Lester Bond was a coach, educator, husband, father, and a friend. His legacy continues through the many lives he touched in the 209.
Bond died of pancreatic cancer on Aug. 14, in the comfort of his Manteca home, surrounded by loved ones. He was 80 years old.
“This was a very big surprise to us,” June Bond, wife of Lester Bond, told The Stockton Record. She described her husband as someone who “loved people” and “saw the best in everybody.”
“People really don’t know how much he loved everybody,” she said. “Somebody would walk by and he would remember, oh, that’s the guy that went to Cal and this is what he did, or this is the guy, he works for PG&E and he’s really good at what he does, or she jumped this far and that’s really good, she’s got a lot of potential.”
Track pioneer’s early beginnings
Bond was born on Oct. 27, 1943, in Chicago, Illinois.
His parents were native Tennesseans and he had an older brother, Bruce Bond who died in the 1980s, June said. His family moved to Los Angeles when he was a child.
June was born in a Filipino labor camp on Highway 12, just a few months before Bond, she said.
The couple first met as sophomores attending San Jose State University. They married in Los Angeles in 1965 and had two sons David, 58, and Rick Bond, 54. They celebrated their 59th anniversary on July 3, according to June.
‘It has kind of a magical impact’: Speed City Tech Clinic at Edison High includes Olympic gold medalists
The family moved to Stockton in 1980, where they lived for more than 40 years until their move to Manteca last year, June said.
Aside from being a coach, Bond was also an educator and a counselor at the elementary level. He taught at various San Joaquin County schools including Victory, Roosevelt and August elementary schools, according to June.
“He absolutely loved coaching children in terms of having them achieve the best that they could possibly achieve, and that’s not only in track,” she said. “He helped them in life and helped them to navigate and problem solve and decision make and get along with people from all walks of life.”
San Jose State University Speed City legend
Bond was also a notable athlete at San Jose State University and was part of the track and field team, SJSU Speed City.
As a member of the track and field team from 1961 to 1965, he was voted its first African-American co-captain and ranked among the top 10 long and triple jumpers in the U.S., San Jose State University stated in a 2016 Facebook post highlighting Bond’s legacy.
“From 1958 to 1968, [San Jose State] had the fastest sprinters in the world. I thought, ‘Wow, if I could go there, that would be a wonderful thing,'” Bond said at the time.
According to the San Jose State Track & Field All-Time Outdoor Record and Performances document, Bond holds the fourth all time record of 15.87m and 52’0.75” for triple jump from 1965.
He earned a bachelor’s in education from San Jose State in 1966 and a master’s in education with an emphasis in counseling and guidance in 1970, June said. He then went on to Wright Institute in Berkeley where he earned his doctorate degree.
Speed City Tech Clinic
The first Speed City Tech Clinic was held at Lodi High School in January 2017, a collaboration between Bond and Greg Wright, the head coach at the time, June said.
It was a free event catered to student-athletes in 5th to 12th grade and coaches.
June said that Bond’s goal was to bring the SJSU Speed City athletes and local talent together and provide coaching and guidance to the local youth.
Bond then collaborated with Richard Lynch, athletic director, from 2018 to 2023 and brought the clinic to Edison High School, June said.
He would pull all those guys that were part of Speed City, that were very famous, and they would come and give their expertise at the clinics, that was what was so special about that. He wanted to do that so that those kids could meet all of those guys that had been in the Olympics, who had set world records.
— June Bond, Lester Bond’s wife
According to an Edison High School flyer from 2018, the main focus of the event was on teaching techniques in sprints 100, 200, and 400 meters, long and triple jumps, cross country and distance.
Bond was an NCAA All-American coach in the triple and long jumps, the flyer stated.
“He would pull all those guys that were part of Speed City, that were very famous, and they would come and give their expertise at the clinics that was what was so special about that,” June said. “He wanted to do that so that those kids could meet all of those guys that had been in the Olympics, who had set world records and so forth.”
