The boys gathered in the parking lot after class to measure distances and run sprints on the pavement, because their high school didn’t have a track and the road to championships required improvisation.

In the late 1980s, when high school track and field teams competed without classifications of 1A, 2A and so on, East Gaston High made do with car-lot workouts and borrowing yardage on the football field.

“We put the hurdles out on the grass. And we were all-conference and all-state without having a track,” says James Ford, who collected numerous sprint and hurdles titles. “We practiced sprints in the parking lot. I was blessed to be on a super high school team that won championships my junior and senior year.”

Ford, 54, used that adversity, plus training help from friends in the sport, to become a record-setter at two universities, carry his work ethic into a long career in two occupations and land in the Mount Holly Sports Hall of Fame as an inductee. He already serves the Hall of Fame as a committee member.

His perseverance in high school led to recruiting letters from 46 colleges, he says, nearby and as far as the University of Florida. He understood the necessity of being in the right place with the right times.

“I missed my high school prom because of State Meet when I was a 17-year-old. I had to think what my priorities were. I had to run, and I had to win,” Ford says. “When you work this hard at something, looking back I must have been crazy, but I knew it, I dreamed it, and I felt like when I walked on campus (as a freshman at High Point University) that they recruited me to win. I think I did well.”

Ford stayed at High Point one year, broke the 200-meter school record and was conference Athlete of the Year for track. He also was all-conference in the 100-meters and 200, and his 100-meter time was in the top 15 nationwide, he says.

Ford transferred to Western Carolina and red-shirted a year before helping that school build a successful program.

But his affection for running began long before passing cars in the East Gaston parking lot.

“As a kid, there was Field Day,” he says. “I realized that I was one of the fastest kids in elementary school, and I enjoyed baseball and had a real passion for baseball, but in middle school I went out for track and ran hurdles, and I ran hurdles from middle school to high school to college, and I found out I could sprint. And that became my ticket.”

Few track athletes, he says, combine sprinting with hurdles in their repertoire. “It helped with college,” he says, “because they were looking at diversification – where they could fit you in.”

He broke the Southwest Conference record in high school for low hurdles at 20:38, then two weeks later recorded a 19:67. “At the time, that was in the top three (times) in that event out of 490 schools in the state, so that made it a little special,” he says.

His best time in the 100 meters in high school, he says, was 10.5. In college, 10.36.

“I was a big-meet guy. I always performed my best in big meets,” he says. “And that’s what made the difference in my career.”

At Western Carolina, where he transferred to help build up the program, his 4x200-meter relay team’s time of 1:24.14 from the 1984 Georgia Relays remains a school record.

Ford segued his bachelor’s degree in Criminal Justice and Political Science to a 30-year career in Mecklenburg County in education and social services. He also has another role: church pastor.

Longtime friend and former East Gaston principal Marty Starnes recognized Ford’s faith and persistence many years ago and has worked alongside him in Rotary Club and other endeavors.

“The skillset that James so clearly adopted as a high school athlete, he carried with him to college, to his career and to his community,” she says. “Equally important, James Ford is a man of strong faith with God as his pilot. He is a dedicated husband and father.

“In 1 Corinthians, Chapter 9, Paul tells us to ‘Run your race in life in such a way as to win.’ This is truly fitting when thinking of James Ford and his impact on our community. To say that I admire him is an understatement.”

Ford was licensed and ordained into the ministry in 1990 and became pastor of Morningside Missionary Church in Mount Holly in 2000. He and his wife, Elaine, have a 12-year-old daughter, Abigail, who is getting started in track, he says, and is a Gaston Christian honor roll student.

“She was the fastest kid in fifth grade,” he says.

While Abigail begins, Ford says his running is complete.

“I coach at Gaston Christian, their hurdlers and sprinters. It’s my first year,” he says. “But when I graduated college, I knew my time was done. From 1985 to today, I didn’t coach, didn’t do anything. I did all I needed to do and left it on the track. I had a great career.”