizona with his wife, Joan, in the summer of 2000. But he continued to return to Illinois each August to begin a new cross-country season. In 2016, however, Newton announced his retirement. Last November he was honored at a celebration of more than 1,000 friends and former runners.
He told Runner’s World before the celebration that a strong and caring coach-athlete relationship had been the key to his success. “You know,” he said in reflecting on more than six decades of coaching, “kids are basically the same as they were in the old days. They’re terrific. And if they know you care about them, they’ll do anything for you. That’s the important thing in coaching—it isn’t the system you’ve got, it’s your relationship with your athletes.”
