If stopping twice to walk isn’t ideal in distance running, then it’s safe to say David Ott’s foray into cross country began inauspiciously.

But as a freshman at La Salle College High School, Ott — who went on to compete at Penn — couldn’t have known how that day would change his life.

It put him on a path that began with self-discovery, included a blueprint for success, led to his wife, and ultimately ended with both of their names atop a $69.3 million, 73,000-square foot indoor track facility that they hope will change the lives of Philadelphia athletes.

“There was this opportunity for Jane and I to help reinvigorate track [in the city],” Ott said in a phone interview, “and give kids opportunities much like the opportunities track gave us.”

On Thursday night, the Public League indoor track season kicked off at the Jane and David Ott Center, which opened this month on Penn’s campus.

For Imhotep track coach Anthony Bishop, the facility is more than welcome.

“It’s definitely something that the city needed,” said Bishop, now in his sixth season coaching Imhotep’s boys’ and girls’ squads. “There was just a lot of positive energy in there … and I think it can broaden kids’ horizons.”

Bishop said his team typically practices within the halls of its Germantown campus. Many indoor track teams in the city do something similar.

Bishop sets up cones or tapes off distances to simulate lanes but said its hard to reproduce races with lanes, which can help runners plot tactics, such as when to cut inside to take the lead.

St. Joseph’s Prep track coach Curtis Cockenberg, who has coached at his alma mater for nearly 50 years, joked about his plan to build such a facility.

“The city has needed something like this for a long time,” Cockenberg said. “That’s why I always said I was going to win the lottery, so I could build it.”

In a manner of speaking, Ott believes he found his winning ticket as a freshman at La Salle, from which he graduated in 1981.

Ott had dreams of baseball stardom and asked his homeroom proctor, Pat Devine, who also was the track coach, if the sport would help him get in shape for baseball season.

“So the next day I showed up in my K-Mart sneakers and my gym uniform, and Coach Devine and I ran two miles,” Ott said. “It was an absolutely miserable experience.”

But Devine was so encouraging that Ott stuck with the sport.

Jane Ott, who also competed for the Quakers, grew up in Connecticut. Few in her family went to college, her husband said, so the little exposure to higher education she received was from high school track events held at Harvard.

“Luckily, she didn’t go to Harvard because I wouldn’t have met her” Ott said. “But our hope and vision for this [facility] is that it is a local community track.”

acarter@inquirer.com

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