Former Duck and Olympic gold medalist to be inducted into collegiate track and field hall of fame

For Joaquim Cruz, Eugene is where many of his dreams came true. 

“It’s almost like a fairy tale story,” the University of Oregon alumnus said this week in an interview with Lookout Eugene-Springfield. “The dream that I had as a boy came true.”

Cruz grew up in Brazil and received a scholarship to Oregon in 1983. While in Eugene he got used to running in front of big crowds at Hayward Field, he met his wife at the university and became an Olympic athlete. 

“Everything happened while I was in Eugene,” he said. 

Sunday, Cruz returns to Eugene to be inducted into the U.S. Track & Field and Cross Country Collegiate Athlete Hall of Fame. The 6 p.m. ceremony at the Hult Center is free and open to the public.

Beginnings in Brazil

It started when Cruz was a 12-year-old boy in Taguatinga, Brazil. His school required students to enroll in a team sport for physical education credit, but he hadn’t chosen a team. He had no intention of choosing basketball, but one of his peers told the basketball coach he wanted to try out for the team. 

“I was the victim of a fortunate prank,” Cruz said. 

That basketball coach, Luiz de Oliveira, would go on to train him as a runner for 22 years. 

When Cruz arrived for that first basketball practice, he was surprised to find the team meeting on a soccer field rather than a court. Their first task: complete the 12-minute Cooper Test run, which requires athletes to run as far as they can in 12 minutes. 

“I looked at my friend and said, ‘Where is the ball?’” Cruz said. “He warned me that the coach loved the conditioning part of the game.”

Cruz, who at the time said he did not like running, finished third. 

“Coach said, ‘Okay, you’re fast.’” 

Cruz built a reputation as a good runner, but only in the realm of basketball. That is, until the school’s track coach was looking for a student to represent the school in an upcoming track championship. De Oliveira put him through a 1500-meter time trial, and Cruz impressed with a 4:47 time. 

Not wanting to deviate from basketball, Cruz avoided de Oliveira for a week after the time trial. Eventually, the coach convinced him he could do both sports. Cruz went to the Brazilian National Student Games and competed in the 1500 against kids four years older. He placed third with a time of 4:03. 

“Everyone said I had natural talent,” Cruz said. “I said not really. I started with my coach before I was 12 years old. Without knowing, he was already preparing me for track.”

The peer who played the prank on Cruz when they were young, Carlos Menezes, will attend the induction ceremony on Sunday to support his childhood friend. De Oliveira died in 2021 at age 73.

“That situation changed my life,” Cruz said. 

The road to Eugene

Cruz and de Oliveira first landed in Provo, Utah, when Brigham Young University offered the runner a scholarship and an opportunity to learn English. When a foot injury led the two to travel to Eugene to see a specialist, they were able to meet face-to-face with Bill Dellinger, the head track coach at Oregon. Dellinger offered Cruz a spot on the team and allowed him to keep his childhood coach. 

His first year at Oregon, Cruz won the 1983 NCAA 800-meter title in 1:44.91. And that summer, he took bronze in the 800, representing Brazil, at the inaugural World Track and Field Championships in Helsinki.

In 1984, Cruz secured his second-straight 800-meter NCAA title for the Ducks, coupled with a 1500-meter title that propelled the Oregon men, competing on their home turf at Hayward Field in Eugene, to their first NCAA Outdoor track and field title since 1970.

That was followed by the most significant moment of Cruz’s career, winning Olympic gold for Brazil in the 800 at the Summer Games in Los Angeles during a month when he ran four of the top eight fastest 800 times ever recorded at the time, including a personal best 1:41.77 in Cologne, Germany, just 0.04 seconds short of Sebastian Coe’s-world record of 1:41.73.

“He was definitely the class of the field, both nationally and on our team,” said Jim Hill, Cruz’s teammate on that 1984 national championship team and owner of SportHill, the athletic clothing company Hill founded in Eugene in 1985. “He was head and shoulders above the rest.”

Asked if Cruz is deserving of the honor, Hill laughed and said, “Oh, yeah. I can’t imagine anybody more so.”

The festivities happen three days before the start of the 2025 NCAA Division 1 Outdoor Track and Field Championships at Hayward Field, 42 years after Cruz’s standout debut at the 1983 NCAA championships. 

“Eugene was a really special place,” Cruz said of his time training here. “I knew everywhere you walked, everywhere you ran, it was full of stories of the past. Every time you did the workout at the track, somebody was watching.”

