V 14 N. 70 What Does It Mean to Be Part of a Team? Essay by Jerry Bouma

 

WHAT’S IN A TEAM?

BY JERRY BOUMA

     What does it mean to be part of a team?   This question suddenly posed to me by my long-time friend and former Villanova teammate Russ Ebbets the day I learned he was submitting to surgery to remove a brain tumour.  It struck me that Russ's question arose in his hour of greatest need.

    Without question, he was at his most vulnerable.  Would he survive?  Would he emerge ever to be the same again?  I could discern by his question, that this was a time when he needed to know that he was not alone.  That his life's work (and struggles) had not been in vain.  He needed to know that he was part of a team!

       So let's first address the more fundamental question:  What makes a team?

     My thoughts moved quickly to paraphrase the 'team' question to a question posed by  Shakespeare.   "What's in a name that a rose known by any other would smell as sweet?  An then to my own experience of the Villanova track team 50 years ago.

    So, what's in a team: that a group of athletes bound together for a short period of time, as students--3 to 4 years at the most --and in our case, who continue to gather on an annual basis some 40, 50, or even 60 years later?  In deed what does it mean to be part of that sort of team?

    The factors are many.  And complex.  Nor are any two situations or cohort ever quite the same.  Track &field (athletics) is such a unique sport--and arguably the ultimate paradox--a sport defined by supreme individualism yet producing star performers shaped within a team environment whose bonds endure the years and the generations.

     The more obvious reasons are rooted in that common purpose, a culture of winning, the shared experience, the fighting of tough battles together, not unlike  "Band of Brothers'" in a wartime.  And fused by the many miles run together,the gruelling interval workouts; the critical hills in the various loops that broke even the best runners among us.

     Add to this mix, the unique Villanova experience of "indoors yet outdoors":  those winter workouts on the "Boards" --our 11 laps to the mile track set up on the football practice field.  Ofttimes covered with snow, wrapped with a wicked west wind on a cold January day.

    And the meals together, the rooming together, the classes together, the lonely weekends together when the campus emptied except for us non-locals or foreign athletes who came from too far away to even consider a trip home......

    But it is more than that!  For that matter, many teams experience the thrill of winning a big race, a relay, a championship and even generate a star in their midst for a period of time.  But is that enough to generate the continued gathering that defines the Villanova Team experience who come together year after year?

     So what's this more? It is indeed a merger of special ingregients.  Perhaps it is the type of athlete who was recruited in the first place; or that one start who really cared about his teammates and established the essential "caring" dynamic which then passed from cohort to cohort.  

    Or maybe it requires a process cemented by a certain "cultural dissonance"  or an element of adversity that needed to be overcome (albeit subconsciously).  Again, Villanova was powerfully influenced by the legendary Irish pipeline--and more precisely, a Dublin-Cork axis.  Most came from modest backgrounds, who found themselves immersed in totally different middle to upper-class society-- face to face with the American Dream in full measure, seeing and knowing that this was their opportunity to succeed.  The pressure was on!

    Interestingly, that same dissonance factor was manifested within the Western Kentucky University team with a decided British-Bristol factor; or the East Tennessee team which also had that Irish influence although different than Villanova, defined by a west Ireland Limerick-Leitrim dimension.

     To be sure, the stars emerged as the team leaders, setting the tone and holding court.  But these stars would readily cite the support of their teammates for their success.  Teammates who toiled in relative obscurity to grind out the miles and the repeat intervals only to be surpassed time and time again by their more talented counterparts.  But not forgotten.

    As the years passed and athletic performance became a more distant memory, the allure and influence of the stars would be balanced by other team members who took up the mantle of leadership.  Sometimes this would be the third or fourth man on a relay team.  Sometimes this was someone who never made any of the teams--track, relay or cross-country.   But always someone who knew the value of team; of loyalty; of culture; and fully appreciated the lifelong impact of the team experience.  So back to the question:  What does it mean to be part of a team?

Being part of a team is being part of a distinct culture—a culture that

embraces you and a culture that you are proud to pass on. 

Being part of a team is having a clear, common goal.

• Being part of a team is having leaders to look up to.

• Being part of a team is going to the cafeteria knowing that no

matter what day or time, there is a seat for you at the ‘track’ table.

• Being part of a team  is being given a hard time and taking it with a smile.

• Being part of a team is giving a teammate a hard time, all the while keeping a smile.

• Being part of a team is having to listen for the 100th time to a

teammate’s regaling how great his high school two-mile relay team was.

• Being part of a team is when a teammate notices that you are avoiding practice and asking if something is wrong.

• Being part of a team is jogging your first 50 meters after a serious

injury and to hear the supporting shout of a teammate.

• Being part of a team is having a teammate to help you out when

you are struggling with a course and need a lending hand.

• Being part of a team is seeing a teammate, whose grief-stricken face tells you that he just received the news that he lost his mother and spending the morning with him.

• Being part of a team is responding when one of your teammates is struggling with a brain tumour and asks you to write something about “being part of a team”.

Jerry Bouma was a middle distance runner for Villanova in the 70’s. He has had a long career as a management consultant in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada.

