Linfield Athletics Hall of Fame
Middle distance runner Josh O’Connor wasn’t flashy, but he more than got the job done on the running track and the cross country course during a Linfield Athletics Hall of Fame career that spanned from 1991 until 1995.
A six-time NAIA track and field All-American, O’Connor’s highest achievement was a runner-up finish in the 800-meter run at the 1995 NAIA Indoor Championships and a fourth-place finish as a member of the Wildcats’ 1995 4x800 indoor relay team. He ran a key leg on Linfield’s 1992 4x400 relay which placed seventh at the 1992 NAIA Indoor Championships. That foursome that narrowly missed advancing to the finals by .01 seconds.
Retired Linfield track coach Garry Killgore said, “Before each race, we would do imagery together and talk about his race. Then I would look him in the eyes and say ‘Now go get it.’ He was absolute money when the gun would go off. Josh had the heart of a lion.”
O’Connor was a dominant athlete in the Northwest Conference in both cross country and track. On the oval, he captured three straight 800-meter championships, twice won the conference’s 1,500-meter title, and contributed to conference-winning 4x400 relays in consecutive seasons. Linfield’s 1995 relay, which included O’Connor, Sean Stortzum, Mike Miller and Jeremy White, ranks fifth on Linfield’s all-time list, but perhaps more significantly is the fastest time recorded in that event of the last 40 years.
Individually, more than 20 years after his graduation, O’Connor’s record-breaking 800-meter time of 1:49.68 still stands. He also ranks eighth in the Linfield record book in the 1,500.
Together with teammates Erik Anderson and Scott Crouter, O’Connor helped lead the Linfield cross country program to its most recent NWC championship in the fall of 1994 and went to nationals.
“Josh was a great teammate,” said Killgore. “Look at the top-10 list and the number different lineups of the 4x400 relay Josh ran on. That’s really emblematic of how team-oriented he was. He would run his guts out every time.”
Major honors followed at the end of his senior year, including recognition as the Linfield Male Athlete of the Year and Northwest Conference Men’s Track and Field Athlete of the Year.
A graduate of Portland’s Grant High School, O’Connor completed a bachelor’s degree in English at Linfield in 1995. He went on to receive a master’s degree in early childhood special education from Lewis & Clark College in 2001. He has since found a niche for himself working with special education students within the Portland Public School District. He is raising a 16-year-old daughter, Cecilia.
