We've been in touch lately with Darryl Taylor, former Long Beach State College running great. Darryl has sent us a personal (isn't that the best?) account of the 1963 Colesium Relays 2 mile relay in which he turned in the fastest individual split as reported in our last post. We solicited this from him. He's much too modest to have sent this to us without a bit of coaxing. We are also putting some pictures of Darryl from those days and a current photo, again on our insistence. I'm sure you will recognize some of the outstanding runners of that era in these photos.
Hey George and Roy-What a delight to read your May 1963 Post. To find my name mentioned among my heroes of the 1960's is truly an honor. My best 880 prior to the 1963 Coliseum Relays was the Long Beach State College record of 1:51.4 that I clocked in the 1962 Mt. SAC Relays while placing 5th. In the Coliseum 2MR Long Beach State was a long shot to do anything special as our previous best 2MR was a 7:41 we had recorded at the Long Beach Relays in March.. Ralph Lee had just arrived on campus from a northern California JC and joined us with some very impressive credentials, having run 1:52.1 in the California HS State Meet as a senior and lowering that to 1:51.6 at San Mateo JC . Ralph did a great job of leading off with a 1:51.7 and got the baton to me in 5th place, trailing Oxy, San Jose State, Stanford and Fordam, if memory serves. During the 2nd leg I worked my way past a couple of the leading teams and came within a stride of catching Dave Moon from Occidental before passing off to Tom Jennings on the 3rd leg. As you probably know, Tom established the 49er Track Club which morphed into the Pacific Coast Club while he and his son perfected the Finish Lynx computerized timing system used at many of today's major indoor and outdoor meets. While Tom was running a strong 1:53 third leg, I was wondering what my split would be and as I as putting my sweats on, I overheard Coach Jim Bush from OXY tell his Dave Moon that he had broken 1:50. Knowing that I had gained some yards on him I was overwhelmed with the idea that I could have gone under 1:50 also. Occidental and San Jose were in a near dead heat at 7:21 while Stanford and Fordam worked their way past our team to finish at 7:25 and 7:27. Just wish Coach Jack Rose could have been there to witness our coming of age against what we called the "Big Boys". Finishing behind us were USC and New Mexico.
My coach, Jack Rose, was not in attendance as he had traveled to Fresno for the NCAA Regional Championships where team mate Bill Crowley, former CIF Champion for Compton HS, lowered the LBSC mile record to 4:07 while winning that event. Through Tom Jennings, a T&F News correspondent, I had met both Corder and Bert Nelson and I knew where they were seated in the Coliseum, taking notes and taking splits throughout the competition. I nervously made my way up to their perch and asked if they had taken splits in the 2MR for the 5th place team. Both seemed genuinely pleased to read off their official splits for LBSC, including my 2nd leg of 1:48.6. I didn't sleep that night as I could not comprehend what had just happened. For one night, for one competition, I was able to match strides with the guys that I had looked up to for so many years. It was what I consider my finest race ever on an outdoor track. The 7:29.8 5th place in that race in 1963 remains the fastest ever run by a LBSC team. I returned in 1964 and ran in the open 880 where I recorded my only other sub 1:50 clocking at 1:49.6. What I never knew until reading your blog was that I ran the fastest split of all the competitors that night.
I talked to Coach Andy Scythe at LBSC this past December during an All-Comers meet there while taking my grandson Ryan to compete in the mile. My 1:49.6 remains the # 7 fastest in school history after these past 49 years. I asked him if it might survive this next season among the top ten and he said that a pair of sub 1:50 transfers might have a say in that. The Coliseum Relays was one of the great, great west coast meets ever and its demise has hurt the sport in this area. I'm often asked what happened to the great indoor meets and great outdoor meets that fueled my imagination (Compton, Coliseum, Modesto, Fresno Relays, LA Times, LA Invitational, San Diego Indoor) and I've never been able to come up with a satisfactory answer.
Let me thank you for allowing me to remember the singular highlight of my outdoor running career on your wonderful blog. The names the places the times of that era will always remain at the top of my list of running and racing memories.
Sincerely-Darryl Taylor
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| SPAAU Championships held at Occidental. Steve Hass-Greg Pelster-Harris Williams-Ted Nelson and I all finished between 1:51.2 and 1:51.9 (my 5th place time). |
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The Long Beach Indoor Games of 1964. I placed 3rd behind John Bork and Greg Pelster at 2:10.9.
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| Smiling for the camera was not high on my list, this being the finish of a school record 4:16.7 mile against the Camp Pendleton Marines in 1962. Dave Kemp and I had the same time but I edged him out at the tape. Dave Mellady trails in 3rd. As fate would have it, both Kemp and Mellady would join me later as members of the 49er Track Club that won the National AAU Indoor Championships 2MR in 1966 with yet another Dave (Perry) anchoring in Albuquerque. |
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| Dual meet in '63 with Dave Kemp now at LA State. Yes, I caught him again here with a 4:15.0 but he returned the favor at Conference Championships by winning the 880 at LBSC. |
Comment from Michael Solomon
George,
Dr. Jack Rose at long beach st. was a truly great coach and ambassador for the sport.
He started the track and field hall of fame in of all places....West by god Virginia? Don't know if it still is open or not?
Wish more coaches were like Jack Rose.
Mike
I remember when he was starting it there in Charleston WV back in the mid 1970's. It has since been moved elswhere. George
Just confirmed it's located at The Armory in NYC.
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