Thank you, Jerry.  This essay is going to touch the hearts and memories of all of our readers.   George

V 14 N. 69 Memories of Brooks Johnson by Russ Ebbets

 

Recently we received a copy of Track Coach (issue 249) formerly Track Technique published by Track and Field News.   We requested and received permission from Track and Field News to publish Editor, Russ Ebbets' column and another article by one of Russ's Villanova teammates, Jerry Bouma.   Here is Russ's column.  Jerry's piece will appear in our next issue.  Thank you, Russ,  for this memory of Brooks Johnson.  Note: Some of Russ's column has been edited regarding other parts of this issue.

George Brose 

Russ Ebbets

FROM THE EDITOR of Track Coach 

RUSS EBBETS

                                                            BROOKS JOHNSON

The first time I met Brooks Johnson was at a Level 1 School Kevin

McGill hosted at Columbia University in NYC in the early 1990’s. In

truth, Brooks was not an “early adopter” of the Coaching Education

model. The curriculum and program that had been assembled by McGill,

Vern Gambetta, Loren Seagrave, Gary Winckler, Bob Williams and Joe

Vigil was minimalized and marginalized by many of the top U.S. veteran

coaches. By this time, I had already done one master’s thesis on the

necessity of a program such as this and also completed two study tours to

the Soviet Union and East Germany to marvel at the effectiveness of their

well-established programs of talent identification and career development.

By the 1990’s USATF’s Coaching Ed was no longer a “hard sell.” My first

Level 1 school in Boston had three instructors and two participants. By the

time of McGill’s Columbia school we had a classroom full of 40 participants

with many of the top high school and collegiate coaches from throughout

the Northeast prepared and excited for the 21-hour weekend program.

In truth, Brooks assumed the role of “that guy” who felt it necessary to

comment or question virtually every point made not so much for clarification

but rather to highlight the weaknesses of the teaching staff. Cocksure and

hard-headed, Brooks engaged me in a hallway discussion that scratched the

edge of civility and was finally diffused by Kevin McGill’s intervention. I never

forgot the interchange and over the next decade essentially avoided Brooks

whenever possible.

Imagine my surprise in 2005 when I was chosen to be the U.S. National Team

chiropractor for the IAAF World Championships in Helsinki. The honor and

excitement was soon tempered when I found out our team manager would be

none other than Brooks Johnson.

For this World Championships USATF resolved to bring the 4x1 sprinters, both

men and women two weeks early for a relay camp to eliminate the recent history

of poor stick work and dropped batons with an intensive team approach that would

address the issue and prepare our national squads to battle the world. Upon arrival

in Helsinki Brooks addressed both teams and underscored how the relay camp would

progress, why this process would work and how the medal count at these international

championships would either positively or negatively affect the sport’s public image in

the U.S. that in turn would either positively or negatively impact fundraising, athlete

support and help create a more professional model for the future. I remember the athletesbeing attentive and hard-working as

they cycled through two-a-day workouts  in the two weeks before the Helsinki Worlds.

These international assignments are a series of “long days” with morning,

afternoon and occasionally evening therapy sessions. There is much

structured time and little free time as the different four-person squads practiced

and competed in some practice meets in Sweden and Denmark, if memory

serves me.

On my one day off I had contacted the Finnish Chiropractic Association

to introduce myself and offer to speak in Helsinki on the role a chiropractor

plays for the U.S. National Team.  To my good fortune they accepted

my offer and quickly assembled a group of 20+ American-educated

Finnish chiropractors for a lunchtime presentation and discussion. Lunch

was reindeer, Santa’s reindeer, and it was delicious.

As the meeting adjourned, I was taxied back to the U.S. team bus at one of the

famous amusement parks in Helsinki.  The younger sprinters on the team,

Justin Gatlin, Shawn Crawford, Alison Felix and Joanna Hayes all made a day

of it while the bus awaited their return from their afternoon off. When I returned

to the bus there was only one person on the bus, Brooks Johnson. I sat near

the front and we talked.  I explained to Brooks that I had just

addressed the Finnish chiropractors of Helsinki for a lunchtime talk. He was

intrigued and many, many questions followed. Eventually I got to the point

how I emphasized the import of the foot and how during the 1980’s, in my

coaching days, I used foot drills with much success for injury prevention and

speed development. Brooks spoke with enthusiasm how he had done similar

drills during his tenure at Stanford when he had many of the great early

collegiate female distance runners (notably Patti Sue Plumer among others)

and also noted similar successes. 

In the two hour’s time we had to kill until the athletes returned he questioned

me at length how I came up with my “thoughts and theories” on the foot. The

time available allowed me to review my Soviet studies, coaching background,

my master’s thesis and how I was able to combine all this knowledge into

my lower extremity course I taught at NY Chiropractic College. 

In the end he asked if I had heard of the High Performance Summits he organized in

Las Vegas each December? I had not but he extended to me the opportunity

to speak for 90 minutes on my thoughts the coming December to address

coaches from throughout the U.S. on how to improve distance running of

the national teams. I welcomed the opportunity and began to work on

my presentation as soon as I returned to the U.S. from the Helsinki World

Championships.

