Norristown legend dies after cancer battle
Norristown legend, PV coach Ron Livers was an artist on the track
Ron Livers competing in the triple jump extended beyond an athletic endeavor into something better described as poetic.
“It’s a rhythm, it’s an explosiveness that you need in all three phases,” said fellow Norristown track and field great Tony Darden. “When he did it and when he executed, he wasn’t like all over the place, it was like done as an art form. If I was to put it in that context, it was more like an art form for him than an event.”
A three-time NCAA champion and among the world’s best triple-jumpers when he competed, Livers — who was an assistant coach for the Perkiomen Valley track and field team — died last Saturday after more than a yearlong battle with brain cancer. He was 65.
“The bottom line was he was one of the all-time great competitors in the high jump and triple jump but on top of it probably a better person,” said Ron’s older brother, Larry Livers, Jr. “He’s my brother but he was just a great, great person. He loved people, he helped people and if you ever met
him you would never know that he was as great as he was or had been cause it didn’t mean that much to him and he was just Ronnie Livers.”
A viewing for Ron Livers is scheduled for Monday, Dec. 28 at Ebenezer Methodist Church in Norristown from 3-7 p.m.
“He shared his talents with everybody, all the athletes regardless how good their talents were, he made sure he got the best out of them, each one,” said Ron’s twin brother Don Livers. “And he could see — his insight — he could see things in the athlete that could bring the best out of them. And he could coach at any level and any event he had knowledge on how to get best out of you.”
Liver was small in stature — Larry Livers, Jr. stating, “No one really knows how tall he was, it was somewhere around 5-7 and 5-8. I think 5-9 was probably a little bit over what he really was and I can’t remember anyone really measuring” — but his impact was large both on the track and on those who knew him.
“I know it’s a cliché but the guy was a world-class athlete and a much better human being,” said Joe Maccolini, the retired executive director of the Patrician Society who had kept in touch with Ron over the years and was asked by him to edit the first chapter of his planned book. “I know it sounds too cliché-ish but in his case it’s actually the case.”
A PIAA champ in both high jump and triple jump, Livers graduated Norristown in 1973 and went on to excell on the collegiate level at San Jose State, where Larry Livers, Jr. coached and twin brother Don was also a member of the Spartans track team. At SJSU, Ron became the first man to win the triple jump three times at the NCAA championships.
A silver medalist at the triple jump World University Games 1977, he also won the AAU National Outdoor title in 1979 in the event, was ranked in the top 10 in the world for four straight years (19771980) and from 1975 to 1997 held the Guinness Book of World Records from jumping 20 ¼” over his head. He is in the San Jose State Sports Hall of Fame, the Pennsylvania High School Track and Field Hall of Fame, the Norristown Area High School Hall of Champions and a member of the All-Time AAU Indoor National Track and Field Team.
“Ron to me is one of the most humble people that I’ve known no matter stature or no matter what level of competition he competed or his accomplishments,” said Ernie Hadrick, Jr, a fellow
Norristown track great who was also a head coach of the Eagles track squad. “He always was a hometown guy, he always appreciated his roots and he carried that with him all the time and all his friends would say the same. He’s just a good man aside from being a great athlete.”
Ron Livers grew up on Willow Street in Norristown with the sport of track a large part of his family. His father Lawrence A. Livers Sr. ran for Norristown in the 1940s with older brother Larry, Jr. competing for NHS from 1959-71 then was on the track and basketball teams at Villanova.
“They used to call it the ‘Willow Street Relays’ because we’d have races all around the block on Willow Street, up the alley and back around,” Larry Livers Jr. said. “And I had hurdles that I had brought from Roosevelt Field up there and we had hurdles out there in the backyard and then the alley where we do drills and run.”
At Norristown, Ron won the PIAA triple jump championship in both 1972 and 1973 and also claimed state gold in the high jump in 1973 with the Eagles earning the state title in 1973.
