Tough and hard-nosed are usually adjectives used to describe linebackers or fullbacks in football and catchers in baseball or softball, not distance runners. However, you can’t start any conversation about Rob Jensen without quickly getting around to the fact that when the gun went off this was one mean dude. He never seemed to have a bad race and the bigger the meet the better he ran. His mental toughness rubbed off easily on his teammates, especially in the cross country season of 1979 when, along with fellow All-American Tony Hurd, he led an unheralded group to a fourth place finish in the NCAA Division III national meet. What was remarkable about that year was the fact that the Vikings had failed to even qualify for the national meet in 1978, had been beaten badly by North Central in the CCIW championship two weeks earlier, and had placed just fourth in the Midwest Regional only a week before the nationals.
Jensen was what a captain should be – a hard worker and unquestioned leader who relished challenges. In the 1980 CCIW track & field championship, which was hosted by Augustana, he struggled to a sixth place finish in the 10,000 on Friday. With his team needing every point in an attempt to dethrone North Central, he romped to a conference record time in winning the 3000 steeplechase on Saturday. He owned the steeplechase, winning three consecutive conference titles (1979-80-81) and at one time holding the CCIW record for time both with and without the water jump. He placed third in the NCAA Division III national track meet in his specialty in 1981, setting a school record with a time of 9:02.73 and helping the Vikings place second in the final team standings. To this day his time is still second on the school’s all-time list. He still ranks ninth in the 5000 (14:48.0 in 1981) and sixth in the 10,000 (30:43.79). Three times he qualified for the NCAA Division III national meet in the steeplechase, making the finals in both 1980 and 1981.
His cross country career was just as stellar as he was the number one or two runner for his last three seasons (1978, 79 and 80). He placed fifth in the CCIW in 1978 and sixth in 1979. He was a two time All-American in cross country, placing 25th in the national meet in 1979 and eighth in 1980. He served as team captain for the 1979 team that finished fourth in the nation and was a fifth-year senior on the 1980 team that placed second in the NCAA Division III national meet, just four points shy of a national championship.
The 1980 cross country season was indicative as to the kind of competitor Jensen was and how good he was with the mental aspect of the sport. Because of a quirk in transfer rules (he was a freshman at Augustana in the fall of 1976, left after the cross country season and came back in the fall of 1978), he was not able to gain his eligibility for his fifth year in 1980 until the first term was completed. That meant he was ineligible to compete until the national meet. He trained all season with the team and then had to watch from the sidelines while his teammates qualified in the Midwest Regional without him. In his one and only race of the season, Jensen handled the hills of Rochester, New York with an eighth place finish to lead the Vikings to a second place finish.
A native of Lansing, Illinois, he came to Augustana because his high school coach at Thornton Fractional South had once been the head track & field coach at St. Ambrose College. He had competed against Augustana and suggested to Rob that the school would be a good fit. After lettering in cross country as a freshman in 1976, Jensen left school after the first quarter and enrolled in a junior college back home. However, he decided to come back in the fall of 1978 and immediately staked his claim as the number one runner on the cross country team and the top steeplechaser in track.
He has an M.S. in fitness management from the United States Sports Academy after graduating from Augustana with a degree in physical education and health education. He currently serves as the director of fitness, wellness and sports at Purdue University/Calumet. He was previously employed in the cardiac rehab and corporate health services department at St. Catherine Hospital and served as the director of preventative health services at the Hammond Clinic in Hammond, Indiana. He is presently serving as the president of the Wellness Council of Indiana. He has been active on such community groups as the Multiple Sclerosis Society, American Heart Association, Junior Diabetes Research Foundation and the March of Dimes.
Rob and his wife Chris, herself an All-American distance runner at Western Illinois University, reside in Schererville, Indiana with son Jake (17) and daughter Kailey (13).
