Pullman native, Hall of Fame distance running coach Max Jensen dies at 85

Max Jensen would have his runners out for a 15-miler in the days when there were no fancy watches to track mileage. But when his blue van came into view, they’d let out a deep breath of relief, figuring the day’s training was over.

“And then he’d speed up and drive away,” remembered one of them, Mike Hadway. “But we couldn’t get mad at him. He’d have this big grin on his face and say, ‘Hey, it’s going to make us win.’ “

Often as not, he was right – whether he was coaching Hadway and his teammates at Spokane Community College, starting a high school dynasty at Richland or wrapping up his career at Ferris. At each stop, unshakeable positivity and an easy but sincere rapport with his athletes inevitably brought out their best.

One of the state’s pioneer distance coaches and a hall of famer several times over, Jensen died Monday from the complications of a stroke. He was 85.

Apart from coaching, he also put in 33 years in guidance and counseling at what is now Spokane Colleges and there, too, he distinguished himself as “one of the very best,” said former athletic director Maury Ray, who happened to start work at SCC the same day as Jensen in April 1973.

“Just as with athletes, he had a lot of tech and liberal arts students that came to depend on him.”

But his renown came as a distance coach, first with three straight State AAA cross country championships with Richland to start the 1970s (the program would win two more after his departure) and then as an assistant to John Buck with SCC’s nascent program. When Jensen took over as head cross country coach, he produced an immediate NWAC title in dominant fashion.

“Max had a way of instilling confidence,” said Steve Kiesel, another SCC runner who like Hadway became a Greater Spokane League coaching fixture. “There was never a shock-and-awe moment with Max. He just made you feel good about yourself.”

Born and raised in Pullman, Jensen found his coaching inspiration in football legend Ray Hobbs, for whom he toiled as a left tackle. A state-placing half-miler on the track team, Jensen went on to run for Jack Mooberry at Washington State, graduating in 1963 and landing a job at Richland. Three years later, he launched a cross country program to enhance the Bombers’ track prospects.

“The first time I advertised – turn out for cross country! – I remember there were twins who came out and they thought I was talking about sports cars,” Jensen told The Spokesman-Review’s Kevin Taylor in 1984. “We had a meeting down in the locker room and they thought they’d be going out for a drive. But they rounded out the top five that year.”

By 1970, the Bombers were State AAA champions, turning the trick two more times before Jensen left for SCC – and two more times after he left. They never finished lower than seventh in his tenure.

A stylistic balance to the hard-driving Buck, Jensen was drafted as a head coach “sort of as needed,” Ray said. He did two stints as each as men’s and women’s cross country coach and two more heading up women’s track and field. But the highlight was that 1975 championship, when the Sasquatch crushed nemesis Highline with a 1-3-4-5-6 finish, with Hadway in the middle of that.

“I’ll always remember that summer I hadn’t been training and wasn’t thinking of turning out,” Hadway said. “I get a call from Max saying, ‘Hey, we need you.’ That’s a call that changes my life right there; who knows where I’d be if he hadn’t called. It takes me a month to get in shape. I finally win a JV race with a time that would have been fourth on the varsity and on the ride home he’s telling me I’m the key to us winning a championship. You just wanted to do your best for him.”

The inspiration came with some humor.

“We were shooting some hoops after practice one time,” Kiesel recalled. “He walked by and one of the guys asked, ‘Max, what would you do if we went over to Stateline tonight?’ Remember that the drinking age was 21 here, but only 19 there then. Max just smiles and says, ‘Hey, I can’t keep a leash on you 24 hours a day. Just remember – the next day, you’re mine.’ “

Jensen gave up his SCC coaching duties in 1982, but he was back holding a watch at Ferris the next fall and stayed for a couple of seasons before turning the reins over to Hadway, who had been teaching at Rogers.

“It was typical Max,” he said. “He told me he wanted to cut back to just the counseling so he could spend more time with his family, but that ‘I won’t leave the kids unless you take the position.’ We sat down and talked and he gave me some ideas I could use and then said, ‘Hey, you know what you’re doing.’ “

“For a couple of us, we came there without a strong father figure in our lives,” Kiesel said. “Max provided that. That happened for a lot of kids, males and females, and you never wanted to let that guy down.”

Jensen is survived by his wife, Deanna, and four children – daughters Kim, Carol and Tami and son Max. Jr. No information on services was available.