Missouri State

JOHN TIDEMAN
Cross Country and Track, 1973-78
Inducted 2015

John Tideman was one of the top performers in the brightest distance running era in the history of Missouri State men's cross country and track and field as he ran on four straight Bears' top-five NCAA Division II cross country teams for coach Chuck Hunsaker, and also capped his stellar distance running career with NCAA Division II All-America honors in track as a senior. Tideman's cross country success included running on the Bears' NCAA championship squad in 1974 when the meet was in Springfield at what was then Grandview Golf Course, and the national runner-up teams in 1973 and 1976. Missouri State also dominated the Missouri Intercollegiate Athletic Association distance running competition in that era. The Bears won the MIAA cross country title every year Tideman was on the squad and finished fourth in the NCAA meet in 1975 in addition to their championship and national runner-up squads. At the time he graduated, Tideman was among the Bears' all-time top ten times for both the season record and the Missouri State Invitational race. Tideman set the school 3,000-meter steeplechase record and ran on the Bears' record-setting four mile relay team in 1975. A native of Elmhurst, Ill., Tideman earned his Division II All-America selection in the 3,000-meter steeplechase as a senior in 1978 after having been ranked first in nation in that event earlier in his career. Tideman set the school record in the steeplechase with a timing of 8:59.84 minutes in 1975 and he just missed eclipsing that mark with a 9:01.14 minutes run as a senior in 1978. Those two times rank as second and third best in that event in MSU outdoor track history. Tideman still resides in Springfield and owns and operates a janitorial service company.