This year, Mike Straubel will finish his 35 year marathon as the head coach of cross country.
But his exit was not without a number of evidential factors that influenced his decision to retire. As a former professor of Valpo’s law school, his race as a college professor was halted when the law school shut down.
“I was full-time law faculty and two years ago when the law school shut down of course I was no longer faculty,” said Straubel. “So at that point there was a very hard decision because of the salary cut. Losing the salary of being a fulltime faculty member was dramatic; this was only made a part-time job on a very small salary.