It is a story by Paul Merca about our buddy, Mike Fanelli, who we miss very a lot.
When you had been certainly one of Mike Fanelli’s 5000-plus Fb buddies, there was a better-than-even probability you’d obtain a every day submit of monitor and discipline trivia, the newest tackle who ran the best 4 x 400 relay legs on the Penn Relays, posts on the newest sub-4 minute milers, and so forth.
Mike was a strolling, speaking Google (or, for you old-timers, encyclopedia) of monitor and discipline info.
As has been nicely chronicled, Fanelli collected running-related memorabilia, which he saved within the “Observe and Area Storage” at his dwelling in Sonoma County, California. The expansive assortment had over 4,000 artifacts, together with the meet program from the primary indoor monitor meet held in the USA in 1868 and each Observe and Area Information concern and Runner’s World.
After he handed away on November twenty fifth, 2023, from glioblastoma mind most cancers, on the age of 67, there was a celebration of life held for him in January in San Francisco, attended by lots of his buddies, whether or not in actual property, the athletic shoe trade, or most definitely, followers of the game.
Even with the celebration of life, there gave the impression to be not fairly the closure you’d anticipate for a person with a ardour for monitor and discipline.
Quick-forward to the US Olympic Trials in Eugene, the place two occasions had been organized by former Reebok executives Dwayne ‘Peanut’ Harms and Pat Devaney, in addition to famous distance coach and former Nike and Hoka sports activities advertising government Peter Thompson.
The primary was the Hootie 5k on the primary Saturday of the Trials, renamed the Peter Brewer-Mike Fanelli Memorial 5k to honor Peter Brewer, a longtime monitor and cross nation coach in Northern California.
Per week later, those that didn’t take part within the run gathered for a stroll from the Greatest Western New Oregon Lodge to the fishing pond on Pre’s Path, the place a commemorative bench honoring Mike shall be put in someday within the fall.
After Saturday evening’s session, a small gathering of shut buddies of Fanelli’s occurred on the Wild Duck, the long-time post-meet watering gap and gathering place. The Wild Duck reopened in late September after closing on the finish of 2022.
The Wild Duck was, as a rule, the place Mike made his Fb posts and takes come to life, speaking to anybody who wished to speak monitor.
Throughout the Olympic Trials, a photograph of Fanelli hangs over the big desk within the restaurant part the place he typically held courtroom earlier than and after meets.
Fanelli is immortalized on the Wild Duck with a small bronze plate on the again of a chair along with his identify engraved.
For a lot of monitor and discipline followers, the Wild Duck was the place to assemble after a meet, whether or not you had been a fan, athlete, official, or a direct member of the family.
When Eugene was formally awarded the Trials, quite a few followers questioned whether or not the Duck would reopen and, if it didn’t, the place they might collect afterward.
Enter Charles Haasenritter, whose son, Kilo, performs on the College of Oregon soccer workforce.
Haasenritter and spouse Kahea took over the enterprise to deliver the restaurant again to its glory days earlier than the pandemic hit.
The glory days included athletes making world championships or Olympic groups toasting patrons with bottles of champagne.
The Haasenritter household, who got here to Eugene from Hilo, Hawaii, didn’t considerably change the menu, conserving many elderly staples, equivalent to wings, burgers, and salmon, patrons loved over the earlier 30 years of operation.
The one tweak to the menu was the addition of Hawaiian-inspired delicacies, equivalent to spam musubi, a Hawaiian Loco Moco beef patty on rice with gravy and egg, and a Hawaiian plate that features rice, mac and cheese, and protein choices together with beef teriyaki and Hawaiian fried hen, which I attempted upon Haasenritter’s suggestion.
The celebs got here out to the Wild Duck Saturday, together with world and Olympic lengthy soar champ Brittney Reese, who’s on the meet as an envoy for TrackTown USA.
Different notables in the home included ESPN’s Larry Dawson, three-time Olympian at 800 meters Mark Everett, and 2012 Olympic 400-meter hurdles finalist Georgeanne Moline.
Tara Davis-Woodhall and Monte Nichols, who completed 1-3 in Saturday’s lengthy soar finals, had been saluted by the patrons with champagne for punching their tickets to Paris.
Whether or not it’s an early spring College of Oregon dwelling meet or a giant meet just like the Olympic Trials, the Wild Duck is a must-visit!
.jpg)
