University of Minnesota Athletics
Griak Hall of Fame Feature: Dick Skogg
9/2/2015 12:00:00 AM | Men's Cross Country
The University of Minnesota will celebrate the 30th annual Roy Griak Invitational as part of Homecoming festivities on Saturday, Sept. 26 at Les Bolstad Golf Course in Falcon Heights, Minn.
As part of the celebration, Gopher Athletics has announced the formation of the Roy Griak Invitational Hall of Fame with eight inductees slated to be honored in the inaugural class. As the Griak Invitational approaches, GopherSports.com will highlight each of the honorees including today's feature on Duluth East coach Dick Skogg.
Dick Skogg is a rare breed of characters. He achieved great success coaching a sport in which he never competed at the high school or college level.
But his success in teaching running to a younger generation is the stuff of legends.
The well-traveled Skogg graduated from Duluth (Minn.) Denfeld High School in 1957 and enrolled at Gustavus Adolphus where he studied for two years before transferring to Minnesota Duluth. He later studied at the University of Minnesota before returning to UMD to complete his degree.
In 1963, Duluth East High School was looking for a track coach and Skoog was approached about taking the position.
"I came from a family that always enjoyed watching track and field," Skogg said. "I never competed in running, but it has always been a big part of my life."
Nearly a decade after embarking on his coaching career, timing was on the side of Skogg. The cross country coaching position opened at the school, and it was natural that Skoog would take on the role of coach in that sport.
"My distance knowledge had certainly increased," said Skogg, who would remain as cross country coach at the school for 26 years.
It was a coaching career that would yield five state championships for Skogg.
Skogg's squads would also use the Roy Griak Invitational to showcase the talent that he had assembled at the school.
The meet had expanded to include a high school division in 1994 as 11 teams took part and Mounds View (Minn.) emerged with the team title by scoring 20 points. But when Skogg's Greyhounds became a part of the field, things changed in a big way.
"We had an opportunity for a northern Minnesota school to become part of a tremendous meet," Skogg said, " We jumped at the opportunity to see what we could do against some very talented teams.
"It was a tough course with its two loops, and it gave us a chance to see what the state meet would be like," the legendary coach would add.
All East did was prove Skogg's charges were a talented group in 1995. And 1996. And 1997.
Kendall Wheeler won the individual championship in 1995 as East scored 42 points to dethrone Mounds View, which tallied 78 points on the day. Wheeler, just a freshman that year, won the meet in a time of 15:11. So talented were the Greyhounds that they had eight girls place among the top-20 finishers at the meet.
Jenny Johnson (15:23) and Megan Anderson (15:36) placed third and seventh, respectively, that season, while Annalisa Harrington (15:51) and Kara Wheeler (15:55) finished 15th and 16th, respectively, to figure into the scoring for the Greyhounds.
Kara Wheeler, according to Skoog, was actually leading the race in the latter stages, but collapsed before eventually crawling across the finish line to finish just ahead of teammate Amy Hill, who was clocked in 15:56. Kris Hartmark (15:57) and Kami Iverson (16:01) finished 18th and 20th, respectively, as the Greyhounds celebrated their first Griak title.
East would place five runners among the top 20 in each of the next two years en route to winning the team titles. The Greyhounds, behind a third-place finish by Kendall Wheeler and a fourth-place finish by Harrington, scored 55 points in the 1996 meet as Mounds View ended with 69 points. The following year, Kendall Wheeler finished second overall as East scored 58 points and won by a large margin as Irondale finished as runner-up with 130 points.
It would be the last of the Griak titles in the girls division for the Skogg-coached Greyhounds, who won state titles each of the last five seasons (1993-97) Skogg was coaching at the school. He also coached the East boys to the Griak title in 1995 as the Greyhounds, behind a strong performance from Nic Mattack, who claimed the championship with 84 points to outdistance runner-up White Bear Lake.
Mattack, the first high school boy to capture consecutive high school championship, led East to the 1995 by clocking a 15:34, while teammates Eric Hartmark (16:18) and Nils Arvold (16:38) placed fourth and 10th, respectively, for the Greyhounds. Mattack's winning time the following year was 15:12, but East could only manage a third-place finish in the team standings.
"I was blessed with great personnel," said Skogg, who would retire following the 1997 Griak title. "I think the key to our success was the fact we had such a close-knit family who really cared about one another."
David Wicker, a former runner for Skoog at East, took over as coach following Skogg's retirement from coaching and led the Greyhounds to Griak titles in each of his first two seasons as coach.
The three-straight Griak girls titles would remain a meet record for nearly a decade before Des Moines Dowling Catholic High School would claim three consecutive titles of its own by winning in 2009-11. The five overall girls championships captured by East, remains a Griak record.
Story by Ray Maloney
Griak Invitational Historian
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