Mike Keogh

The Keogh family were from the farmlands of County Cork, but Mike’s father, mother and younger sister had left Ireland for New Jersey in search of job opportunities. Mike, his two brothers and an aunt and uncle followed when money would allow them. It was in May 1958 that the family were reunited and moved into a two-bedroom apartment in a mostly Italian neighbourhood. The male members of the family, including young Mike, would wake at 4 AM to deliver newspapers and, still not in his teens, he became a runner for a mobster involved in the numbers racket. He purchased a handgun at age 11 for protection.

Keogh was the top 2-miler in the United States in 1970, winning the Golden West Invitational that year in 8:54.0 for Essex Catholic High School in New Jersey despite suffering from pain in his feet. He attended Manhattan College. Keogh’s breakthrough collegiate race came at the 1972 IC4A outdoor championships in May. After having missed five months of workouts because of foot issues, Keogh won the mile on only six weeks of training in a personal record of 4:01.7 and a last quarter of 56.4 seconds. He wasn’t entered for the 1500m at the NCAA Championships but instead he took part in the 5000m where he finished 5th behind Steve Prefontaine. In his last race before the Munich Games, Keogh finished a second inside the qualifying standard for the 5000m and was duly chosen for the Irish team, but he did not make it out of his heat at the Olympics against some top-quality runners.

The following year Keogh won the IC4A cross-country title but started too slowly in the NCAA equivalent and, although he passed over a hundred runners in the second half of the race, he could only scrape into a place in the top ten. He won the 1973 NCAA indoor title at 2-miles, however, and helped Manhattan win the team title. Hamstring injuries and a stress fracture, in addition to his constant feet problems, plagued Keogh for the last half of 1973 and all of 1974, and he lost his place on the college team. Keogh graduated from Manhattan in 1974 with a Bachelor of Arts degree in History and accepted a job as a track coach at Adelphi University on Long Island.

Keogh gained his US citizenship in 1975 and competed for the US team in a meeting in Israel. In preparation for the Montreal Olympics, he relocated to train with some fellow Olympians in Florida, but the money soon ran out, and he returned north to take a job delivering mail in Connecticut. Despite living hand-to-mouth for six months, he returned to form and won his heat of the 5000 m at the US trials. Unfortunately, he had to have a molar tooth removed the night before the final and could place only sixth and missed selection for Montreal. The Irish OC asked if he would consider competing for Ireland since he was the only Irish qualifier in the 5,000 but his appearance for an official US team in 1975 put paid to that possibility. He retired for six years, during which he accepted a coaching position at Louisiana State University, but made a comeback in 1983 specializing in 10 km road races, but a hamstring injury in the spring of 1984 ruled him out of the US trials and he again hung up his spikes. Keough later settled in Louisiana, where he started a chiropractic practice.

Personal Best: 5000 – 13:36.6 (1976).