VILLANOVA, Pa.—A member of the first Villanova cross country national championship team in 1966 who later went on to a decades-long high school coaching career in New Jersey, Jack O'Leary '68 passed away in February at the age of 79. O'Leary was a bridge between generations of Wildcats as an athlete himself and during his distinguished career as a coach and mentor.
 
Born on October 29, 1946, O'Leary first found success while running for Villanova great Fred Dwyer '54 at Essex Catholic (N.J.) High School. He was part of a two-mile relay team which set a national record and, as a scholastic senior in 1964, O'Leary set the New Jersey state record in the mile at 4:16.3. He attended Villanova on a full scholarship running for some of Jumbo Elliott's strongest teams.
 
As a junior in the Fall of 1966, O'Leary was part of the Wildcats first NCAA championship cross country team. He competed in the team's lineup at the national championships in Lawrence, Kan., where Villanova won the title by a dominant 76-point margin. O'Leary recorded a time of 32:49.0 over six miles on the national championship course.
 
It was as a high school coach in New Jersey that O'Leary made his greatest impact on the sport. He spent one season coaching with Frank Gagliano at Roselle Catholic before Gagliano went on to have collegiate success at Georgetown.  O'Leary returned to his alma mater for five years and helped Essex Catholic win two state cross country titles during his tenure there.
 
In 1974, O'Leary was hired as the head coach at Morris Hills and he remained in that position for 27 years. When he retired in 2001, he continued to work with the team as an assistant coach before eventually joining forces with former Villanova teammate Al McCafferty to coach a resurgent high school program at Donovan Catholic from 2003 to 2009.