In the early 2000’s the East African dominance of the middle and long

distances at the international level was without equal. The U.S. languished

as a top five country and medal production or significant performances

were spotty at best for both the men and women. Brooks’s vision was

a long view, not a quick band aid approach. As the Summit grew close I

remember finalizing what was to be my opening statement, “It has only taken

me 18 years to get this audience...” and then I was off on a series of 12

topics that justified my claims using neurology, kinesiology, biomechanics,

neuroplasticity, technique and training to create an argument that American

distance running could transform itself with a different approach. The

December 2005 presentation went very well and I was asked to return in 2006

to give a similar talk.

It should be noted that the Helsinki men’s 4x1 dropped the stick. On the 1-2

exchange the baton flew up in the air and that was the end of the U.S.’s race.

The relay exchanges are a clear example of the psychomotor skill called Fitt’s

Law. Fitt’s Law states that the more rapidly one tries to do any activity the

sloppier the whole process becomes.  This applies to many activities from

relay racing to stacking plastic cups on YouTube. The solution here is to

automate the whole process, as much as possible and then practice what

can be done.

Long ago teammate of mine Jerry Bouma penned a short piece on what

it means to be part of a team. He is a product of one of America’s storied

programs (Villanova) and the support I received following an August health

scare has been nothing short of fantastic and will no doubt underscore the

importance of a shared heritage and development. *

Finally, a farewell to Brooks. Brooks Johnson passed on June 29, 2024 at

age 90 narrowly missing the outstanding performances of the women’s U.S. 4x1

team at the recent Paris Olympics.

Brooks, thank you for a lifetime’s worth of efforts to improve this sport and

leaving an indelible mark. May you rest in peace, my friend.

Russ Ebbets

*  The Jerry Bouma article that Russ mentions will be on our next post.  Ed.

Dr. Russ Ebbets has over 50 years involvement in track and field as an athlete, coach, administrator and healthcare provider. He served as Niagara Association president in 2008-09. He had been a Lead Instructor in the USATF Coaching Education Program since 1983. He has lectured at Level 1,2,3 Schools and at the High Performance Summits on Improving Distance Running in the USA in 2005 and 2006. Since 1999 he has edited Track Coach, the technical journal for USATF. He has lectured nationally, in Scandinavia, Canada, the Caribbean and at the Olympic Training Centers in Colorado Springs and Lake Placid on health and sport related topics. He founded the nationally recognized sports outreach program at NY Chiropractic College that has provided complimentary care at 250+ events including the Millrose Games, the National Scholastic Indoor Championships and Freihofer’s Run For Women treating some 15,000 patients.   from USATF  Niagara

We at Once Upon a Time in the Vest also want to wish Russ Ebbets a speedy recovery to a serious health scare he has recently encountered.

 What an uplifting article in so many ways.  Thanks for sharing.  I did not know much about Russ Ebbets but certainly came to appreciate his knowledge and commitment to our sport.  Bill Schnier

V 14 N. 68 Review of "Races, The Trials and Triumphs of Canada's Fastest Family" by Valerie Jerome

 

 

Statue of Harry Jerome in Stanley Park

Vancouver, British Columbia

  "Races

The Trials and Triumphs of Canada’s Fastest Family"

By Valerie Jerome

Perhaps you remember Harry Jerome?   If not, let me remind you that he is an indelible part of Canadian track and field history if not Canadian history.   But who was Canada's fastest family?  Was it Percy Williams, Olympic 100 meters champ in 1928, or Ben Johnson, Olympic 100 meter champ for a day in 1988, or Donovan Bailey, 100 meters champ in 1996 in Atlanta, or Andre De Grasse, 200 meters champ in 2021 in Tokyo?  Guess again, we're sayng "family", so that implies a few more than one person from the same family.  

How 'bout if your maternal grandfather was Canadian 100 yards champ and competed in the 1912 Stockholm Games.  Or how bout if your sister made the Canadian Olympic team in the 1960 O's in Rome, and you made that team too?  Three people in your family all ran on the Canadian team?  And then you came back after a near career ending injury and won the bronze in 1964 in Tokyo, and your name is Harry Jerome?  Then I think you have the bragging rights to call the Jeromes the fastest family in Canada.

Races was written by Valerie Jerome, the sister of the more famous Harry Jerome.  Their maternal grandfather was Army Howard, Canada's top sprinter in 1912 and also 1913.  He was on the Canadian team that went to compete in Sweden, but because of his being a man of African heritage, he could not stay in the same hotels or eat at the same table with his teammates while traveling in Canada. Yes, Canada, that bastion of liberalism at the end of the Underground Railway, but it was not the terminus where equality and non racist attitudes greeted the former slaves.  

Like US newspapers, Canadian newspapers frequently mentioned race of an individual when writing stories about non-white athletes.  And in those days the Canadian press rarely failed to mention his race in derogatory terms when writing stories about Army Howard.

