Jim Wescott (physical education), who coaches cross country and track and field, recalls with clarity the names and personalities of students he has coached in 21 years at Colby, particularly those in a remarkable group from the mid-1980s. They were close-knit and driven to succeed, both on and off the track, he says. There were three All-Americans and a couple of Phi Beta Kappa members on the team. There was a relay team that went to the Intercollegiate Amateur Athletic Association relays at Princeton University.

One of the runners, who wishes to remain anonymous, hasn’t forgotten Wescott either. Trustees learned this spring that $300,000 was given to the College to establish the James B. Wescott Scholarship Fund to honor the man who has coached runners at Colby since 1978.

Wescott came to Colby after 12 years at North Carolina State University, most of those years as head coach. There he elevated the Division I program to the point that several NC State teams ranked as high as second in the Atlantic Coast Conference before he left. Having attended a small college, however, he was eager to return to those roots and to spend less time “on the road, recruiting all the time.” Division III, he said, “is just as much fun from a coaching standpoint, and they [Colby athletes] seem to do it for a more pure reason—for the love of the game.”

The clarity of Wescott’s memory of former students extends even to race times. He recalls Tom Pickering ’85, whose high school best time in the mile was 4:24. While at Colby and under Wescott’s tutelage, Pickering reduced his time to 4:06, a Colby record that still stands. Wescott says having a role in that kind of improvement is more gratifying than seeing an even more gifted athlete break the four-minute barrier.

The donor of the Wescott scholarship remembers the critical role that achievement played in the development of Pickering’s confidence and character. “He blossomed; it was a tremendous transformation of a person,” he said. “Without Jim Wescott’s perseverance it never would have happened.” Hence, the Wescott Scholarship.

“It’s quite an honor, that’s for sure,” said Wescott, who emphasized the role of athletics as a co-curricular component—a partnership—in the overall development of students in college.