Winning Races

The graceful young woman strides into the Princeton Student Center at 9:00 p.m. on a Sunday evening in April, six weeks before she hopes to graduate from Princeton University, 12 hours before her senior thesis on infant mortality rates across racial lines must be handed in to the sociology department. The thesis is in a little bit of trouble - the draft was not as well received as expected - and the night will not include sleep for this young woman. A lesser person might fold under the stress, or at least come up with a feeble excuse to cancel a Sunday evening interview with a person from the Ivy League Office, but that is not Nicole Harrison's style. Instead, she walks in, right on time, holds out her hand and with an easy smile introduces herself.

That is Nicole Harrison in a nutshell, and her ability to block out external worries and take responsibility for her life is perhaps her greatest asset in her track & field career. Look at the picture of her to the right, as she clears a hurdle at the Penn Relays. Look at her eyes, at their focus on the ultimate goal: breaking the tape at the finish line. Sure, her speed matters, and her developed hurdle technique is a definite asset. But it is that remarkable level of concentration, that ability to focus, that makes Nicole Harrison one of the top Ivy League track and field athletes of all time.

Nicole grew up in Houston, Texas, the third of four children born to Roy and Betty Harrison. Taking after her father, she was involved in athletics from her young years as a Girl Scout. In elementary school, Nicole and her classmates would gather around, and the gym teacher would tell them all to race to a distant fence and back. There they would go, bouncing ponytails and laughter in the air as the young children ran with all of their might. Touch the fence, turn around, and run back the other direction, and you know what? Nicole would always win, always be the first one back to the blacktop. And oh yeah, as she emphasizes, that means she beat all of the guys, too.

That early success solidified her love of athletics and her yearn to compete. She played all of the sports she could get her hands on volleyball, basketball, soccer, softball and, yes, track & field.

"You name it, I've played it," Nicole says with a laugh.

Nicole attended local Houston public schools for her elementary and middle school education, and her academic success earned her a spot in a local Math-Science Institute program during the summer after eighth grade. Turns out the program was held in Kinkaid High School, an esteemed private high school in Houston, and wouldnt you know Nicole would find herself staring at the Kinkaid record board in the gym one day, mentioning to a bystander how she could break all of the track records listed.

Fate has a funny way of playing its hand, and that bystander happened to be the Kinkaid track and field coach. Next thing you know, Nicole was taking an entrance exam to Kinkaid, and having passed that, she was faced with the option of transferring to the private school for her first year of high school. It would mean leaving her friends, and, as she would soon find out, it would expose her to a different world.

"I didn't want to go to Kinkaid, but my father really encouraged me to," remembers Nicole. "More like forced me. The deal was if you go to Kinkaid your freshman year and you don't like it, you can always transfer."

So Nicole enrolled at Kinkaid, and stepped into the private school that fall for her first day of high school. She remembers walking down the hall, one of eight black faces among 400 students. She remembers the stares from the other kids, the ones who had been going to school together seemingly since they were in their mother's wombs. She remembers the finger pointing searing into her back as if the other students all had knives in their hands. But she doesn't remember any words, any dialogue. She doesn't recall the first student with whom she spoke, although she does remember that no one said hello to her on that first day. She was not only the new girl invading a close-knit community, but she was the new black girl.

Those first few days were miserable, and although the situation would get better as the other students felt comfortable enough to get to know her, Nicole thought often about transferring back into the public school system. She made some friends, but she always felt like a token companion when around them, never too desired.

Hey, lets go water skiing this weekend. And Nicole, you can go, too.

But it wasn't just the students who made Nicole feel uncomfortable. Teachers at the esteemed college preparatory school would isolate Nicole as the black opinion. Well, why not, she usually was the only black face in the sea of whiteness that filled the classroom.

This poem we are reading has the "n" word in it, a very controversial word in today's society. I've heard black people use the "n" word. Nicole, do you use the "n"word?

Nicole relied on her strong sense of family to help her through the difficult first year. Her father, an engineer at Exxon, has seven brothers, and her mother, a nurse consultant, has five siblings, so Nicole was not without a social network, despite her troubles at Kinkaid. At year's end, Nicole had decided to transfer back to the public school system, to an engineering magnet school. It was then that she met with Coach Krieger, who had coached Nicole on Kinkaid's basketball and track teams. They sat down for two hours and Coach Krieger explained the big picture to Nicole. About the opportunities that Kinkaid offered, like a trip to Europe for the track team the following year. And about the college opportunities that a Kinkaid education would open up for Nicole.