As Valerie Jerome writes about her grandfather in her book:

                                                  Army Howard lining up for a heat in Stockholm

"...He won the Olympic trials in the 100- and 200-meter dashes with ease and headed off to compete in the 1912 games in Stockholm, Sweden.  A proud man, Army complained to the press that he wasn't allowed to stay with the other athletes when the team mustered in Montreal, because the hotel refused to accept a Black man.  While his White teammates stayed in the hotel, he was sent to a shack near the train station.  Army's willingness to speak up about the racism he encountered displeased Walter Knox, the Canadian team's coach and manager.  Knox told reporters that "The coloured boy was outspoken and disobedient."  Knox was not alone in describing Army, then twenty-four years old, as a "boy".  An article in the Toronto Star about Army and the renowned Indigenous distance runner Tom Longboat repeatedly referred to Army as "the coloured boy" and was headlined "The Coloured Boy and the Indian." 

I was able to confirm this story in the book with the following press clippings.  (ed.)

                         See near bottom of this column the kind words Knox has for Army Howard

                                                           Harry Jerome and Percy Williams

If this reporting had been done in an American paper, I would not have been surprised, but Canada?  The more I read Races the more I learned.  After the American  Civil War when slaves were technically free, some still continued to come to Canada including here on Vancouver Island where I now live.  And after a less than welcoming reception, many chose to return to the land of the 'free'.  After the 1912 Olympics, Army Howard came back to Manitoba where he had been born.  He married a White woman which compounded the racism in his life, and he decided to move up north from Winnipeg to homestead a small farm, but the family was run out of that area and had to move still further north to finally settle down.

In the next generation Harry's father worked as a porter on the Canadian National Railway,  the only steady job a Black man could get in Canada.  He married a woman of mixed heritage who could pass for White.  But with a Black husband finding a home was difficult and the children including Harry and Valerie experienced the racist taunts  regularly in their schools in Vancouver.  Valerie tells this story of unwantedness throughout the book and talks about how she and Harry moved into sport to try, unsuccessfully to get away from some of that treatment.

Both the siblings were injured and underperformed at Rome.  It was especially hard for Harry as he was one of those favored to do well in the sprints.  As a result the press labeled him as a 'quitter', which was not even close to the truth.  He would go on to win the Commonwealth Games gold and set world records.  But in those games he tore the rectus femoris in his thigh completely in two.  This is the muscle that goes down the middle of the front of the thigh.  Bruce Kidd noted in his book that when looking at the injury,  the depression under the skin where the muscle tore was deep enough to put your fist into.  Harry returned to Canada, and a friendly surgeon repaired the injury for free, because he admired Harry for his work.  This was before the days of socialized medicine in Canada.  Despite this terrible injury, Harry was able to rehab and get back into competition within a year and go on to win the bronze medal in the 100 meters in Tokyo behind Bob Hayes and Enrique Figuerola of Cuba.  Bill Crothers (800 meters, bronze) was the only other Canadian medal winner in track and field.  And he had a school named after him.

Another example of what Harry Jerome was up against with the press is recounted again by Valerie.

"...The staging of the Canada Olympic trials  (1964) in St. Lambert, Quebec, in August was to prove as much of an ordeal for the athletes as any of the competition.  The meet was badly run, and the conditions were atrocious.  Gale-force winds lifted much of the track into dusty clouds.  Canada's premier high jumper, Dianne Gerace and Irene Potrowski, queen of the sprints, were among those injured during the events as a direct result of the poor state of the facilities.  The athletes complained, loud and unanimously, but reporters focused on Harry.

'When the rest of the athletes complained about things like this, we were looked upon as well-meaning young people who had been mistreated,'  Bruce Kidd later said.  'For Harry it was different.  It was because he was Black that the media was relentless in the abuse of him for the very same complaints that the rest of us voiced. And what was so remarkable was that he always forgave them.'

"Even the Fotheringhams and O'Briens (local journalists, ed.) he forgave after their malicious attacks that followed his injuries."

"Many athletes wore sunglasses to keep particles out of their eyes.  Only Harry was assumed to be arrogant for wearing them."

"On cool days in the absence of the athletic tights for men that are now commonplace, he wore green long underwear under his shorts something he'd learned in Oregon.  The press described this as cockiness.  None of the athletes found Harry arrogant or cocky.  At the closing banquet, for the first time anyone could remember, they honoured him with a prolonged standing ovation, a spontaneous outpouring of respect and good wishes for the challenge that faced him in Tokyo."

About a third of the book deals with Harry's track career and his time at the University of Oregon and his relationship with Bill Bowerman.  He was not on a full scholarship and worked part time as a janitor on campus.  He married a Canadian woman he met in Eugene, but the marriage was tumultuous to say the least.  After his divorce he would rarely ever see his daughter as she grew up.

After retiring from competition Harry worked most of his life promoting fitness and sport for children through programs sponsored by Ottawa or the government of British Columbia.  Tragically Harry would die at 42 of a brain aneurism.  

Initially I got the book to read more about Harry's athletic career, but soon found myself absorbed reading it more for the story of his life outside the game.  It gave me a better understanding of what it was and still is like to be a person of color even  in a liberal country like Canada.  As well, Valerie Jerome describes in depth the turmoil within the family that makes it a primer for a course in the study of family dynamics.   I can highly recommend this book for these reasons.  

George Brose

I checked out some of Valerie's claims of Harry's bad press at Rome in 1960.  Here is a chronological sequence of stories from the Toronto Star from pre-Olympics leading finally to an admission by Harry's coach in British Columbia taking responsibility for Harry's so called  'attitude' with the press.

