PHILADELPHIA (KYW Newsradio) — Kevin Quinn spent 49 years coaching track and field and cross country at his alma mater Saint Joseph's University before retiring in 2015. He enjoyed extraordinary success and produced dozens of top flight athletes.
Quinn said he drove his charges crazy with his various sayings. But there was one thing in particular he would stress to his cross country athletes.
"One of them, which they could never understand when I started with it, was 'the hills are your friends.' Because ordinarily you would think the hills were not your friends, the hills were the worst part of the race," he said.
"But if you could convince yourself that yes, in fact, the hills are your friends, and this is where I make my decision that I’m going to push, when everybody else wants to slow down, I’m going to push, it’s amazing the number of people you could get rid of, who would let you go because you were going to push it."
All you need to know about the impact that Quinn made on Saint Joe's is the fact that the Hawks' home track is now named "Kevin Quinn Track." He talked about that honor.
"It was extraordinary in that I took it for what it was, that it was a tremendous compliment. I don’t know that it’s deserved, but it is a tremendous compliment," he shared.
"My grandchildren think it's great because the track is named for Pop Pop, so it's my track. You know, that's my track. They think that's pretty funny. Pretty cool, actually.”
Quinn still has his hand in the mix, doing some volunteer coaching at the University of Pennsylvania.
You can listen to the entire interview with Kevin Quinn by checking out the latest episode of the KYW Newsradio original podcast "1-on-1 with Matt Leon." For more, subscribe on the Audacy app or wherever you get your podcasts.