September 4,2013
I spent the morning and part of the afternoon with my friends Steve Price and Phil Scott. Steve was for years the women's coach at Bowling Green State University, and Phil coached many years in the Midwest and most recently at Cedarville University. His son Jason is pushing 18 feet as a pole vaulter. Phil restores antique bicycles, was a national JC decathlon champ in the early 70's at Santa Barbara JC, and now lives in the Dayton, Ohio area. He is the collector of track shoes who was featured in the blog last year. He is a fount of track stories, humour, wisdom, absurdity, and an unabashed raconteur. His mother once told him, "Phil, I only asked you what time it was, not how to make the watch." Below are some of the shoes Phil has collected over the years on eBay, by calling people up and charming them with his interest in them and his ability to demonstrate his profound track and field knowledge. In one instance Phil was talking to Ron Morris the bronze or silver polevault medalist in 1960. He learned that Ron had never seen any film of himself vaulting in the Olympics. Phil contacted the IAAF in Switzerland and borrowed video from them and got it copied and sent to Ron. He's always doing things like that and sometimes the favors are returned.
He tells a story of working in a shoe department in Dayton and a lady, completely irate, came in to return a pair of Nikes. Her comment, "Don't even get me started. I'm so angry. There was no note in the box saying you could not put these in the washer and dry them in the dryer. Now look at them." Phil opened the box and found a pair of track shoes all dried up burnt, and twisted. He didn't know what to do.
Finally the owner of the store came down to see what all the commotion was about, heard her story and replied, "Maman, there wasn't any note on your stove saying not to stick your head in the oven was there?"
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| Phil in his basement, he's recovering from serious back surgery. That explains the brace. |
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| 1920's indoor shoe |
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| Pin Head Spikes in those 1920 indoor shoes |
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| Phil with Bill Ashenfelter's shoe worn in 1952 Olympic Steeplechase. Bill's brother Horace won at Helsinki, Bill DNF'd. |
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| 1958 knockoffs to look like Adidas, made by Brooks |
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| 1920's or 30's marathon shoe |
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| John Walker model Brooks |
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| John Walker signature model, not his actual signature |
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| A shoe called Magnus |
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| 1950's Aussie Shoe |
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| Lilly Whites Piccadilly Circus - England 1960 |
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| Sportcraft England late 1960's |
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| Gola |
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| Gotham Athletic Footwear |
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| Gotham's |
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One of Phil's Shrines
These in center are all of the shoes son Jason ever wore. Jason is
still vaulting and coaching at Cedarville University in Ohio, his alma mater. |
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A brand called Lowe & Campbell, cities listed on label
Cincinnati, Kansas City, Minneapolis, |
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| Lowe and Campbell |
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| One of the early jazzed up Nikes |
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These shoes worn by Joe Deloach at 1988 Olympics kept Carl Lewis to 3 golds instead of 4 with Deloach winning the
200 meters at Seoul. Phil picked these up at a sports memorabilia auction. He was the only bidder. They
are signed by Deloach |
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| Deloach winning the 200 over Lewis |
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Phil is still trying to figure out what these shoes were used for.
The have an inscription 'Wimbeldon' on the sole. |
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| Sole on the 'Wimbeldon' Tennis anyone? |
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Restoration projects in another wing of the basement.
The orange frame belonged to a world champ from Dayton, Karl Kiser from the
1920's. Found in a garage in Old North Dayton. Slowly being rebuilt. Black bike
in the back has wooden wheel rims. Phil won a national championship for
antique bikes on this model. |
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| Spotbilts |
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| An early Lydiard. Phil thinks this is the lightest shoe ever made. |
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