                                                      High Hopes  July 16 Toronto Start

                                             July 18,  1960  Toronto Start

                                                       August 26 , 1960  Toronto Star

                               Wins A Heat, Canada's Hopes Are High

                                      

                                                                      It's all downhill from here

                                    Three weeks later they are still on his case

  Finally in November, Harry's coach in Vancouver takes the blame.

V 14 N. 67 Oklahoma State 4x880 World Record Holders (1965) Finally Inducted into OSU Hall of Honor

 

                              Dave Perry (kneeling), Tom Von Ruden, James Metcalf, John Perry

After 59 years, James Metcalf, John Perry, Tom Von Ruden, and Dave Perry were inducted into the OSU Hall of Honor recently.  The Perry brothers and Jim Metcalf were present.  Tom Von Ruden passed away in 2018.   When I was at the University of Oklahoma we frequently ate their cinders in various races.  It was always a great rivalry.  Coming from Ohio, I didn't fully understand the origins of that rivalry. We referred to them as 'The Damned Aggies' and we were known to them as 'the Tea Sippers'.   I just knew we better be ready whether it was at a cross country meet, indoor track, or outdoor track, or a spelling bee.  We had an annual outdoor dual meet and again, both teams knew they best be ready to do extra service for a team victory.  In typical dual meet fashion, some of the lesser lights on the team often played a huge role by getting a third place in the Triple Jump or the Discus throw to add to the team's point total.  I sort of recall that Von Ruden occasionally filled in during the Triple Jump.  Running three races was not unheard of in those meets.  

But this honor is really about the Cowboys raising the bar to the international level when they set the World Record back in 1965.  The Sooners first became aware that there was something in the making for the OSU quartet in 1964 when we met them at the Albequerque Invitational Indoors in the Two Mile Relay.  We hung tough with them for two legs with Long Beach State in the mix and Darryl Taylor of LBSU can attest to that, as he was in that race.  On that third leg Von Ruden blew everyone away with  a 1:51.6 leg and their fourth runner had the track to himself the rest of the way.  A 1:51 in those days was national caliber.  We felt pretty good getting second in that meet.   We were also lucky to win another indoor Two Mile Relay at Texas Tech when the Cowboys got caught in a snowstorm on the way to the meet and didn't get there in time.  We still had to beat Texas, Houston, and Abilene Christian that night.  If it hadn't snowed, we probably would have had another second place trophy.  We had to come over the same roads as they did.  I never heard exactly why they didn't make it.  We may have left campus a few hours earlier.

Remarkably those four guys came to OSU with less than stellar credentials.  Von Ruden was a walk on from Coeur d'Alene, ID,  Metcalf was a fair to middlin' half miler out of Altus, OK.  His older brother Danny had been a very good distance runner for the Cowboys and had graduated by the time Jim arrived.  The Perry brothers, a year apart came to the university from Muskogee, OK with 49-50 second 440 PR's.  I think one of the things that helped them was that Coach Ralph Higgins kept them out of cross country for the most part and made them into half milers, focusing on a lot of repeat 220's in the Fall season.  I think only Von Ruden occasionally ran cross country.  In 1968 he would qualify for the finals of the Olympic 1500 meters.  They also raced a flat out 440 each Friday in an intrasquad relay during that Fall training period.  John shared their workouts with me and Bill Blewett a few years ago and we were astounded.  I was also impressed with how slow those 220's were run in the early Fall and then very gradually built up speed as Winter approached.  By the time Indoor season came along, they were pretty well tuned.  They showed that in that first 1964 race in Albequerque.  

The following youtube link is a 7 minute presentation played at the induction ceremony.

History of the World Record Team

Dave Smith is the main narrator of this video. Dave is old school and understands how important the relays were to all of the colleges and universities. Dave ran for Michigan State and was a Big 10 Champion. I think he ran three events in the Big 10 Championships and won 2.  So he knows what we used to go thru at the relays and doubling and tripling. 

That’s the assistant AD  holding the plaque.  Tom’s wife was in Europe for a long planned trip with girl friends. 

An older  correspondence with John Perry gave more backdrop on their team history beginning with that Albequerque race in 1964 and their World Record with the splits.  

(Albequerque)     Jim Metcalf was a freshman and thus not eligible to run varsity in those days. Here is a recap of those days in John Perry's words:

"We ran John Winingham, John Perry, Tom Von Ruden and Dave Perry in that order. Don’t have the splits except the race was even until Von Ruden got the baton, New Mexico was also in the race and was the pre-meet favorite. This was Tom’s breakthrough race and he ran a 1:51.6, destroyed the field and gave Dave a huge lead. Our winning time was 7:42.8, Oklahoma ran 7:47.4 and Long Beach ran 7:48.4.  George Brose was on the Oklahoma team. Darryl Taylor and Tom Jennings were on the Long Beach team and Darryl also ran the 1000. He was third behind Jim Dupree. OSU also won the mile relay in 3:16.1, Striders were second in 3:16.3 with Adolph Plummer running a great sub 47 anchor leg. We ran Jack Miller, Ray Bothwell, Dave Perry and John Perry in that order. Jack Milller was the Big 8 indoor 440 Champion that year and was unbeatable on the first leg. Our mile relay team was better than our two Mile relay team. The mile relay team won every indoor race including the Big 8 and USTFF in Milwaukee. I’m not counting Chicago where Bothwell got knocked down. However, we changed the order: Jack Miller, John Perry, Ray Bothwell and Dave Perry."

