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  "path": "/hillsdale-blog/writers/doug-goodnough/quite-a-run/",
  "publishedAt": "2026-06-02T20:00:03.000Z",
  "site": "https://www.hillsdale.edu",
  "tags": [
    "Athletics",
    "Doug Goodnough",
    "Quite a Run: Former Charger Champion Crosses Career Finish Line",
    "Hillsdale College"
  ],
  "textContent": "#### Written by Doug Goodnough\n\nJeff Doyle, ’76, and the Hillsdale College men’s cross country team had quite a run during the 1970s. In fact, the Chargers were NAIA District 23 champions three consecutive years from 1973-75 and qualified for the national meet each of those years.\n\nDoyle was a multi-year NAIA All-District 23 performer and the individual district champion as a senior. As one of the leaders of those teams, the memories are still vivid, and at the recent 50/60-Year Reunion, he was able to reminisce with former teammates Tim Karas, ’76, and Bill Henshaw, ’76.\n\n“As a senior in high school and being a track and cross country runner, I was determining what college to attend,” Doyle said. “I contacted Hillsdale for a visit and to meet the coach.”\n\nThat coach was Doug Hansen, ’66, a former standout runner for the Chargers who was building a powerhouse team. He convinced Doyle, a Riverview, Michigan, native, to spurn larger schools like Eastern Michigan and Central Michigan to become a Charger.\n\nDoyle earned a trip to the 1972 NAIA national cross country meet as a freshman and was quickly making an impact on campus in other areas.\n\n“[Hansen] set me up as an RA in Galloway,” Doyle said of his on-campus job that helped pay his tuition. “Then he got me into intramural sports, and I was the director of that program for three years. It was a great experience.”\n\nAfter graduating from Hillsdale with his accounting degree, Doyle moved to Dallas, Texas, where he served as a corporate auditor. He later moved to Los Angeles to work for an environmental remediation company that had him traveling the country working with government clients, including the military. Eventually he was promoted to vice president of The Shaw Group that was based in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. He and his wife, Debbie, eventually moved to Charlotte, North Carolina, where he finished his career as the controller for HDR Engineering.\n\nNow retired, Doyle said he marvels at all of the improvements to Hillsdale’s athletic facilities and remembers the rough training conditions he and his teammates endured.\n\n“There’s this dirt road, a hilly dirt rock road,” he said of the cross country trails of the time. “We would have to drive down there to start running. And it was like three miles on this rocky road and then a curve. And when we were coming [to the end], you would see the stadium and the track on the left side. We would have to cut in, come around and do a lap on the gravel track, and then go around and up the hill and finish at the top of the hill. The last 50 yards were straight up.”\n\nHowever, he remembers the perks of the program as well.\n\n“When we went to a competition, we always stopped at a nice restaurant afterwards and had a good meal,” he said.\n\nDoyle, who also claimed a Great Lakes Intercollegiate Athletic Conference title on the track in the six-mile run, said those cross country teams could compete against anyone. In fact, one year Hillsdale finished ahead of the University of Michigan at the prestigious Notre Dame Invitational. And in 1975, the Chargers finished with an impressive 50-2 dual meet record.\n\n“I would do it all again,” Doyle said of his Hillsdale experience. “I wouldn’t change anything.”\n\n* * *\n\nDoug Goodnough, '90, is Hillsdale’s senior director of Alumni Marketing. He enjoys connecting with fellow alumni in new and wonderful ways.\n\n* * *\n\nPublished in June 2026\n\nThe post Quite a Run: Former Charger Champion Crosses Career Finish Line appeared first on Hillsdale College.",
  "title": "Quite a Run: Former Charger Champion Crosses Career Finish Line"
}