“He was shorter and that made him so competitive because he always wanted to out-do everybody even though he was short,” said Don Livers, who was also a part of that ’ 73 team. “He would go to the meet and they would look at him and say, ‘What this little guy going to do?’ and he was outjumping everybody.
Ron made the AAU Junior National Team in both 1973 and 1974, was the National High School Triple Jump champ in 1973 and an AAU Junior National Team champion in ‘ 74.
“You enjoyed watching him because you knew
something big was coming and he was just so smooth,” said Larry Livers, Jr. “And at his size, those long legs — and that’s why he got the nickname ‘Legs’ — he was phenomenal. I enjoyed watching him. I said, ‘You know, that’s my brother, hey.’ It was all a family, Donnie, his twin brother always felt the same way too and even though I say to this day was probably more talented athletically but Ronnie found his niche and he took it to as far as he could.”
At San Jose State, Ron won his NCAA triple jump title in ‘75 with a windaided mark of 55’ 1 ¾”. After redshirting a season he came back to win back-to-back championships in the event — earning gold in ’ 77 with a effort of 16.86 meters (55’ 3 ¾”) then in 1978 becoming the first to win three career NCAA triple jump titles with his effort of 17.15 m (56’ 3 ¼”). Only two athletes since have won three NCAA golds in the triple.
“The one in Champaign (Illinois in 1978) is the one that probably resonates the most because Willie Banks, who went on to become the world-record holder, they were going at it tooth-and-nail, backand-forth,” Larry Livers Jr. said. “And I recall Willie had beaten him a couple times earlier in the year but when it came down to it, like I said, Ronnie had an ability — an innate ability to reach down and get whatever it took to win and he did it for that third title.”
Ron won three consecutive AAU National Indoor triple jump championships from 1978-80 and in 1979 won the AAU National Outdoor title with an effort of 17.56 meters. For four straight years Ron was in the top 10 in the world in the triple — third in ’ 77, ’79 and ’ 80 and seventh in ’ 78.
“That was special to be able to travel with someone that you knew growing up, you knew their family, you’re both from the same hometown, the same high school,” said Darden, who ran in college at Arizona State and won the 400-meter dash at the 1979 Pan-American Games. “And the accomplishments that he had made in high school and being at the states and then both of you guys are on an international level competing, traveling the world together and competing is inspirational, it’s something that we both held our hats on very high and as a result of that we were supportive of one another in any events we were at the same meet. So that was special.”
Whi le among the world’s best in the triple, Ron Livers did not get a chance to compete in the event at the 1980 Moscow Olympics due to the United States boycott protesting the Soviet Union’s invasion of Afghanistan.
“Still, to this day, I’m mad at President Carter, because he had to boycott the ’ 80 Olympics where Ronnie would have really shown and probably made a name for himself, you know, world-wide forever but he never got the chance,” Larry Livers Jr. said. “Same with Tony Darden, he would have been on that same team, would have been in 1980 and they never got the chance to do their thing.”
Added Maccolini, “He had defeated them in international meets so he felt pretty good going into 1980 and in fact he had gone through a technique change in ’ 79 and ’ 80, he had gone from the singlearm action to double-arm action and he had gotten in all groove in and he thought it was actually, he was already. I mean, he was literally ready for the 1980 Olympics so the boycott really impacted him a lot.”
Ron Livers was still making his mark on track and field in recent years as an assistant at Perk Valley, including coaching Christina Warren — now at Arizona State — to three straight PIAA triple jump titles from 2017-2019.
“Coach Ron was so dedicated to our team. Last year while he was fighting his cancer he was not supposed to come to our practices. He came to almost every single one despite his health and just wanted to see us improve,” said PV senior Casey Murray, a four-year member of the Vikings varsity team, in an email. “Coach Ron was always so happy and excited to be out on the track with us and he truly cared about every one of his runners. He always walked around with a toothpick in his mouth and is known by his saying ‘ Shoulder Hip!’ From all of PV track and field we are all so saddened by his passing and offer condolences to everyone else affected. He truly impacted so many.”