He recalled a time he was running a workout at Hayward to prepare for the Olympics in Los Angeles. It was a Saturday afternoon, school was out and the track was empty, except for two men standing and talking at the 100-meter start. And every time Cruz sped by, the men would stop talking and look at him.

After the workout, de Oliveira told Cruz one of those men was Bill Bowerman. 

According to Cruz, Bowerman told his coach: “If this kid has a good head, he will dominate the 800 in the years to come.”

“That year I went to the Olympics and then went on to dominate the 800 in the world and win all my races,” Cruz said. “He inspired me with his words of wisdom. For anyone to hear that … he pretty much predicted what I wanted to happen. I was inspired by that.” 

Cruz, who moved from Eugene to the San Diego area in the late 1980s and has coached Paralympic athletes out of Chula Vista, California, the past 20 years, becomes the fourth UO runner inducted into the Collegiate Track & Field and Cross Country Hall of Fame.

Steve Prefontaine, Dyrol Burleson and Dellinger preceded him.

The hall of fame was established in 2022 “to honor the best of the best in collegiate track and field and cross country who have left a lasting mark on the sport.”

If you go:

What: Fourth annual hall of fame induction for the Collegiate Track and Field and Cross County Hall of Fame is free and open to the public

When: 6 p.m. Sunday (red carpet walk begins at 5:30 p.m.)

Where: Hult Center for the Performing Arts’ Soreng Theater, Seventh Avenue and Willamette Street

Watch: Streaming on https://www.runnerspace.com/

The other 2025 inductees:

Amy Acuff, UCLA, high jump, 1994-97, from Corpus Christi, Texas. A five-time NCAA high jump champion, indoor and outdoor; 1996 Olympian and first collegian to jump 6-6 ¾.

Cathy Branta, Wisconsin, mid-distance/distance, 1981-85, Slinger, Wisconsin. Five titles in cross-country, indoor and outdoor track; led Badgers to first NCAA title in any sport in 1984. Set collegiate record in outdoor 1,500 in 1985 in 4:12.64.

Bert Cameron, UTEP, sprints, 1980-83, Spanish Town, Jamaica. Five NCAA titles; third man to win outdoor 400 three times; member of six UTEP championship teams, three indoor, three outdoor; won 1983 world championship in 400; his 44.58 in 1981 was fastest time in the world that year.

Joe Falcon, Arkansas, mid-distance/distance, 1984-89, Belton, Missouri. Seven NCAA titles from 1,500 to 10,000 meters. First NCAA athlete to win outdoor 10,000 (1987) and 1,500 (1988); set collegiate records in indoor 3,000 at 7:46.42 in 1989.

Diane Guthrie, George Mason, heptathlon/jumps, 1991-95, Santa Cruz, Jamaica. Five NCAA titles, three in the long jump and two in the heptathlon. Her 6,527 points in 1995 is a heptathlon record that still stands.

Larance Jones, Truman State University (then NE Missouri State), sprints, 1970-74, Lemoore, Calif. Won six NCAA 400-meter titles in 440-yard run.

Madeline Manning, Tennessee State, mid-distance, 1967-72, Cleveland. Olympic gold medalist in 800 in 1968 at Mexico City. Her 2:00.92 just 0.42 seconds off the world record; won five NCAA titles; Olympic silver medalist in Munich in 1972.

Scott Neilson, Washington, throws, 1976-79, New Westminster, B.C. Seven NCAA titles, four outdoors in the hammer and three indoors in the weight throw. First field athlete to win four NCAA titles in the same event. Collegiate record in hammer of 238-7 in 1978.

Suziann Reid, Texas, sprints, 1996-99, Greenbelt, Maryland. Won a combined 10 NCAA titles, five in 400 and five as part of Texas’s 4×400 relay team.

Gillian Russell, Miami, hurdles, 1992-95, Kingston, Jamaica. Five NCAA titles, three outdoors in 100-meter hurdles and two indoors in 55-meter hurdles; first woman to win three 100-meter hurdle titles.

Forrest “Spec” Towns, Georgia, hurdles, 1934-37, Augusta, Georgia. Two NCAA titles in 1936 and 1937 in 120-yard hurdles and Olympic gold in Berlin in 1936; first sub-14-second hurdler ever; his world record of 13.7 seconds stood for 14 years.