Fred Newhouse Remembered — He Gave Juantorena “A Very Hard Time”

A respected and trailblazing USATF volunteer after he retired from quartermiling, Newhouse had the meet of his life at the ’76 Olympics. (WIKIMEDIA COMMONS)

FORMER TEAMMATES AND FRIENDS remember ’76 Olympic gold and silver medalist Fred Newhouse as a tenacious quartermiler, respected role model, coach and official, and trailblazing administrator.

Newhouse died January 20 at age 76. He was diagnosed with brain cancer after attending the ’23 World Championships in Budapest.

In Montréal, Newhouse took on Cuba’s Alberto Juantorena in a thrilling 400, with Juantorena running 44.26, the fastest time ever at sea level, and Newhouse clocking 44.40, then the No. 4 all-time performance.

“He was a tiny guy; running against Juantorena was a very big challenge and he held on all the way to the end,” recalled Edwin Moses, his Olympic Village roommate.

Newhouse and U.S. coach LeRoy Walker decided he should take the race out — his usual strategy — and make Juantorena, who was coming off his victory in the 800, run hard early.

“And I ran exactly the pace that Coach Walker designed for me, so I had a great race,” Newhouse said in ’22. “It was the best race of my life; it was the best time of my life in an open 400. It just wasn’t good enough.”

Juantorena drew even with about 60m to go. “I beat him in the last 2m,” Juantorena said. “Because the length of my stride was 2.70m [8-10¼].” (Continued below)



Newhouse and Juantorena became lifelong friends and he visited Cuba in ’19 to take part in a documentary about his former rival. Juantorena introduced him as his hero. “He’s my hero because he gave me a hard time at that Olympic Games,” the Cuban said, “a very hard time.”

Although a fast starter on the track, Newhouse was a late bloomer in the sport. Growing up in Hallsville, Texas, population about 650, he ran track, but baseball was his main sport. Although Newhouse made the team at Prairie View A&M as a third-string right fielder, he never got to play.

One day the baseball coach made the team run 400s, announcing that whoever won was excused from additional laps. Newhouse won and went home. At the next practice, he was told to turn in his stuff, that the track coach saw him and he was a track man now. “I don’t run track,” Newhouse protested and the baseball coach replied, “You do now.”

The change suited him. Newhouse was the silver medalist in the 400 at the ’71 Pan-American Games. A favorite for the ’72 Olympic team, he placed 7th at the Trials.

Four years later, Newhouse qualified for Montréal and was one of the veterans on the team. “Every time you were around him, he always had his wits about him,” said Herman Frazier, the bronze medalist in the 400 behind Juantorena and Newhouse. “He was always trying to be a role model for younger people. He was also like a counselor, a parent, a friend, a brother and a cousin.”

Fred Newhouse and wife Rhonda at the Budapest ’23 World Championships. (JOSH KUTCHER)

Frazier and Newhouse joined Benny Brown and Maxie Parks on the winning 4×4. Their time of 2:58.65 in a hard rain was nearly 3 seconds faster than runner-up Poland.

Moses also considered Newhouse a mentor. “He knew the international scene and talked about what it would take to do a good performance and what to stay away from,” Moses said.

His best advice? “Stay away from the disco in the Village,” Moses said.

Newhouse graduated from Prairie View A&M with a degree in electrical engineering and went on to earn a master’s degree in international business. He worked in the oil industry, settling in Houston where he and his wife, Rhonda, raised two daughters.

Newhouse helped organize the Northwest Flyers Track Club and also worked meets as an official.

Moses said Newhouse was a pioneer with the national governing body’s Athletes Advisory Committee and “represented the athletes very, very well and everyone respected him.”

Newhouse was team leader for the U.S. men’s team at the ’00 Sydney Olympics and, Moses said, “He was a trailblazer in that respect, one of the first athletes to be in those positions.”

At the ’22 World Championships in Eugene, Newhouse served as the video review assistant to the referee.

As a young boy, Newhouse dreamed of owning a ranch and in ’07 he and Rhonda bought a 900-acre crossbreed cattle ranch in New Waverly, Texas.

“Standing with him at the ranch, you knew how proud he was to accomplish something of that magnitude,” Frazier said.

Harrison and Sylvia Phillips, avid track fans from Hampton, Virginia, saw Newhouse run in Montréal. They met him a few years later and became close friends.

Harrison said Newhouse wasn’t the type to tell stories about his running career.

“He never wanted anybody to ever think that he was bragging,” Harrison said. “He never really talked about himself. It was always kids in the Northwest Flyers.

“He was so nice to people. He always wanted to help someone.”

Sylvia, a former health and physical education teacher, said she used to tease Newhouse about not working out. “He said, ‘Sylvia, I go to the ranch, throw the feed here and there. When I got through running, I swore I would never work out again. That was the only way I got though school. I did what I had to do and I’m done.’”

The Phillipses persuaded Newhouse, who was on hand in Paris for the Olympics last summer, to book the Track & Field News Tour to Tokyo for the ’25 Worlds.

“That was his motivation to get better,” Sylvia says. “He said, ‘I’m going to Tokyo with y’all.’ He will be with us in spirit.”