Track athletes hope to hammer together an agreement on new training site.

Byline: Ron Bellamy The Register-Guard

The hammer throw area in East Alton Baker Park, officially the Whilamut Natural Area, consists of two concrete slabs and a protective cage of posts and cyclone fencing. There's a walk-in steel storage unit where throwers store equipment.

In the corner of one slab, etched in the concrete, is "McArdle" and a date in 1985. It was to this site that John McArdle, by then throwing postcollegiately, and the University of Oregon throwers of that era, led first by Ken Flax, came to practice, a safe sanctuary away from the bustle of Hayward Field.

"This was to get us away from Hayward Field, because it was so dangerous," recalled Stewart Togher, the internationally-respected throws coach whose initials are also carved in that slab. "Flax was putting them on the damn roadway, you know? ... Big John McArdle started throwing over 70 meters, and it went from there, and then Flax came and took it forward.

"This was built because we lifted the standard of the event here."

In the open space south of Autzen Stadium, in the grassy field, a generation of throwers heaved the hammer toward the distant trees. And from this field of dreams emerged an American record-holder, a many-times national champion, an Olympic silver medalist - Lance Deal.

Deal worked out there for 18 years, and on the verge of his silver medal in 1996 called it the best place in the country to throw the hammer.

The dreams continue for other throwers, with the U.S. Olympic Track & Field Trials coming to Hayward Field, but the practice area is officially closed now. Technically, it has been since 2005, when an agreement between the city of Eugene and the University of Oregon regarding the practice area expired.

"Nobody told us that," Togher said.

Not until last Friday, when Togher and some of his throwers - James Parker, the U.S. Air Force officer who is a three-time national champion and 2004 Olympian, and Loree Smith, the former NCAA champion from Colorado State - were practicing there, and told by a city parks official that they couldn't, that the field was closed.

"There's no other place to throw," Togher said. "Not in Eugene, not in Springfield. There's nothing else. There's no place for the hammer. This is the safest and only place, apart from Hayward Field when it's ready. The public uses this."

In fact, one morning earlier this week, when a Register-Guard reporter and photographer went to meet Togher and his throwers at the site, masters athlete Harvey Lewellen was there throwing the hammer, unaware of any controversy.

As Eugene prepares to play host to the nation's athletes - and as the University of Oregon's hammer throwers themselves seek a place to practice during the renovation of Hayward Field - it's a controversy begging for a community solution.

When the hammer throw practice area was first built, that area of East Alton Baker Park was under jurisdiction of Lane County. Togher said Jerry Rust, then a Lane County commissioner, helped secure the site; Wildish donated the concrete, and Nils Norman built the cage.

"The truth is, as an athlete in Eugene, training for the Olympics, I was always very appreciative of the opportunity the county, the city and the parks department gave us to have a place to train," Deal said.

In the early 1990s, the county's attempt to build a golf course in East Alton Baker Park led to a citizen initiative to stop it, and to the ultimate transfer of East Alton Baker Park to the cities of Eugene and Springfield. "That initiative petition, that legislation, included a restriction to use East Alton Baker only for passive uses," said Johnny Medlin, director of the parks and open space division for the city of Eugene.

"It was pretty narrow in the definition of passive uses: Walking, bicycling, nature-oriented things. It did allow the grandfathering of certain agreements."

Which is how the city of Eugene inherited the agreement that allowed for the hammer area, and continued it for another decade. "At the end of the day, they were more than fair," Deal said, in retrospect.

(The overall contract with the university, governing the use of Lots 8 and 9 near Autzen and other issues, expires this year.)

During the past summer, Medlin said, the citizen planning committee that oversees the Whilamut Natural Area, and makes recommendations on issues related to it, was asked whether it would be receptive to reopening the hammer area with the Trials approaching.

This, of course, assumed that anyone outside of the parks department, the committee and the university knew that it had been closed to begin with since 2005.

"Their recommendation was that they were not comfortable with returning that use," Medlin said. The irony, of course, is that until last week Togher and his little group of throwers had still been using it from time to time - their presence low-key enough, and minimal enough, that they'd attracted no notice.

And so, what now? Parker emphasized that the University of Oregon, where Deal is the throws coach, has been "very generous" in allowing postcollegiate athletes to use Hayward Field facilities, but certainly the schedules of UO athletes take precedence, and with the renovation of the field, UO athletes as of this date have no place to throw either, in the short term, though Deal is working on alternatives.

"It would be great, especially this year, with the Trials and the Olympics, to have a secondary place to train," said Parker, who has made extended visits to Eugene to train with Togher since 2002 and moved here with his family in December.

An Air Force captain, Parker was formerly chief of plans and management for a services squadron when based in Montana; he's now with the Air Force sports program, which focuses on recruiting efforts.

"To me, this place is kind of a special place, especially for the event," Parker said. "There was definitely something special that happened here when Stewart and that old crew with Lance did something."

Said Smith, who moved to Eugene four months ago to work with Togher: "We're kind of worrying about what's going to happen. This is a big year, the Olympic year. There are a lot of things to worry about when all you want to do is focus on making the team."

There are a couple of possible solutions here:

Solution No. 1: Howie Bonnett, who chairs the citizen planning committee for the Whilamut Natural Area, said the group's next meeting will be at 6 p.m. next Thursday at the Willamalane offices in Springfield, and that it always takes public comment at the outset.

Togher, Parker, Smith and Deal expect to attend that meeting and formally request that the committee recommend that use of the hammer area at least be allowed through the Olympic Trials, as a site for the athletes who live here and, in the period just before and during the Trials, as a practice site for the athletes who will come to Eugene seeking to make the U.S. team.

"See if they'll let us be there until the Trials, and then they can have it," Togher said. "The timing of this is bad."

Given that use of the hammer area goes back 22 years, to 1985, and that the Olympic Trials are less than a year away, the committee - in support of such a major community event - could grant that request and still achieve the long-term goal of returning that area to "passive" use. Though perhaps, on further reflection, this use wouldn't be considered so bad after all.

Solution No. 2: Togher said his throwers have been offered a place to throw at Lane Community College. However, Medlin said he believes there's ample room in West Alton Baker Park - near the boat ramp, on the field where the Active 20-30 Club has set off fireworks and that has been used for overflow parking - for a temporary hammer throw area, in a part of the park where such an "active" use would not be prohibited.

"Somebody would just need to request it of me, and we'd work out the details," Medlin said.

He said the field is bigger than the current site, and there would be direct access for cars, which doesn't exist now. Of course, it would require some concrete to be poured and construction of a new cage, but in a community that wants to consider itself Track Town, USA, you'd think there are the resources, and generosity, to make that happen.

Deal said he is gratified by the city's willingness to work something out, though Togher has concerns about that site, worrying that it would be "a worse situation" with competing uses close by, and whether there would be the privacy and permanency of the original site.

Solution No. 3: Someone with some extra open space steps forward to offer a long-term solution for a hammer training area.

The current site, where McArdle and Flax and Deal trained, is a special place, with special memories. Of course, it would also be a beautiful site for Oregon's new baseball stadium, but that's probably a column for another day.