Canadian 'Ducks' have flocked to the heart of track and field

It is surprising that given the record compiled by American track and field athletes over the course of world summits and the Olympics, that Eugene 2022 marks the first time in the history of the World Athletics Championships that the biggest meet of all will be staged in the United States.

"There's no question that Eugene is known around the world as a major, if not the major centre of the sport," two-time Olympian Doug Clement says from his home in Vancouver. 

Clement, originally from Montreal, competed at the Games in Helsinki in 1952 and in Melbourne in 1956, and ran as a sprinter for the University of Oregon Ducks in Eugene from 1951 to 1955.

He is just one of an illustrious group of athletes who hailed from Canada and were drawn to this smallish city in the Pacific Northwest at the southern end of the Willamette Valley, to become part of a worldwide athletic tradition.

"There was massive coverage in the local newspaper, the Eugene Register Guard, and for every meet there was a form chart of what athletes were likely to do," Clement says. 

"You became visible in the community as being part of the fraternity of track and field athletes and we had a winning tradition."   

The tradition in Eugene began at the turn of the 20th century when Bill Hayward, a world lacrosse champion with the Ottawa Capitals who grew up in Toronto, became the first track and field coach for the University of Oregon Ducks in 1904.

Hayward, who was nicknamed "The Colonel" because of his gruff and demanding style, built the program at Oregon into a powerhouse over his 44 years at the helm and coached the American athletics team at the Olympics from Stockholm in 1912 to Berlin in 1936.

The historic stadium in Eugene, which has been totally