The number thirteen is usually looked at as an unlucky number, but when you place in the top thirteen in the 1984 Olympic qualifying round, your luck is looked at as more than just that. At 25-years-old, Jud Logan was getting ready to enter into his first of four Olympic competitions.

“I was not predicted to make the ‘84 team,” Logan said. “When I did the thrill of marching in the opening ceremonies was a memory I will never forget. Walking into the stadium behind the flag, 105,000 people chanting USA..USA! I remember Jesse Owen’s granddaughter bringing the Olympic torch into the stadium and Raefer Johnson lighting it. Edwin Moses reading the Olympic Oath. I was sure I had found my passion.”

Finding an activity that turns into a passion can be a trial and error until you find the one. Logan dreamed of being a Buckeye and playing football at The Ohio State University. His football career would eventually lead him to follow in his father’s footsteps to play for the National Football League for the Green Bay Packers. Those football dreams soon changed when he learned discus in high school and he knew he wanted to throw in college. Logan said the further he matured, the more he realized his gifts were in throws. 

In 1981, Logan held the record for discus at 171 feet and 11 inches at Hoover High. In his career, Logan also held the 1988 U.S. record of 268 feet 8 inches in the hammer throw. Preparing to hold such records did not come easy.

“Preparation is a mindset, not only checking goals off a list. Any Olympian could fill pages with idiosyncrasies of their journey. The physical starts off the hardest and then that part becomes the easy part and switches to the mental aspect.”

Jud’s determination lead him to keep his success up even after the Olympics. Throughout his career, he broke the American Record 13 times competing as a World Class Athlete even though he never had any World Records. After training for 18 long and hard months, Jud was able to set the M50 World Record in 2009 at 50-years-old by 22 feet. Having done such an incredible thing was a realization that he had the recipe for success and did what it took to achieve such a high level of excellence.

Some of Logan’s achievements throughout his career came from competitions outside of the Olympics. The 1987 Pan American Games held in Indianapolis brought him a gold medal, while the 1991 Pan American Games in Havana, Cuba, brought a silver medal. Having nine national trails and four Olympic trials under his belt, Logan never finished outside of the top three finishers. Logan’s last Olympic games were in 2000 where he placed third in the trials.

While training for his last Olympic trials, Jud was able to transition from being the athlete to the coach. Logan started coaching the Ashland University track team in 1994 and started helping college athletes achieve their dreams.

“I wasn’t sure I ever wanted to coach, I took the job at Ashland as a favor to Bill Gallagher. I planned on staying 1-2 years and ended up falling in love with the university and coaching. More importantly I felt for the first time in my life I had found that I couldn’t imagine doing anything else.”

Logan was the assistant coach for 11 years before becoming the head coach in 2004. Building a team of strong throwers that were able to put to work all the advice that Logan gave was the talk of schools around the area. Logan was looked at as one of the top throwing coaches in the country but didn’t let a title like that go to his head. Instead, he set his focus on his coaching techniques for Division II level track and field.

“Track is different at the Division II level,” Logan said. “75 percent of our competitions are against Division I schools. Each week our kids compete against the very best as the majority of meets are not scored. All the major programs want Ashland in their meets as we add an element of competition they need and we want.”

Logan’s first season as the head coach brought him the title of GLIAC men’s coach of the year. He was also named the Great Lakes Region athlete of the year. That year, Jud was also able to help an athlete win the national title and set a meet record in shot put. 

The men’s team came in fifth that season.

From the time he first started coaching the team to now, Jud was named coach of the year and climbed to the number one ranked team in the country on multiple occasions. The 2015-2016 season saw the men’s team with two Top 10 national team finishes. 

In 2015, the indoor women were ranked No. 1 in the country for the first time. Jud is looking set the bar for this year’s season way higher than last year and is setting emphasis on working together as a team.

“Last year was a transition year as we had graduated the majority of our NCAA point scorers. We also knew as a staff, we were a year away of having the pieces to once again challenge for the four big NCAA trophies they recognize at the National Championships. Our goal is to climb the podium as a team.”

Logan also said that the program has produced more Olympic track and field athletes than any Division I program in Ohio. 

With a top program such as Ashland’s, it can be easy for the athletes to feel a tremendous amount of pressure. Logan assures this team members to trust their coaching because they will always be given opportunities to shine. 

Jud Logan is not one to hide from his past. In fact, he is eager to open up about it to help others reach their goals and dreams just like he was able to. 

When asked what advice he would give to his team members that would like to progress their track and field career beyond college and into Olympic level work, he gave three pieces of advice.

“Number one, post collegiate training is hard. Be prepared to struggle and deal with adversity. If it is your passion, that will never stop you. Number two, if your dreams is wearing our colors, nothing will stop you. Finally number three, the best part is when you arrive at the Olympic Trials, they don’t ask you where you went to college. The top three in each event go to the games.”

The men’s indoor track and field team are currently ranked No.1 in the GLIAC standings while the women are ranked eleventh so far in the 2017 season.