Mark Gilman '73

“The best high school runner on the East Coast, maybe, the entire country.”

That was how Letterman Magazine described Bishop McDevitt track and cross-country star Mark E. Gilman, who first attracted the attention of the school’s football, basketball, track, and cross-country coaches when he ran in an event at McDevitt known as “the freshman mile” at the outset of the 1969-70 academic year.  His time was around five minutes and every McDevitt coach wanted to take advantage of his speed and endurance.  But Mark realized he was most comfortable running, and he was the first freshman in school history to make the varsity cross-country and track teams.  A photo of Mark running is prominently displayed in every McDevitt yearbook when he was a student, and he remembers coaches from other high schools admonishing their runners for getting “beaten by a freshman!”  That was just the start!

The third of seven children and a founding member of St. Alphonsus parish, Mark earned All-Catholic honors all four years at McDevitt.  He was an integral part of the McDevitt Cross-Country team that won the 1970 Catholic League Championship, leading the team as a sophomore.  That team was recently inducted into the Belmont Plateau Cross Country Hall of Fame this past year.  On the track, Mark’s McDevitt record in the two mile still stands. (He regrets not being allowed to run the mile and still wonders how he would have done.)  Mark was named to the All-Inquirer Team in each of his sophomore, junior and senior years at McDevitt.  He won the Coaches Invitational and Catholic War Veterans Championships all three years.  Mark also competed in and won two events at the Junior Olympics, in both his junior and senior years at McDevitt, and earned a scholarship to Allegheny College, where he led the team to the National Junior College Cross-Country Championship his freshman year and was named a first team All-American.  Sadly, he was hospitalized with infected wisdom teeth his sophomore year and was unable to compete.  Mark transferred to Temple University, where his school cross-country, 10k, and six-mile records stand to this day.

Personal reasons caused Mark to leave Temple when his eligibility ended.  He applied his disciplined work ethic in the construction field, then trained as a plumber, spending 34 years as the lead plumber in charge of the physical plant at Merck.  (He also was a union rep and ran the blood drive at Merck for many years.)  Mark later returned to and earned his degree at Temple, graduating as a grandpop in 2022.  He and his wife Mary Ann met as students at St. Anthony’s School in Ambler.  Mary Ann, who recently retired as principal of Holy Rosary Regional School, got Mark into coaching when she taught at Epiphany and he volunteered alongside her. Mark also served as Assistant Track and Cross-Country Coach of the boys’ and girls’ teams at Lower Moreland High School. You may also have spotted him on the basketball court. He’s been a volunteer referee at high school and college basketball games for the past 15 years, honored as “Referee of the Year.”

But the name Mark Gilman will always be associated with track and cross-country, especially Bishop McDevitt track and cross-country.

With thanks to his nominator, our fellow 1973 classmate and 2023 Hall of Fame member Jane Metzler, please join our Athletic Hall of Fame as we welcome the Class of 1973’s Mark E. Gilman.