INTRODUCTION: As an undergraduate, David Moller '75 became Rochester's first individual national champion. He won the outdoor track and field three-mile run as a junior in the spring of 1974. That fall, he won the national championship in cross country. He was inducted into the University's Athletic Hall of Fame as a member of the inaugural class – in 1992. (First of a series).
 
What does it mean after all these years to be a national champion in college?
It's been very satisfying to realize such an athletic accomplishment in my college years when I had the chance. I sustained a serious hamstring injury during my senior year following the national cross-country championship, later had surgery, and never competed at this level again.  This was my 15 minutes of fame and looking back, I feel fortunate about getting the 15 minutes. After college, I spent several years trying to get back to that high level of running fitness, but couldn't do it. I would develop some overstress injury whenever the workouts got serious for a few weeks or months. I still love to run and have enjoyed brief periods of good running shape, running some road races and a couple of marathons over the years. But I look back on my college running days with real appreciation for those successes and the fun of participating on the teams.
 
You won two national championships – the three-mile run at NCAAs in 1974 at the outdoor championships – and the cross country national title in the fall of 1974. Do you ever think back to those races?
Yes, of course. As I mentioned, I am still running (well, walk/jog), so with every year of decreasing mileage and increasing walking it is satisfying to remember the college days. These days it's fun to think back to those races when being passed by the local high school runners while out for a run.
 
Track & Field NCAAs were held at Eastern Illinois University. You and Anthony Palumbo both wound up winning national titles. Do you remember what Coach Tim Hale stressed as the meet came closer?
Not really, it was a long time ago. But the season workouts were designed to peak at the end of season, so intensity always increased up to the week before and then relaxed the week of a major race. I remember Coach Hale said he thought I was good enough to win.
 
In the fall of 1973, you ran in the College Division (Div. 2) cross country race. As you headed into the D3 track meet in the spring, did you know much about the competition you would face?
No, but I didn't think there was a significant difference in competitiveness between division 2 and 3—both divisions had some serious individual competitors and teams. I remember that Coach Hale would mention a few of the runners he thought would be competing to win, so if a runner from that college jersey was in the front pack, I assumed he was a threat.  
 
The 1974 cross country race was at Wheaton College in Illinois. You wound up winning by 12 seconds. Was there a point in the race where you felt you were going to win?
Yes, I put on a burst of speed about mile 3 or 3 1/2 as I remember, and put some distance between me and the group behind, and was never really challenged. I stayed at a fast but comfortable clip, but knew I could kick it up a notch if anyone made a move to the front. It's a nice feeling.
 
How were the conditions for performing at each site?
As I remember, the cross country championship was run on a fairly level golf course, muddy, cool, cloudy, drizzly—my type of day for cross country running. I don't remember the division 2 cross country course or conditions the year before—just the 10^th place finish.
 
What kind of a greeting did you get from Coach Tim Hale when the races were over?
I don't remember specifically, likely I was in recovery mode.  But afterwards, Coach Hale would typically be highly animated, congratulatory, smiling and joking after a good race particularly when the team ran a good race as well.
 
And how did it feel to stand on the awards podium in the spot reserved for the national champion? 
After the cross-country race, there was no podium that I remember, the presentation and handshakes were made on the muddy golf course—with some photos as proof.  I do remember having several of the coaches (whom I did not know personally) come up afterwards and congratulate me. I am drawing a blank for the track championship awards podium. I don't remember anything notable about the track but do remember that we had a really good team that year with multiple qualifying teammates and everyone was cheering each other all over the field.
 
Your Division III victory gave you the chance to run at Division I nationals and you finished 19^th overall to earn All-America honors. Then you ran at the IC4A meet and won again. From a running standpoint, everything was falling into place perfectly, wasn't it?
Yes, the IC4A was held before the Division I nationals, and I ran my best race ever against some very good competition. We ran at Van Cortland Park in the Bronx over a course with Cemetery Hill that had been run for many decades. I missed the college division record by a couple of seconds.
 
