MERRELL NODEN
- mercertrackhall
- Sep 20, 2025
- 1 min read
Updated: Sep 29, 2025
The Lawrenceville School --Distance
The incredible legacy of Merrell Noden is arguably the most multi-dimensional of any member of the Mercer County Track and Field Hall of Fame, one that not only was international but transcends his death to cancer in 2015.
An outstanding track and field writer and reporter, Noden contributed to Sports Illustrated from 1986 through 1999 interviewing legendary runners like Frank Shorter and Roger Bannister.
As a collegiate, he ran cross country at Princeton University (where he graduated summa cum laude) and was a successful decathlete as a graduate student at Oxford University. There he met his wife Eva and he later returned to the Princeton area to play CIcero in an undergraduate production of Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar. He later coached track and cross country at Princeton Day School and taught Shakespeare to inmates at Trenton State Prison.
On the track he was part of one of the greatest indoor seasons in Mercer County history in 1973, when his 4:11.9 anchor leg helped the Lawrenceville School set a national scholastic record. That same season, Noden ran a best of 1:54 for 880 yards and 9:07 for two miles, giving him the rare distinction of ranking in the top five in New Jersey in the three longest distance races.
That greatness lives on through the New York based Merrell Noden Track Club, formed in his memory in 2018 and coached by his friend Joe Bolster, a fitting tribute to a track figure whose excellence and imagination knew no bounds.
