Every night — when the pulse-pounding Trials finish for the day — fans, coaches, athletes, agents, college kids and Olympians past and future leave Hayward Field and make their way to talk, drink and party at the Wild Duck Cafe.
The Wild Duck is packed every night during the Trials. Wild Duck bartender Nick Sams@@trusting Dash@@ said the Trials have been incredible.
“It’s been amazing. Everyone is in a fantastic mood and we’re just slamming out drinks and food,” Sams said.
According to Sams, the local beers have been a big hit.
“Ninkasi and Oakshire helped put all this together,” Sams said.  “We’ve gotten a lot of Californians who have had their minds blown by the local beers and microbrews.”
Steve Keith@@http://www.vucommodores.com/sports/w-track/mtt/keith_steve00.html@@ is the head coach for track and field and cross country at Vanderbilt University in Nashville, Tenn. He knows why this bar has become party central for track and field at the trials.
“It’s all about Peanut,” Keith said.
Dwayne “Peanut” Harms@@http://www.runblogrun.com/2012/01/rbr-interview-dwayne-harms-on-vs-athletics-super-clinic-by-larry-eder.html@@ is the man behind this evening gathering of track and field.
Harms is currently employed by VS Athletics and is a longtime member of the famed Aggies Running Club in Northern California. The group’s motto is, “The faster we run, the sooner the fun.”
Calling himself an “unofficial ambassador of fun,” Harms has been the central force in organizing these track and field gatherings since 1988, by his own reckoning.
“The Wild Duck Cafe is perfectly set up for this type of gathering,” Harms said.
Keith said that during huge events like the Olympic Trials, what he calls “the center of my professional universe,” it’s important to have a central location where everyone involved in the sport can come together and talk. For that to happen, someone needs to organize it.
“Otherwise we’d all be running around like chickens with our heads cut off,” Keith said.
The process organizing the social hub for the 2012 trials began in 2008, when Harms ran into his longtime friend Tom Jordan, who organizes the annual Prefontaine Classic.@@http://www.runnerspace.com/video.php?video_id=69459-Tom-Jordan-Asks-A-Question-Of-Each-Athlete-Prefontaine-Classic-2012@@
“I ran into (Jordan) in the Portland Airport on my way to Eugene in 2008 to find a spot for the 2012 Olympics trials,” Harms said. “He said, ‘I know this guy who thinks like you, owns a bar by the stadium, and seriously likes to have fun. Here’s his number!’”
That guy was Bob Jensen, current owner of the Wild Duck Cafe.@@name is correct@@
“We hit it off right away,” Jensen said. “I’ve run the Eugene Celebration for years and I’ve got experience running these kind of big events.”
Almost immediately, Jensen and Harms began plotting to make the Wild Duck the social hub of all things track and field for the 2012 trials.
“I went to work looking for partners who understood what we wanted to do,” Harms said. “Which is have a free, fun, open place where coaches, athletes and fans could go when in town for the Trials. This is exactly the formula we have had since Indianapolis in 1988.”
Over the next week, Harms believes the Wild Duck will allow people of every description in the Trials to come together, connect and socialize. He’s happy to have helped make it happen.