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The race will take place on the Indiana Mile around Memorial Stadium. Registration begins at 9:00 a.m. Each runner will be randomly assigned one of three colors. As you complete the first lap (approximately one mile) you will see a flag with one of the colors. If it is your color, then your race is over. The rest of the field will run another lap. At the end of the second lap another colored flag will be posted. If it is your color, then your race is done. Everyone else will run one more lap to complete the race. One awards per age group will be given our in each of the 3 races. The will also be a 1 Mile Fun Run.

Disco Ernie Nasser

(as remembered by Buddy Green)

It seems so fitting to me that we, the Wabash Valley Roadrunners, would name a race to honor Disco Ernie Nasser.  The Mystery Mile is the perfect race, you don’t know how it’s going to end but you know it will be fun and a benefit to many.  It’s also fitting that the race will begin and end at the Ernie Nasser Memorial (donated by WVRR) on the Indiana Mile at Memorial Stadium.

Talking to many younger runners, I find I have taken it for granted that everyone knows who Ernie was and how fitting were the honors our community has bestowed upon him.  So, the following is a little of the history of Ernie Nasser as I remember, some from experience but mostly from the many colorful stories that have been shared.

Ernie was born December 25, 1913 and after 89 active years, passed on October 26, 2003. His parents were Syrian immigrants who could not read or write English.  They opened a small grocery store in Terre Haute. Ernie said they opened the store because the can goods had pictures on them. Ernie graduated from Wiley High School (go Red Streaks) in 1932.  While in high school he participated in track and wrestling.  Both sports left a lasting mark, a love of running that never diminished and a passion for staying in physical condition.  After graduation, Ernie attended a semester at Indiana University before returning to help with the family grocery.  Three years after graduation Ernie opened his own grocery at 8th and Oak.

Ernie married Mary Emma Kyle shortly afterwards. Regrettable his first wife died at the age 22 of leukemia, leaving him as a single parent to Sydney and Ernestine.  After 3 years, he remarried; they divorced amicably in 1966.  Ernie asked for and was granted custody of Mark, Marlon and Marsha.  Pretty rare thing back in 1966, but Ernie minded the store and raised his kids.  (I barely managed 2 kids myself). Whatever was on the plate he ate with a smile.  Here it is in his own words,

Yes, there were a few times, I’m sure you know

When I bit off more than I could chew

But through to all, when there was doubt,

I ate it up and spit it out

I faced it all and I stood tall;

And did it my way.

He never liked driving a car so did most of the routine errands on foot. His love of running became his major mode of transportation. For the next 50 years he could be seen all over town.  It’s hard to believe now but, back in the day you could pay all your bills and do all your shopping from clothes to food in downtown Terre Haute.

By the time the first running boom hit in the 1970’s, Ernie was ready to rock.  His family convinced him to enter a few races, and that he did, decked out in a t-shirt, shorts and some really spiffy Hush Puppies.  Ernie pretty well dominated his age group in anything he ran.  Admittedly there wasn’t a lot of competition in the 50-60 year old age group but it was the cheerful smile and twinkling eyes that brought the notoriety.  It wasn’t the speed but the amazing heart that caused the crowd to form before and after every race.  I say 50-60 age group but Ernie continued through two more age groups. It’s hard to be critical of any pace at 85.

Maybe it was just to get Dad out of the Hush Puppies but all the sons opened running stores. Sid opened Coaches Corner across the street from the old grocery store and adjacent to the family home. Mark and Marlon followed suit with Pacesetters, still the premiere sporting goods store in the Wabash Valley. I remember seeing Ernie in and out of both. I think that’s pretty much what he did in the 80’s and 90’s, running from one store to the other.  Apparently, he often bought food, but I missed that.