Speed City teammates included Olympians and close friends Tommie Smith and John Carlos, who are known for the 1968 Olympics Black Power salute. The two Black San Jose State University athletes raised a gloved fist during the United States national anthem at the Mexico City Olympics.
“They were friends of ours, very close friends of ours,” June said.
Bond held his last Speed City Tech Clinic in January at Franklin High School with the support of both Lynch and athletic director John Bava, June said.
He was proud of his family and of his “techniques that he developed and established in those events,” she said.
A triple-jump long-jump specialist
Lauryn Seales, San Joaquin Delta College track and field head coach, met Bond as a student-athlete at Delta College.
She was introduced to him by her then-coach Reydell Barkley, she said.
“That was probably the best thing that [Barkley] could have ever done,” Seales said. “Coach Bond coached me in the long jump, triple jump, and I really excelled.”
Seales said she won various meets while being coached by Bond.
“He really believed in us so we believed in ourselves. He really promoted confidence, and was an awesome person and an awesome coach,” she said. “Over the years, he went from coach to mentor and then friend.”
Seales returned to Delta College inspired by her former coaches.
“[Bonds] and coach Barkley inspired me so much that I wanted to be like them,” she said. “He caused me to have an anything-is-possible attitude. … He really changed my outlook on things.”
Seales said Bond was known as the “triple-jump long-jump specialist.”
“He was such a technician when it came to the triple jump, and it was really like an art form,” she said.
Seales said she saw Bond a couple of months ago.
“He came with a cane and he put the cane down, and still did the triple jump and did it just as good,” Seales said. “I said, ‘If I can get an athlete to do them like you we would be on to something.'”
Seales said Bond coached champions. The list includes Eric Sloan, Roderick Townsend-Roberts (who recently won the third high jump gold medal at the Paris Paralympic 2024), and Dwayne Lee.
“He’s taught me not to give up on people, no matter how they might show up; to continue to love on them and be patient,” she said. “You never know what people are going through, and you could potentially really change someone’s life.”
Michael Lewis, Saint Mary’s High School head track coach, is a Stockton native who has been coaching for 17 years. He first met Bond as a student at Delta College.
“No one can fill his shoes,” Lewis said. “I’m a good dad. I’m a good granddad. A lot of the things I am, [Bonds] instilled in me.”
Keeping the legacy alive
Bond has not only impacted a community of local athletes, he has inspired a community of future leaders.
Those who once were coached by him not only have implemented what they learned in the track and field in their own lives but hope to inspire the generations to come.
Seales and Lewis hope to keep their coach’s legacy alive by teaching their student-athletes what they learned from Bond, as well as continuing the projects he started.
“He just was an amazing coach, and anything that he touched turned into gold,” Seales said.
Seales, inspired by Bond, now teaches the long and triple jumps.
She hopes to bring back the John F. Kennedy games an event that Bond used to coach “where all of Stockton Unified School District came together and hosted a huge track meet to kind of showcase and the local talent,” she said.
Lewis hopes to take over the Speed City Tech Clinic and continue Bond’s effort.
“He was like an angel to a lot of people. He embraced everybody. He was there for everybody. He spent a lot of his own time helping people,” Lewis said. “He would go to some people’s homes and talk to people. He was extremely open. He was extremely willing, and he was always there.”
June has considered starting a scholarship for students or giving a donation to an organization that works with student and athletes, she said.
Bond is survived by his wife June, their sons David and Rick, five grandchildren and many friends.
“I hope they remember him for the caring person that he was,” June said. “He wanted to be sure that everybody got the attention.”
Record reporter Angelaydet Rocha covers community news in Stockton and San Joaquin County. She can be reached at arocha@recordnet.com or on Twitter @AngelaydetRocha. To support local news, subscribe to The Stockton Record at https://www.recordnet.com/subscribenow.
This article originally appeared on The Record: Track pioneer: SJSU Speed City icon Lester Bond dies at 80
