Linda Rowe's Competitive Flame Stoked As Glenwood High School Track Star

Long before she collected four National Senior Games medals, Linda Rowe was a gangly Glenwood girl who could high jump higher than anyone in Iowa.

At 73, the 1970 Glenwood Community High School graduate and former state champion is still proving that competitive fire doesn’t age.

Rowe demonstrated that this past August when the retired teacher and part-time track and cross-country coach won four medals at the National Senior Games in Ames. She placed third in the discus, sixth in the javelin and seventh in both the shot put and the hammer throw at the event attracting athletes age 50-and-up held every two years all over the United States.

“I’m pretty competitive, still,” said Rowe. “It’s a little more laid back competitive than it was. I mean, we’re all good friends. Those of us that still throw and everything. We kind of have a good time together and stuff like that. But when it comes to stepping into the ring, we’re all pretty competitive, too.”

Rowe had competed in the senior games before and in a handful of USA Track and Field Masters events, but this past August’s competition was among the biggest, and fiercest she’d seen.

“That was the thing that really surprised me,” she said. “Usually in the 70 plus age group, if we have half a dozen or so, it’s a good crowd. But, in this one there were between 17-25 in each of the four throwing events. So, there was some good competition all around.”

Rowe competed in the 70-74 age group. The oldest competitor was 102 this year. Seeing the number of competitors, many of which she knew, she figured making the finals would be a good benchmark.

“So, that was my goal, to try to make the finals and place,” she said. “The discus is really kind of my best one. And now the discus and javelin are better than my hammer and shot. I haven’t done the hammer that much since I had a stroke a few years ago I can’t do the spins like they do to really get that hammer going.”

Rowe tries to stay active all year round. She’s part of an exercise group that works out five days a week and she’s recently taken up pickleball, or as she said, “I added that to my repertoire.”

“I try to walk some every day” Rowe said. “My running ended about four years ago when I had some issues with my health. So, I don’t run but I can still throw. I try to lift some weights a little bit all the time but more seriously in the spring.”

Since she continues to assist coaching track and field and cross country, she typically waits until after the high school season when the weather warms up before ramping up her throw training.

“Honestly, when school is out, I alternate two events each day so every other day I’m kind of throwing one or the other,” she said. “June, July, and August, at least by the end of August, I’m getting a little better.”

Rowe couldn’t have been happier with her throws in Ames; three of the four were her bests of the season and the fourth was an inch off.

“That’s what you want to do,” she said. “At the end of the summer in the big meets, do the best.”

Winning medals is really nothing new for Rowe.

She was one of the original members of Glenwood’s first girls track team and went on to win four state championships and two national championships during her high school career.

Rowe tried her hand at nearly every event on those early Glenwood track teams, running everything from the 50-yard dash to the 880, which was the longest girl event they had in the late 60s, in addition to most of the field events.

“I started out as a high jumper and one day I just went over and picked up the discus,” she said. “I threw it about as far as the other two girls that had been practicing it for a while. And they were like, ‘Well, maybe we’ve got another one.’"

In 1969 and 1970 Rowe won back-to-back state indoor high jump titles, finishing her senior season with a then state record leap. She added gold medals in the discus and the high jump at the outdoor state meet in 1970.

Rowe added a pair of gold medals at the USA Track and Field Championships in 1969 in the javelin and in discus in 1970.

In 1979, she was inducted into the Iowa Girls High School Athletic Union Hall of Fame.

After high school, Rowe joined a very short list of Graceland University athletes to compete in five sports – track, cross country, field hockey, softball and volleyball, although she admits she played in just one match there. She was elected to the Graceland University Athletic Hall of Fame in 1989.

At last year’s Iowa State Track and Field Meet, Rowe was honored with the 50-year award for contributions on and off the track. She retired a few years ago from teaching physical education after 35 years at Davis County in Bloomfield but remained on as an assistant coach.

“I’ve been coaching 50 years,” she said. “I had been the head coach for over 20 years but then I stepped down to just being the assistant. I don’t need the head stuff anymore. Now we have a young lady (Emily Lopez) who’s really a beast of a runner that probably knows more about cross country than I do. She ran cross country in high school and college, so she does a good job as the head coach. I just help out.”

Rowe grew up northeast of Glenwood on the farm that remains in her family.  She doesn’t get back as much as she’d like – two to three times a year – but did return this fall for her 55th class reunion during homecoming after her 50th was cancelled during COVID.

“We usually have a family reunion in July and either Thanksgiving or Easter, we’ll have it in Glenwood, and I’ll get back there,” she said.

Rowe has no plans to give up competing any time soon.

“As long as my health holds up and I am able to get around and do it, I hope to keep going,” she said.

In 2027, Tulsa hosts the National Senior Games.

“It’s close enough,” Rowe said. “I think I’ll be able to get to that too.”