"We only ran one more two Mile relay Indoors in 1964, a winning 7:32.4 over Drake who had just won the Indoor USTFF. The meet was at Kansas State on 220 indoor dirt. Our splits were John Winingham 1:53.9, John Perry 1:53.1, Tom Von Ruden 1:51.5, Dave Perry 1:53.9. We also won the Mile relay in 3:15.2 (David anchored in 47.8)."

"Outdoors, Higgins decided to concentrate on the Mile relay because Missouri could beat everyone in the Midwest relay circuit in the 2 mile and DMR. They had 4 good 880 runners: Larry Ray, Bill Rawson, Charlie Conrad and Robin Lingle at anchor. Lingle was a lot faster than any of us in 1964 and Rawson and Conrad were 1:50.0 runners.  Our Mile relay team got third at Kansas and then went to Penn instead of Drake for the final big relay meet. We got two close thirds at Penn. Villanova beat us without Noel Carroll (Tom Sullivan anchored and beat me)  in the two mile and Morgan State and St. John’s beat us in the Mile relay. That’s about it for 1964, we took a lot of road trips after school was out including Stillwater-Houston-Corvallis. We lost our edge and didn’t run that well. David made the NCAA finals in the 800m and qualified for the Olympic Trials where he was eliminated in the semis. I made it through the  first round of the NCAA but got knocked out in the semis."

"We waited until 1965 to race Missouri and beat them at the Texas Relays  in 1965. Now we were faster on every leg than Missouri (Jim Metcalf, John Perry, Tom Von Ruden and David Perry) and they never raced us again. That’s the year that we ran 7:18.3 at Fresno for the official outdoor World Record. It could have been faster but David hadn’t fully recovered from Strep throat. Our best individual times in 1965 were Metcalf 1:48.5, John Perry 1:48.5, Tom Von Ruden 1:49.2 (relay) and Dave Perry 1:47.7."

The official splits in the WR race were  James Metcalf  1:50.6 ,    John Perry  1:47.5 ,   Tom Von Ruden, 1:49.2 ,   David Perry  1:51.0 .    David was recovering from a bout with strep throat.  Three weeks later he ran a 1:47.7  at the Federation meet in Houston.  

from Darryl Taylor:

"It is beyond incredible that this former LBSC 49er was allowed to receive and pass the baton both indoors and out with such stellar athletes in the       1960s..I believe I ran 5 indoor races and 3-4 outdoor races. In an open 800/880 I could not finish anywhere near these  amazing runners. But with the pressure of not letting the team down, of those 8-9 2MR  races, only once did I have the slowest split.  And THAT  is the highlight of my middle distance  running career . So PROUD, so HONORED and so much respect to Tom Jennings for having the faith in me!  RIP TVR!"

George-Thanks for sharing!

49ER Forever!

Very nice.  It's so interesting that the WR 2-mile relay was made up of ordinary runners who eventually became extraordinary.  It is equally interesting that their times of 1:51 were exceptional at that time, allowing me to believe that my 1:54.6 and 48.6 (R) were not as bad as I have thought in recent years.  Bill Schnier

V 14 N. 66 What The Future May Hold For Human Performance

I'm reading a book titled  "The Coming Wave" by Mustafa Suleyman co-founder of the Artificial Intelligence firms Deepmind and Inflection AI.  I predict it will replace Fred Wilt's "How They Train". 

 Fascinating read about what AI , Bio-Technology, robotics, and DNA research are up to and capable of doing and will do in the near future.  The advances are so huge and mind boggling.  A couple of paragraphs on pages 85 and 86 caught my attention in relation to athletic performance.  In it Suleyman talks about altering humans with Biotech and even creating new humans with genetically altered DNA.   Here is what he says, highlights are mine:

Alongside a host of other promising interventions, the inevitability of physical aging--what seems like a fundamental part of human life--is called into question.  A world where life spans are set to average a hundred years or more is achievable in the next decades.  Nor is this just about longer life; it's about healthier lives as we get older.

    Success would have major societal repercussions.  At the same time cognitive, aesthetic, physical, and performance-related enhancements are also plausible and would be as disruptive and reviled as they are desired.  Either way, serious physical and self-modifications are going to happen.  Initial work suggests memory can be improved and muscle strength enhanced.  It won't be long before "gene doping" becomes a live issue in sports, education, and professional life.  

    Wow, are you thinking what I'm thinking?  Yep.  And Suleyman goes on:

Already the first children with edited genomes have been born in China after a rogue professor embarked on a series of live experiments with young couples, eventually leading, in 2018 to the birth of twins, known as Lulu and Nana, with edited genomes.  His work shocked the scientific community, breaching all ethical norms.  

It would be interesting to know what the experiments that went wrong looked like.    They are probably pickling  in a jar of formaldahyde as I write this.   Makes you wonder what gene edits might have been applied to those Chinese twins.  Will they be adapted to run a marathon in an hour and thirty minutes or high jump nine feet with a two step approach and a scissor kick?   