Seems like I’ve already established a pretty good case for honoring Ernie Nasser, but it’s just the tip of the iceberg.  Get ready for the emergence of the legendary “Disco Ernie”.   Running, family and dancing were always the passions of Ernie’s amazing life.  After the death of his first wife, Ernie moonlighted as a dance instructor at Arthur Murray’s Dance Studio above what is now the Verve (then O’Days Restaurant).  It was there that he met his second wife Beverly, mother of the Pacesetter clan, Mark, Marlon and Marsha.  They would jitterbug the nights away making all the moves of Fred Astair and Gene Kelly.  After the divorce in 1966, Ernie kept on Dancin’.  At that time the hot spots were the Idaho Club (that’s a whole other story) the Holiday Inn and of course Mr. Boos.  When Ernie would walk in the door they would announce “Disco Ernie is in the building”.  The name stuck and Ernie embraced the role. He started wearing shiny gold and silver clothes and a blue disco-ball along with his traditional hat and cane.  I actually saw him wearing this outfit once, I must admit my first impression was a little off.  Even to a 60’s-70’s era hippie this guy looked different. Actually, it could have been the whole disco scene as I was most likely the one who looked out of place.  Anyway, you have to picture a little guy 115 lbs. maybe 5’5” in this get up. It didn’t take long to realize this guy was having fun, no alcohol, no drugs, just having a ball. What really convinced me was when the girl I was with chose to dance with him, as did every other hot chick (that was not a sexist comment back then) in the place (I didn’t disco, a bit more into the Beatles, Led Zeppelin-you get the picture).

The fun really started in 1976 at Mr. Boos (later named the Overpass) and located on 3rd St. where NAPA is now.  Ernie was then 62.  The Chippendales (a male strip act, you need to google them) were to perform at the nightclub, but they were running late so the manager ask Ernie if he could dance on stage while they waited, and dance he did, stripping down to his shorts in the process and finding a new calling.  (another version is that he was ask to fill in for an injured dancer, but the former is more likely.)  Twenty-five years later Disco Ernie was still at it, stripping down to his gold speedos.  The following is an excerpt from an interview taken from a previous article I found circa 1997

“Last month he danced at a bachelorette party.  Bride to be Angela Carr didn’t know what to expect.  “I was shocked and embarrassed,” she said as Ernie did his thing.  “I spent the first five minutes of his dance with my hands covering my face.”  By the end, though, Carr and her friends were dancing with Ernie and marveling at how much energy an 86 year old man could have.  You have to give him credit, she said. “he’s not sitting around feeling sorry for himself.  He is out dancing and having fun.”

Ernie’s fame grew, he was a regular on the “Bob and Tom Show”, even a part of one of their ads.  The biggest deal was when they flew him out to do the Maury Povich Show in California. He also performed on Comedy Central.

It’s fairly easy to write about all of the things that filled this amazing man’s life. What is hard to communicate or illustrate is the incredible passion and love that this man spread wherever he went.  He never drank, cussed or said a bad word about anybody.  Other men in his profession would resort to lewd behavior but with Ernie it was always about having fun. Whether it was at a race, the disco or at one of the stores there was always a crowd around this man and they were always smiling.  Another Ernie Poem:

I danced, I ran the roads

I had my fill, my share of laughter,

And now I’m on my way

To what comes after.

To think I did all that;

And may I say, not in a shy way.

Oh no, oh no not me,

I did it my way.

In closing I’d like to use another poem, this one written by one who knew Ernie much better than I.  Dr. Jerry Ruff a pediatrician from Bloomington.  I first met Dr. Ruff when I worked at the emergency room of Bloomington Hospital and then again when he was Race Director of the Harmony School 10K in Monroe County, still one of the most challenging 10K races I ever ran. Dr. Ruff first met Ernie at the Marathon Marathon here in Terre Haute, and like so many others, meeting Ernie Nasser was enough to make him your friend.  This poem is from an article in Midwest Running entitled “The Extremely Well Lived Life of Disco Ernie Nasser”.

For what is a man, what has he got?

If not his runs, then he has naught.

To dance the way he truly feels

And to make them laugh with partial peels,

Though he ran slow, he stole the show

And did it his way’

…Yes, it was Disco’s way.