Don Meyers and Jerry Quiller, even if it meant missing out on being fully rested for a target race, such as the mile at the 1973 NCAA indoor championships. He doubled up in that meet, pacing the CU distance medley squad, which placed second. After graduating, Gregorio raced internationally, including the 1975 Pan American Games in Mexico City.

With the 1976 Montreal Olympics coming up the following year, Gregorio fell short of making the team in the 5000 meters, after going into the race as one of the favorites. When asked what happened, Gregorio replied, with a bit of a laugh, “It is kind of hard to run your best with your hands around your neck.”

In other words, he “choked.”

The blunt Gregorio went on to work for the nascent shoe company Nike after graduating, becoming director of track and field and overseeing many of the best American athletes of the era, including long jumper and sprinter Carl Lewis. What separates the gold medalists he worked with from the many other elites was “attitude,” Gregorio, 73, said. “It was an attitude of ‘we are a badass. I might go buy you a beer, but when we’re racing, you’re the enemy’.”

That certainly was not Gregorio’s style, says Matt Centrowitz, a two-time Olympian and one of the top U.S. runners of the 1970s. “John was always encouraging other runners, which was not common in that era,” Centrowitz said. “He helped lay the foundation and build the legacy at Colorado.”

After leaving Nike, Greogrio was a successful high school cross country and track coach in Denver, with his teams winning two state track titles. And “Grogs,” as Gregorio is known to his many friends, continues to inspire and encourage younger runners, said 2022 CU grad and 2:17 marathoner Paxton Smith, chair of the alumni C Club cross country committee (Gregorio volunteers his time to help Smith and C Club executive director Kimbirly Orr organize events).

“John was a grinder,” Smith said, which in running parlance is a big compliment. “I like that era. There were a lot of tough runners: no excuses, put in the miles, get the job done.”

That could be said for Culpepper as well. After joining the CU track team as a walk-on in 1995, she became a four-time All American and went on to claim five Big Eight or Big 12 titles.

As a professional runner competing for Adidas, she earned a World Indoor Championships bronze medal in the 3000 meters, along with five national titles. Culpepper, married to fellow Olympian Alan, is a counselor at Fairview High School.

When the top three finishers in the 1973 NCAA three-mile stepped onto the podium to receive their awards after their race in Baton Rouge, La., the scoreboard behind them read:

Pre Colorado Colorado

“Pre,” of course, was the late University of Oregon legend Steve Prefontaine, one of the icons of U.S. distance running. No surprise there. However, Pre was surprised to see CU’s John Gregorio and Ted Casteneda placing just behind him, with all three runners breaking Prefontaine’s NCAA 3-mile record.

“We had a desire to go after the greats, even if it meant not backing down from a Pre,” Casteneda, the first Colorado runner to break 4 minutes for the mile, said in an earlier interview. Gregorio came close, running 4:00.8, as part of a CU career that included becoming the first Buff to earn All-American honors in indoor and outdoor track and cross country.

Last month, Gregorio was inducted into the CU Athletic Hall of Fame (Castenada was previously inducted), along with 1500-meter runner Shayne (nee Wille) Culpepper, a two-time Olympian. “It’s an honor,” Gregorio said on Friday, during an alumni tailgate gathering before CU’s victory over Oklahoma State. “But I just did my job.”

That job meant running multiple events at the Big Eight and NCAA championships when asked by Colorado coaches