And with technology advancing so rapidly,  you can now acquire a work bench gene splicing  tool for under $25,000 and start rebuilding  yourself or your grand kids in your garage.  Just have to park the Tesla in the driveway. There is no telling what some 'smart' folks may be cooking up in their home labs right now, and eventually Frankenstein-like athletes may, correction, will be appearing on sports fields.  If it is considered unethical or immoral to do such work on others, it doesn't mean someone won't be able to experiment on themselves.  There are plenty of examples in science of people who did such things on themselves or on family and friends.

“In France, a chemist named Pilatre de Rozier tested the flammability of hydrogen by gulping a mouthful and blowing across an open flame, proving at a stroke that hydrogen is indeed explosively combustible and that eyebrows are not necessarily a permanent feature of one's face.”

― Bill Bryson, A Short History of Nearly Everything

In his book Bryson describes a number of other 'experimenters.

If interested I suggest this article by Josh Clark on 'How Stuff Works'

10 Scientists who experimented on themselves

My hypothesis for how we should deal with these issues as well as the challenges of global warming and the need to reduce carbon emissions is as follows.

Instead of using AI and Biotechnology to make humans bigger and stronger, we should revamp them into smaller and more efficient beings.  This could be done over about three generations.  Of course this will be a reversal of the evolutionary process in some ways. Possibly makes visiting the 'Creation Museum' in Petersburg, Kentucky, more interesting.   

But realize that a smaller more efficient body will take less energy to exist.   If we can reduce the average height of humans to say 24 inches  or 0.6 meters we could reduce the demand for energy down by 67%, just for human consumption alone.  We could abandon cities like NYC, Dallas,  Paducah, Vancouver, and Medicine Hat and rebuild new ones at one third scale. Might need immigrant labor to pull this off.   But we would need fewer fields under cultivation, fewer factories producing small cars, trucks, and airplanes.  We could go from singing 99 Bottles of Beer on the Wall to 32.67 Bottles of Beer.   The Indy 500 would become the Indy 165.  Our running tracks would go from 400 meters down to 132 meters.  I know you say this is too difficult for the human mind to make such adaptations, but we did it once before  when we went from tracks measuring 440 yards down to 400 meters. I admit we still can't do the Fahrenheit to Celsius conversion in our heads  But we must for the sake of humanity.  FYI, you convert Celsius to Fahrenheit by doubling Celsius temps and adding 30 degrees.  So 10 degrees Celsius is 2x10 + 30 = 50 F.  That is why Canadian six packs have 42 beers according to the McKenzie Brothers, Doug and Bob.

In all honesty,  I did not come up with this concept on my own.  I owe a tremendous debt to Steve Martin for blazing the path to this hypothesis.    See link:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GOrdzCHnpw4

 And of course we'd have to get Putin to go along with it and do the same for the Russian people.  'You go first, Vladimir.'  Nyet, nyet, you go first, while I have a vodka tonic.'  

 I would also love to hear the responses of the presidential candidates if this question were thrown at them in another debate.  

Get ready for the next fifty, no, make that ten years and don't say I didn't warn you.   George

P.S.   After running this piece past my daughter, her response was, "Oh Dad, Matt Damon already did this in a film called Downsizing.  

  George,

Have you read anything by Ray Kurzweil, futurist author, who has been predicting this type of stuff for years. Saw him interviewed on tv, but haven't read anything by him. Says people will "merge" with AI, for better intelligence, health, longevity, etc. Sort of already happening when you see the younger generation basically having phone attached to their ear. People walking around staring at their phones, oblivious to the world around them.

Bruce

   I am looking for AI to invent a kindness gene, or a truthful gene, or a happy gene.  Bill Schnier

V 14 N. 65 Thoughts and Musings About Promoting Track and Field

This week I was almost intrigued by the promotion of the meet called Athlos, in the old Randall's Island stadium now called the Icahn Stadium in NYC.   However I wasn't intrigued enough to remember to watch it.  Gettin' old, I guess.  But I did read about it  and wondered how someone dreamed up this promotion.  Personally I'm on burn out after the Olympics and Diamond League wrap ups.  This concept of sharing a waning sportlight with Megan Thee Stallion or whomever to draw in the non-track fans reminds me of TV shows like Dancing With The Stars or The Masked Singer or America's Got Talent.  Throw in some B celebrity, add a bit of  pizazz with fireworks and try to get athletes already well on the downward slope after a hard season of competition to race for money.  That's probably the answer,  money.  If the sponsor had thrown in a million dollars or so for a world record performance and scheduled the meet a week or two before or after the Paris Olympics, it might have gotten some traction with me.  Consider when some kids in college can do much better on the current NIL revenues than world class athletes could do at Athlos ($60,000 for a win). In comparison, players in the WNBA receive an average annual pay of $119,590 or   ($2,989.75/game in a forty game season) with the highest-earning players in the WNBA receiving around $252,000 or $6,250/game.   Men in the NBA have a minimum salary of $1,157,153 for an 82 game season or an average of $14,111.62 per game.   The median NBA salary is a wopping $6,696,429.00.   You're right, women's sport pay sucks, but in track and field, men's pay sucks equally.    A noble effort by the Athlos organizers, but they were working with a tired product at a time when football, Major League Baseball, and even cross country might be of more interest to a lot of the the track and field public.  My mistake, they were going after people who had little or no knowledge in the sport by promoting it with Megan T S.  You're right again, the Super Bowl at half time does that too.  Maybe they could have gotten Snoop Dog going against Jay Zee in a pole vault competition  or better still Sean Diddy Combs against  R. Kelly both out on  recognisance bonds for a go at a broad jump. 

