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2021 Distinguished Alumni Awards Honoree
Jim Macnider
Head Track and Field and Cross Country Coach
Harper College
As a Harper College student, Jim Macnider was a cross country and track champion.
As a Harper coach, decades later, he mentors others to become champions.
Macnider enrolled at Harper in 1969 and, as a student-athlete, became a conference and regional champion. More importantly, his career path changed because of Harper coach Bob Nolan.
“I did terribly in class my first semester,” he remembered. “We had this long talk about what I enjoyed doing. I liked being involved in sports, obviously, but the idea of helping others really got me interested. Bob said, ‘Why don’t you go into teaching?’ I switched my major and the rest, as they say, is history.”
Macnider transferred to North Central College in 1971, graduated with his bachelor’s degree in 1973 and began his 30-plus-year tenure at Schaumburg High School that year, becoming the physical education department chair.
While teaching (and earning his master’s at Northern Illinois University in 1978), Macnider kept running. In 1977, he placed second in the Chicago Marathon. Prior to the 1980 Summer Olympic Games, Macnider was invited to the U.S. marathon trials.
He continued to grow his passion for coaching. He led Schaumburg’s boys cross country team to multiple state and conference championships. In 1995, Macnider was inducted into the Illinois Track and Cross Country Coaches Association Hall of Fame.
Following his 2010 retirement from the high school – where the cross country course now bears his name – Macnider returned to Harper. Since 2011, he’s served as the head track and cross country coach, guiding the Hawks to their first national cross country championship. That triumph began a streak of eight straight NJCAA Division III National Championships for the men’s team.
He has also revitalized women’s cross country at Harper, coaching the team to three DIII national championships. Several times, the Hawks have been named best overall program with Macnider honored as national coach of the year. He has impacted the lives of multiple generations of students as their coach, teacher, mentor and friend.
“There are a lot of kids who only go to school so they can go to practice and then compete. But they find something that they become passionate about and it sets them on their way,” Macnider said. “Harper has always had good athletic programs and the extra curriculars can be what keep a student involved.”
His service also includes volunteering at St. Nectarios Greek Orthodox Church and helping with Thanksgiving food pantry donations. For two decades, Macnider has volunteered at the aid station at the Chicago Shamrock Shuffle and the Chicago Marathon.
