Valparaiso University men's cross country and track & field alum Dave Brady was recently recognized by the Illinois Track and Cross Country Coaches Association with its Distinguished Service Award for 2026.
 
Brady ran for the Brown & Gold in the early 1970s and owns the program record in the three-mile run. He graduated from Valpo in 1973 and later earned his master's from the institution in 1977.
 
"I talk to a lot of former teammates from Valpo quite a bit," Brady said. "I was there for four years under Coach Ed Winrow, who was the top U.S. runner and U.S. recordholder. There were many of us from that period who went into coaching or served track & field throughout our careers. He was tremendously influential. Valpo was one of the best places to train at the time because we would go to the Dunes once a week and we would run south of campus on roads that are developed now. It couldn't have been a better experience."
 
After graduating from Valpo, Brady accepted a job at Argo Community High School in Illinois, beginning a 33-year run as a coach, teacher and administrator. Now, he has gone on to a 21-year career in local politics as the Mayor of the Village of Bedford Park in Illinois. He has been out of coaching for 19 years, but is still active in the track & field world as an official.
 
"I was nominated for the award by a former runner, an athlete who I coached, and I was very honored by that," Brady said. "The most rewarding thing was to see my former athletes come back for the award ceremony on a cold January night. When I retired, a couple athletes flew in from California. I had a state champion, I had a couple of kids become Division-I All-Americans, but the most rewarding aspect is the comradery that you develop with the athletes that you coach."
 
All these years after his time at Valpo, Brady is still connected to the institution.
 
"I've met Coach (Vincent) Walker a couple times; I think he's doing a great job and has a lot of the same traits that Coach Winrow had," he said. "We have a village engineer who is a fairly recent Valpo grad, and it sounds like the atmosphere and sense of community and family that the school has exists the same as it did for me in the 1970s. It's a great place for people to go to school."