There was more to come after the Division 1 championships. Four days later I ran in the AAU National 10K Cross Country Championship in Palo Alto, California and finished 22^nd. This race was the national championship for all runners, not just collegiate. Frank Shorter (gold, silver Olympic medalist in the marathon) finished 11^th, as I recall. I do remember that I was running just behind him for most of the race until I ran out of steam in the last mile. I knew then that I could compete at the highest level. Somehow Coach Hale came up with the funds for me to fly out to San Francisco to compete in this race--it was not in the planned athletic budget.  
 
What led you to attend the University and major in biology and statistics?
I was recipient of the Boston Regional Alumni Scholarship, which played a key role in my attending the UR. I liked the feel of the campus and the people I met during my college visit so accepting the UR offer was an easy decision for me.  I am very appreciative of receiving the scholarship.
 
My initial interest was in biology, which required a course in statistics. I decided with a strong math background to take the statistics courses for math majors. I ended up really enjoying the courses, so took enough probability/statistics classes to get a double major.
 
With an eye towards medical school, how were you able to focus on the studies plus achieve at a high level as a runner?
Well, I was a serious student, but I was never a serious pre-med student. Opportunities for biology majors were limited back then, so I was really just trying to keep some options open by taking enough courses to meet pre-med requirements. Fortunately, with statistics courses, much of the work involved doing problem sets and I could do them in real time over the semester.  For the pre-med courses, I was counselled by my senior teammates to reduce the impact of the cutthroat environment by taking these courses off the usual semester schedule. That helped. I did not perform well with the lab courses that went with the physics and chemistry courses because I would often skip them to go running in the afternoon. But for the other courses, I survived because I was a very good crammer at the end of the semester.
 
Which courses did you really enjoy? Which professors stood out in your mind?
My favorite course was on Shakespeare. I was able to enroll in the class as a senior. The professor was terrific. I don't remember his name, and heard later that he was not granted tenure, and had left the UR.
 
I remain grateful to my French 103 teacher who compassionately gave me a passing grade because I was the only one who attended all of her 8am classes. There was a foreign language requirement back then.
 
I enjoyed focusing on evolutionary biology, ecology, and mathematical models of biology which combined both of my major interests. I don't recall specific professors at this point, but recall enjoying the subject material enough to take some graduate level courses in the area while a senior.
 
After graduation from the Tufts University School of Medicine in 1979, where did your career path take you, leading to your current position at Johns Hopkins University?
I was quite undifferentiated and uncertain of my career pathway early on. I trained in internal medicine, occupational medicine (epidemiology), then became interested in pulmonary medicine, allergy/immunology and decided I wanted to have a career in academic medicine rather than private practice. So I trained at the NIH in Bethesda in pulmonary medicine and molecular biology. Given my background in immunology, I was put on a research project involving sarcoidosis, a chronic inflammatory disease that usually affects the lungs. The research went well, and I was recruited to Johns Hopkins in the Division of Pulmonary and Critical Care Medicine. I have remained at Johns Hopkins since then moving up the ranks to professor. I continued my clinical and research focus on sarcoidosis and have been privileged to be director of an internationally recognized Sarcoidosis Clinic and a Sarcoidosis research program funded throughout my career by the National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute and several philanthropic organizations.
 
And lastly, was there anything you took away from your national championship experience that helped you after graduation?
Indirectly, the experience has had a lasting effect. My running injury occurred only a few weeks after the national championships and AAU meet, and I did not know that my competitive running career was over. However, later in the year it became clear that my plan to train and compete in the Olympic trials the following year was not going to happen. I ended up going to medical school and that started me on my eventual career pathway in academic medicine. Early on it was enormously frustrating not to be able to re-reach my previous running competitiveness because I wanted to see how good I could get as a runner. That didn't happen but I have no doubt that I learned more from this blip in my life than my enjoyable run to the top in college.  I have been quite fortunate in life since then.