Jim Nowicki is accustomed to organizing a major road race that is run in the middle of the summer, when the biggest meteorological threat might be a thunderstorm or lightning.
But more than 20 years ago, Nowicki was determined to show Buffalo at its very best. Even when the roads in the city were under layers of heavy snow.
A storm at the end of December of 2001 dumped more than 80 inches of snow on the city, right around the time the Olympic Torch was coming to Buffalo as it made its way to Salt Lake City for the 2002 Winter Olympics.
“Baby Joe” Mesi, a Tonawanda native and a decorated heavyweight boxer, had to carry the Olympic Torch to the Electric Tower by midnight on Dec. 31, 2001, to coincide with the start of 2002.
Nowicki, the race director of the Subaru 4-Mile Chase, was the City of Buffalo’s deputy parks commissioner and a regional liaison between Western New York and the Salt Lake City Torch Relay Team. A contingency plan was crafted if the roads were not passable: Torchbearers would go snowmobile to snowmobile, with a snowplow ahead of them to clear the roads.
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But it never came to that.
“The snow was everywhere, and people dug tunnels through Elmwood Village, Allentown and on Chippewa Street to get to the Electric Tower,” Nowicki said. “Joe Mesi ran the final leg and ushered in the new year, and we pulled it off.”
It was a unique way for Nowicki to help show off the city where he was born, where he became an avid organizer of community sports and where he continues to organize and oversee the Subaru 4-Mile Chase, which resumes at 7 p.m. Friday in the Elmwood Village, after a two-year hiatus due to the Covid-19 pandemic.
The first Subaru 4-Mile Chase, in 1981, drew 281 runners. This year’s field – the 40th running of the event – expects to draw between 650-750 runners, including Peter Sherry, who still holds the course record for American runners of 18 minutes, set in 1992.
For Nowicki, the Subaru 4-Mile Chase has become part of the city’s identity.
“It started off as a small race, and it’s grown to attract runners from 40 countries and every state,” Nowicki said. “It’s included Olympians and world-record holders.”
Nowicki is synonymous with running and road races in Western New York, and he’ll be inducted into the Greater Buffalo Sports Hall of Fame later this year. In addition to spearheading the Subaru 4-Mile Chase, Nowicki has also either directed or assisted in many high-profile amateur and professional events in Western New York, including the World University Games in 1993, the Empire State Games, the Niagara Falls International Marathon and the NCAA Division I and II cross country championships.
For Nowicki, sports is a way for Buffalo and for Western New York to fuel its civic pride.
“Buffalo is a well-kept secret,” Nowicki said. “Buffalo’s greatest assets are its people. People in Buffalo support everything, and it doesn’t matter if it’s sunny or rainy. People have a sense of pride here. The people showcase it, and it’s evident, whether it’s the Subaru 4-Mile Chase or through the marathons. Until people actually come here and see it, forget about reading about it, we’ve got the best weather in the world, and our architecture is second to none. Our passion for sports is second to none. Buffalo is a very proud city.”
Nowicki is a 1960 Bishop Ryan graduate, whose family always had a knack for organization, whether it was church bazaars and fundraisers or for gatherings that included cousins, aunts, uncles, grandparents and extended family. He organized the Stroh’s softball tournaments in the 1970s and 1980s but as he was running road races around Western New York, he saw that some races weren’t well organized.
“They wouldn’t start on time, people were misinformed about them, or the course was off,” Nowicki said. “I took all that into consideration and said, ‘I’m going to try to organize a distance race.’ I could organize a softball tournament, and I said, ‘I’m going to do this.’ ”
Nowicki also has been a basketball official at the high school and college levels for more than 50 years, an avocation that began when Peter Machnica, a community recreation director in Kaisertown, encouraged him to become a referee. Nowicki acknowledges that he wasn't an accomplished athlete growing up, but Machnica encouraged him to pursue officiating as a way to be involved in organized athletics.
“Sports,” Nowicki said, “opened so many doors for me.”
It even got Nowicki a seat on the bench during the men’s basketball gold medal game in 1968 in Mexico City.
He gained a love of travel when he served in the Army in Europe from 1964-66, and he made a pact with friends in 1964 to go to the 1968 Summer Olympics in Mexico City.
Nowicki ended up being the only one of that group to go, as he drove seven days from Buffalo to Mexico’s capital city. At one point, he talked his way into the Olympic Village, where he met Henry Iba, the coach of the U.S. men’s Olympic team and eventual Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame inductee.
“Well,” Iba said, “you’ve done everything except win a gold medal!”
Having already met famed sprinter Jesse Owens and boxer George Foreman at the Olympics, Nowicki got opportunistic.
“Can I sit on the bench with you in the gold medal game?” Nowicki asked.
Iba agreed, and Nowicki watched the United States beat Yugoslavia, 65-50, to win the gold medal.
Of all of Nowicki’s accomplishments, travels and oversight in local athletic events, though, there’s an irony. He has never run the course in a Subaru 4-Mile Chase.
He’s driven the lead truck and has overseen traffic flow during the race – you’ll see him wearing his signature jacket covered in flamingos – but he’s helped craft the race into a part of Buffalo’s athletic identity.
“Everything I’ve been involved with, the common denominator has been Buffalo,” Nowicki said. “We bring people into Western New York and Buffalo, and we showed them Buffalo. Delaware Park. Lincoln Parkway. Richmond. The Peace Bridge. I’ve got a passion for Buffalo and for making it look good.
"People come in and they’ve run races all over the country, and people say they would come back because this race (the Subaru 4-Mile Chase) is their favorite race.”
Subaru 4-Mile Chase
When: 7 p.m. Friday.
Start: Elmwood Avenue and Bidwell Parkway, Elmwood Village.
Finish: Buffalo Seminary, 205 Bidwell Parkway, Elmwood Village.