The ninth grader thought it over and made the mature decision to sacrifice the fun she would have with her friends and her cousins in public school in order to help her later in life. Committed to Kinkaid for the next three years, she found solace in athletics, in the competition that it offered. The field or the track or the court allowed other Kinkaid students to feel comfortable around Nicole, to learn about her as a person rather than to see her as a face. That type of atmosphere was needed, and it worked.

"I guess athletics was kind of like a social release for me," said Nicole. "With athletics, I did make more friendships just because I was around those girls more and we had a lot more things in common. They didnt try to put on fronts or anything, they were down to earth."

Kinkaid did allow Nicole to make trips to England and Norway to run track, and while Nicole continued to play other sports, track was her favorite because it was the one in which she excelled the most. Kinkaid was in a southern preparatory conference, and did not compete against the Texas public schools that had the top track talent. So Nicole won, and won and won. She won races, won field competitions and was named the MVP of meet after meet. She finished out of first place in just one school event during her four years, fouling in a long jump competition during her sophomore season. Yes, track would be the sport she would pursue in college.

And as Coach Krieger had said, Kinkaid also provided career development programs that helped map out a successful course for Nicole. The result was a call one day from the Princeton track and field office, a call that astounded Nicole and caused her to have to consult a map to find out where Princeton was. She had heard of the school, but had never pictured herself as a student there. Now, she was discussing the possibility. She applied to Princeton, Harvard and Yale, as well as a host of schools offering her full scholarships, begging her to sign on the dotted line.

Nicole's decision came down to Tulane and Princeton, the enticing full scholarship that covered everything from tuition to books, or the Ivy League school with the worldwide reputation and the financial aid package that gave no consideration to her athletic prowess. The decision wasn't an easy one, but Nicole chose Princeton, knowing that the short-term monetary sacrifice would pay off once again in the future.

Nicole came to Princeton as a minority, but the atmosphere was in stark contrast to that of Kinkaid. She quickly became involved with different activities and met a whole host of different people, all interesting in their own unique ways. "It's predominately white [at Princeton] but it's different," explains Nicole. "It's not like Texas. Coming here, this is a predominately white environment, but at the same time, you have such a diverse group of people coming from all over [the world]. I have different social circles because of my involvement with different things. I have my friends from track, from organizations, from my eating club."

Now, four years later, Nicole is nearly ready to tackle the next hurdle. She has enjoyed a remarkable career at Princeton, winning 15 Heptagonal titles and five most outstanding performer awards in indoor and outdoor competitions. She was an All-American in 1995-96, set seven school records and participated in five NCAA competitions. Her coach at Princeton, Peter Farrell, always comments that Nicole likes to run with the "big dogs," enjoys running against top competition. The protege agrees.

"I hate training and I hate working out and I hate lifting weights," laughs Nicole. "I hate doing everything it takes to be a champion, but the thing I like most, that makes it all worth it, is competing. The butterflies in your stomach right when you step up to the [starting] line - I love that."

Her success has opened up the possibility of a professional track career, at least for awhile. Nicole currently is searching for a sponsor and she remains optimistic that she will be able to compete overseas. This will not be a long-term gig; Nicole is too smart for that and the money and recognition for track stars does not approach the fame of athletes in other professional sports. Indeed, she relies on the advice given to her by Bill Cosby at this year's Penn Relays. Nicole approached the famous comedian to compliment him on a speech she had seen him deliver on television, a speech about how blacks had to be better than everyone else to succeed in the United States. They talked for awhile, and then he turned to her and, waving his hands around at the festive Franklin Field atmosphere, speaking with that wry smile and booming voice of his, said, "Let me tell you this. Track is a carnival. It's nothing but a carnival and you remember that."

Nicole learned a lot about herself during four years at Princeton, trying to fit track into her academic schedule (no easy task) while involving herself in other aspects of university life through her sorority, her role in several campus organizations and as a minority affairs advisor. She chose to major in sociology, but completed all of her pre-med requirements on the side and has plans to attend medical school and become a doctor.

Now that she can reflect back, she says she has no regrets about attending Kinkaid, despite the volatile experience she had. The system prepared her well for life, exposing her to different people and giving her the opportunity to run track and attend Princeton. And what have all of her life sacrifices given her on this Sunday evening? Oh yes, the thesis that is now due in 11 hours and 10 minutes. Reminded of her obligation, Nicole stands up and calmly says good-bye. The thesis race against the clock is nearing the finish line and as the butterflies churn through her stomach, producing a glimmer in her eye from the excitement of a competition, there is little doubt who will win.

-- Dan Rosenthal

***Please note, this story was written for a previous Ivy League Black History Month celebration. It is reproduced here for archival purposes and has not been updated.***