“All my friends were doing it,” says Ashley, who played on Highland’s soccer team as well. “It was just another fun sport to do.”

Ashley certainly had the genes to be successful in her new endeavor, as Cris had been considered one of the fastest receivers in the NFL during his playing days. He was so quick that on March 5, 1983, the Bengal attempted to race a horse, Mr. Hurry, in front of a large crowd at Latonia Race Course in Ohio.

The match ended up not being much of a contest—the horse won by a wide margin—but a quarter-century later Collinsworth decided to relive his passion for running by serving as the coach of Ashley’s high school track and field team in their hometown of Fort Thomas, Ky.

“I did it really just to be around her,” Cris explains. “Obviously I was traveling and [announcing] games during the season; all I wanted to do was just hang around the kids.”

The former athlete says he didn’t take his job too seriously, often goofing around in an attempt to make practices more fun.

“I would always run behind [the team] and sing that song, ‘Apple Bottom Jeans,’” Collinsworth—referring to T-Pain’s “Get Low”—recalls with a laugh. “I could do a couple verses of that.... They hated it because I can’t sing at all, and I certainly can’t sing one of their songs from their era. The more I would sing, the faster they would run. I think it directly led to four straight championships because they certainly did not want to hear me singing ‘Apple Bottom Jeans.’”

But the other Collinsworth also played a major role in sparking those consecutive state titles.

A Cincinnati Enquirer first team all-state standout as a junior and senior, Ashley won her team’s MVP and Most Valuable Sprinter awards and received the National Guard Best and Brightest Track Athlete honor as well. Like her father, Ashley ran with seemingly equine speed, winning two straight individual championships and setting the school record in the hundred-meter dash.

“She had shown some signs of being a great athlete, of being very competitive,” Crimson coach Jason Saretsky says. “Meeting her on her recruiting trip, it was fairly clear what kind of mentality she would be bringing to our program, and we were very excited to add her to our team.”

Upon arriving at Harvard, Ashley immediately impressed, qualifying first in the 60-meter dash with the sixth-fastest time in school history before finishing third in that event and fifth in the 200-meter dash at December’s Harvard Open.

“She’s had some real flashes of brilliance,” Saretsky says. “We’ve seen that competitive drive and tenacity that we saw in prefrosh at various points during her freshman year.”

Thus far, the rookie has enjoyed being a part of a college squad.

“It’s been a great experience,” Ashley explains. “My best friends have come from the team. You have to learn to balance the schedule and everything, but once you do, it’s worth it.”

And Cris has been greatly impressed by her ability to succeed at that very task.

“I don’t think anybody could understand what its like to be an athlete at Harvard University,” says Cris, who was a first team Academic All-American himself at the University of Florida in 1980. “These brilliant young people are accomplishing so much in the library and in the classroom and in the chemistry labs, and to take a four-hour chunk out of every day to run around the track and then to compete at the high academic level that is Harvard University is a remarkable accomplishment.”