 This also reminds me of some past attempts to promote the sport in a somewhat unconventional way linked to other activities.  In 1954 in Toronto, Canada, an organization supporting track and field for young athletes held a training camp and brought in some American coaching talent including Fred Wilt, Ken Doherty,  and Brutus Hamilton to conduct a clinic.  In conjunction a track meet was put on at the Canadian National Exposition grounds while a circus was camped in the infield for a performance later that evening.  

Several well known athletes were brought in to run some exhibition races.  Among them was Wes Santee there to race a mile.  Indeed it was special.  When the gun went off several elephants got excited and bolted from their handlers.  As Wes was rounding the last turn of the race he found the elephants blocking his path and had to run around them.  He won the race in  a pedestrian 4:25 obviously not going all out, or perhaps he stepped in something.  After this elephantine performance Wes came back in an equally slow 880 in 1:58. Sort like the old saying of 'all of a sudden there was a piano or an elephant on his back'.

Another event that I recall where Track and Field was promoted on television in the 1950's

was a decathlon dual mano a mano between Rev. Bob Richards the 1952 and 1956 Olympic

pole vault champ and Bob Mathias the 1948 and 1952 Olympic decathlon champion.

Richards was also a noted decathlete, so the event was somewhat evenly matched, although

Mathias may have had to come out of retirement. I recall that the meet was televised and

held indoors at the Naval Academy. Correct me if I'm wrong on this as I have not been able

to find a report on the event. I do recall that Richards won the 1500 meters and the decathlon.

The whole thing was a promotion by one of the major TV networks possibly with a Wheaties

sponsorship.

I've never promoted a track meet but I have some ideas in case you are wondering.

This link will give you a hint of what I have in mind for an opening 'act'.

https://youtu.be/l3w4I-KElxQ We would try to arrange for elephants on this one as they did

in Toronto. That was 70 years ago. Some of those elephants might still be alive and living in

nursing homes. The Italians took this event a step or two further in Verona. Check this out

as well as the first violinst.

https://youtu.be/QDLOOpCEvo8

But couldn't you see Noah Lyles being inspired to come out in a tunic and 'perform' in

an event like this? The athletic ballet dancers in the second show leave little to the

imagination.

I rest my case.

George Brose

.George, George, George,

    You and I know that track will never be a spectator sport that people will pay money to see.  There are people I know here in EUGENE that don't know about the Diamond league.  The only time a significant number of people in this country watch track is the olympic trials .    

  We're a ball sport country         

Mike  Waters

..brings to mind the 4th place in the 1941 NAAU at Randall's Island that my mentor--the late  Bob Wingo of Wayne University, my alma mater--clocked with a 47.3 at 400 meters.  

Dr. John Telford

George:  Re: ways to generate interest in track and field:

I have always thought that having a mini track meet at halftime of a football game would not only be exciting, but could create some interesting competitions on a continuing basis for the school involved.  Consider:  a 4 by 100 relay, a half mile race, and a 4x400 relay with runners from the schools with the two teams playing football-- to kill that otherwise dead time filled by boring bands with mediocre music, performing meaningless maneuvers on the gridiron.  It could be extended to even more interesting field events, say pole vault and high and triple jump, which could go in simultaneously with the running events.  Kind of a mini Texas Relays in the 30 minutes between halves.  I don't think longer races would work.  The attention span of the average football fan might not tolerate it.    Oops I left out the 4 x 200 which is a real crowd pleaser.  And I realize that some schools, like the U. of Texas took out their tracks around their football field and moved them to a separate stadium.  So the only relays they could run would be the shuttle hurdles, which are somewhat of an oddity..   But for schools with tracks in their football stadium---and there are still lots of them around---it would be an exciting half-time show, and give those otherwise obscure runners, a chance to runbefore the largest crowd imaginable.     Walt 

Okay for high school I suppose, Walt.  But I'd hate for you to be present at the meeting of the Band Parents Club when your suggestion is put out there.  And the cheerleader moms are some of the most brutal people in the world. They make the Taliban look like a 4H Club.    Careful where you mention this idea.  Of course there probably is not a DI stadium with a track anymore, so it's not an option at college games.

When I was in high school in Dayton in the 1950s/60s we sometimes had a 2 mile cross country meet that started in the stadium a few minutes into halftime and finished ten minutes or so later.  We circled the track once and went out into the night along a highway basically in the dark and back to the stadium.  Started having problems when one of the schools finished ten runners after starting only seven.  The coach had three waiting out on the highway in the dark and they joined the race in the last mile.  But they forgot to remove their last three guys and got caught out.  George