The Long Beach Century Club hosted a public memorial for one of its Hall of Famers on Monday evening, recognizing the extraordinary life and athletic career of Jim Knaub.
The memorial, hosted in the new public meeting space at the Sports Basement in East Long Beach, was well-attended by sports fans as well as friends and family of Knaub, the legendary wheelchair racer who became a national celebrity during the 80s and 90s.
The Century Club Hall of Fame is Long Beach’s true sports Hall of Fame–the only one that encompasses all sports and schools. It’s a hard group to stand out in, because of the city’s unparalleled record of success across almost every sport. One thing they all have in common, across an incredible diversity of race, gender, economic background, and life experience, is that the members of the Hall were insanely competitive–they needed their sport, and they needed competition.
Knaub manages to stand out in that illustrious crowd.
First, he’s the only person in the Hall of Fame who likely could have made it there twice. First was as a world-class pole vaulter. He was a star at Lakewood High and at Long Beach State, winning CIF State and NCAA acclaim and then just narrowly missing the 1976 Olympics at the young age of 20.
Legendary track and field coach Ron Allice spoke at the services and said that in Long Beach’s unique milieu of world-class track and field athletes in the 1970s, Knaub stood out and seemed destined to go on to international success.
His lifelong best friend, Bob Seagren, is a gold medalist pole vaulter fellow Century Club Hall of Famer who knew Knaub well after covering him at the NCAA track finals for NBC. Seagren would coach Knaub during open workouts at Long Beach State–until 1978.
“I can still remember getting that horrible phone call that he’d been in an accident,” said Seagren. Knaub had been on his motorcycle at a red light when a drunk driver had plowed into him and pinned him under the truck in front of him. When Seagren got to the hospital, Knaub hadn’t yet had x-rays. In typical Knaub fashion, he joked to Seagren that he just had a charlie horse and he’d be out soon.
Instead, x-rays revealed his vertebrae had been crushed, and he would never walk again.
Knaub didn’t let that end his sports career–a remarkable determination, especially in the 1970s. Instead he told Seagren he wanted to try wheelchair racing, and went on to become the greatest of all time. He won the Boston Marathon five times, the Long Beach Marathon 11 times, and held every world record in wheelchair racing from the 5K through the marathon in the 1980s.
He also inspired countless people with his message of perseverance and determination, and utter eschewal of self-pity. He retained his competitive drive–and his wicked sense of humor. Seagren remembers running alongside him in an early 5K. Knaub won the race, then came back and raced alongside Seagren, teasing him all the while.
“He sees a guy in a silver jumpsuit running and he looks up at me and goes, ‘You’re not going to let the Tin Man from the Wizard of Oz beat you, right?’” Seagren remembered with a laugh.
All funerals are sad affairs on some level, but Monday’s service was also a celebration. Seagren and past Century Club president Dan Gooch (who’d grown close with Knaub in recent years and who organized Monday’s event) announced that the Club is putting forward a Jim Knaub Scholarship to help benefit challenged athletes each year.
Century Club president Mike Fillipow said that the club has already raised $8,000 for the scholarship, with hopes to continue raising that number to benefit more athletes in Knaub’s name.
