They keep telling me that the sport of track and field has died in the United States – but fortunately I didn’t get the memo. They say that no one cares. That only in resolute areas like Eugene Oregon and Des Moines Iowa is there enough support to scrap together a decent meet. I’m told that San Jose (formerly Speed City), Los Angeles (host of two Olympic Games), and New Orleans (former Trials host, Super Bowl host and annual host of one of the world’s biggest parties in Mardi Gras) just aren’t capable of pulling off a big meet any more.

They say that Berkeley (home to Jim Ryun’s 3:51.3) wasted its time renovating one of the best track and field venues anywhere, because the Bay Area has no interest in track. I’m told to stop looking back at the grandeur that was once track and field in this country because it died and I didn’t get the memo. They tell me that we’re hanging on by the barest of threads and that the days of the Modesto Relays, Fresno Relays, Pepsi Invitational, Bruce Jenner Classic, Jack in the Box, and Kinney Invitational are over because there is no longer enough interest to put butts in the seats!

And I say you’ve all been bamboozled, and misled into believing that a body is dead whose heart still beats!

The last time I checked we continue to win more medals in international competition than any other nation on the planet. As a matter of fact in London we began to approach record levels! This from the nation in which the memo has been out declaring the sport DEAD!

Where are these athletes arising from within this corps of a nation? Well, it’s very interesting. The last time I checked track and field/cross country has the largest number of youth participating among high schoolers – ahead of luminaries like football, baseball, basketball and soccer! Just imagine if the sport wasn’t DEAD!

And those people in Southern California that I’m told just can’t put their butts in seats to watch track in their own back yard will fill cars and vans and whatever else to drive to CLOVIS, California (most of y’all have no idea where that is) to watch high school kids compete for State titles this weekend – ditto for those Bay Area people.

Now I can come up with more examples that the sport is actually very alive in this country than you can that it died. Frankly all I had to do was prove it has a pulse to get the coroner to retract his statement. My point however is a very simple one – with all due respect, most of you haven’t a clue about the true state of the sport in this country but are parroting what’s been told. Too many have bought into the notion that the sport is dead and that we should be happy with what we have and what we get.

But that is NOT how we’re supposed to think in America – or at least not how we used to think in America. This is the country where immigrants come for the opportunity to become better, not to root and die. This is the country that said we’d go to the moon – and got there! This is the country that said no odds are too great if we put our collective wisdom together.

And I’m here to say that there’s more than enough blood in this body and collective wisdom to resurrect a very weakened sport in this country. That I can comment on how successful we are internationally and how popular we are at the high school level says that we could, no should, have meets in major cities equivalent to London, Rome and Paris!

No we’re not where we once were – man was that fun. Neither are we dead, however. We’re in some sort of track purgatory waiting for resurrection. Luckily there’s enough life in the body for resurrection to take place. But it will require LEADERSHIP! It will require a PLAN. It will require RESOURCES. And it will require people in key positions with PASSION and VISION, because that’s what it takes in any endeavor to make things happen. Unfortunately I can’t remember the last time I saw passion for the sport arise out of USATF.

I just watched Sacramento save a basketball team that had one foot in Seattle and the other on thin ice – no it was actually on a plane TO Seattle. So I know first hand that the impossible can happen. THAT was passion! That is the kind of effort it will take for a revival of track and field in this country. It will take people dedicated to the cause. It will take people that refuse to believe that the sport is dead – people who pick up a shovel with the intent to build, not bury, the sport.

You see, the problem with track and field does not lie with the sport. It’s a great sport that is  still alive around the world, and in this country. Participation is high and guess what – when we assemble great fields people come out and WATCH!

But the public is tight with their dollar and they’re not going to be fooled into thinking that second rate fields are the best we can do. They want Usain Bolt, Yohan Blake and Tyson Gay. They want David Rudisha, Allyson Felix, and Carmelita Jeter – and they should. It’s no different than they want Lebron James, Tom Brady, Blake Griffin and Colin Kaepernick. They want to see the famous, the hot, the most marketed – and when they don’t get that they don’t go.

The Sacramento Kings have put a poor product on the floor for years now and attendance has plummeted – but they’re not dead. The community has kept the team because they see the value in the team. New ownership has come in, and they’re going to revamp the organization and rebuild the team. The equivalent needs to happen to track and field. We need new leadership here at USATF – sorry but I’ve seen nothing from the last two CEO’s. Job ONE should be to court, cultivate, and tap into the corporate base in this country. Because this is a project that requires funding, and there are more than enough corporations and resources out there to do what needs to be done – but it’s not going to just walk through the door.

There’s more to it than I’ve said here today, but I think you get my point. I didn’t get the memo, so I know nothing of the death of track and field. You see, I’m like Morpheus in The Matrix – I believe, no I know, that the machines can be defeated. And I’m willing to fight for that belief. To quote Morpheus from the second Matrix movie when he is asked if the prophesy he believes so strongly in is BS:

“Then tomorrow we may all be dead, but how would that be different from any other day? This is a war and we are soldiers. Death can come for us at any time, in any place. Now consider the alternative. What if I am right? What if tomorrow the war could be over? Isn’t that worth fighting for? Isn’t that worth dying for?”

Well, what if "I’m" right? What if the memo is wrong? What if the sport is still alive? What if tomorrow track could be big again? Isn’t that worth fighting for?

Watch the Prefontaine Classic tomorrow and Saturday, then answer that question.