Pat Melgares was born in Alamosa, Colorado, in 1967 and was raised on the south side of town just three blocks from where Joe I. Vigil grew up. Like Vigil, Pat graduated from Alamosa High School and Adams State College, and was a four-time All-American in cross country and track and field while running for Vigil from 1985 to 1989. Pat was also a member of four NAIA cross country championship teams and two The Athletics Congress (TAC) junior cross country championship teams. At Adams State, Pat studied journalism and began his career as sports editor of the hometown Valley Courier. He advanced to editor of that newspaper before landing the job as public information officer at Adams State in 1994. Since 1998, he has been a communications specialist and public information officer at Kansas State University in Manhattan, Kansas. Pat had the unique experience of watching Vigil's Adams State teams as a small child, and many of the athletes who competed for Vigil in the 1970s and early 1980s became his running idols. None of them loomed larger than Joe I. Vigil, who he first admired as a coach but came to know and love as an even greater human being and friend.
