Vol. 4 NO. 18 Some Noticable Changes in Our Blog

The regular readers of Once Upon A Time In The Vest will note a few changes in our layout.  All of the changes are on the right side of the page.   

The Count
To begin,  we now have a number at the top of the right column showing the total number of hits on the blog since it began in 2009.   We're up to 66,000 now and average about 200 hits per day.  Justin Beeber news still is much more popular than we are, but of course we feel we're much more substantive in our interests. 

Below the hit numbers are listed the  ten most popular stories we've posted.   This changes hourly as people turn on the site and look for particular stories, or get referred to a particular posting  directly from other sites. 

Our favorite blogs and websites.

Scroll on down on the right, and you will see a list of our favorite blogs and websites.   Run on Thoughts by James Gerweck is one I've recently found and enjoy immensely.


Fionnbar Callanan
http://www.fionnbarcallanan.com/
Mr. Callanan is an Irish photographer of international reknown  and a former Irish national class runner who has put out some very good portraits of athletes in many sports.  He has a chapter on his site for track and field and cross country with some high quality work.   I'm sure this is only a sampling of his complete work, but is definitely worth a visit.

Gerald Bloncourt
http://bloncourt.over-blog.net/

http://bloncourt.over-blog.net/1-je-les-ai-rencontr%C3%89s-sports

Monsieur Bloncourt was born in Haiti and came to France before WWII.  HIs family were members of the French Resistance during the war, and his brother was executed.  Gerald , a poet and a strong leftist took clandestine photos during the German occupation.  He also took a lot of pictures of French national sports heroes in the 1940's and 1960's including Zatopek when he ran several cross country races in France.  There are even some pictures of Alain Mimoun's wedding.  The first link takes you to his website, which is fun to explore if you read some French.  If not go to the second link and you will be on the sports photo pages.

Kansas Track Alums
raywyatt.net/
This site is run by Ray Wyatt who ran at Kanas in the late 1950's and was a teammate of Wes Santee as well as Al Oerter, Bill Nieder, and Wilt Chamberlain.  There is a lot of personal stuff on the site, but if you explore it you will find the Kansas Track and Field Hall of Fame and some  stories about Ray's  teammates. 

Dr. Michael Joyner  Human Limits
http://www.drmichaeljoyner.com/
Dr. Joyner runs this site and is on the staff at the Mayo Clinic.  He has a lot articles on sports medicine.  Recent articles cover ideas on genetics and athleticism.   He is long distance runner and competitive cyclist.

Michigan State University Cross Country History Project
http://www.ahs.uwaterloo.ca/~mhavitz/MSUCrossCountryStudy.htm
Dr. Mark Harvitz at the University of Waterloo in Ontario, Canada organized this site as part of a history project to write a book on Michigan State cross country.  Lots of good accounts of the early days of NCAA national championships and stories and photos going back 100 years.



U. of Oklahoma  Track Alums (1950's 1960's era)
www.oonka.com/ou
I began this site after an alumni visit to the Big 12 meet in 2004 possibly.  My cousin living overseas set up the site due to my cybernetic ignorance of how to do such things.  Needless to say I had to collect items, email to her in Hawaii then South Korea, then she would design and post the new information.   This was quite burdensome, and though it connected a lot of old Sooners of that era, it really didn't have a draw outside that very small circle.  It is still  on the web, but there haven't been any postings for several years.  A KU Jayhawker, Michael Solomon somehow found it, and contacted me suggesting I try to do more with it, and those words of encouragement eventually led to Roy Mason and I starting Once Upon a Time in the Vest.

Penn State Track and Field Alumni Golf    http://psutafalumnigolf.blogspot.ca/

The title of this blog says it all.   A bunch of merrymakers from Happy Valley.  Great stuff on their site.  Not a whole lot of reverence.  I love this , because it makes me smile almost every time I open it.  And they give Once Upon a Time in the Vest  more respect than it deserves. 

Racing Past  by John Cobley
racingpast.ca 
John Cobley is a retired sportswriter residing in Victoria, British Columbia.   He is an Englishman of origin and a former runner at Brigham Young.  If you want to know anything about middle distance and distance running from 1920 to 1980,  go to this site and be prepared to spend a lot of time.  His work is detailed and thorough and written with a literary hand.  I have learned so much from this site. 

Running Shots
http://runningentertainment.com/runningshots35.html
I cannot remember how I found this site.  It doesn't matter.  What does matter is this is one of the best places to find photos of American distance running from the 60s to the present.  We don't even know who manages this site, but everyone who visits it asks,  "Where did this guy find all these pictures?"  Not knowing who this guy is makes an answer impossible.  Hats off to this guy.  Hey, we now know that the guy is Dan Martinez.  Dan ran for Oregon back in the late 1970s.  He's an avid collector of 1970s track and field photos.

Run on Thoughts by  Jim Gerweck
runonthoughts.com  .  This blog came to us on a referral of good things to read on the Track and Field News website.  Jim is the most cerebral, original thinker  I've seen in our field.  He has a sense of history and has seen the changes over many years that our sport has experienced.  His posting on A Sense of History, is a good jumping off place when you start reading this blog.  

elathletea  (Spain) Track and Field
http://elatleta.com/
Hope you read Spanish.  This has everything that is going on in today's track and field world in Spain, but it also has a great photo gallery of older stuff.  You can click on the translator on your computer if you don't read espagnol.   Hit the  link below to get to the pictures. Don't ask me where they get all the literary captions.

http://www.microsofttranslator.com/bv.aspx?from=&to=en&a=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.elatleta.com%2Fforo%2Fshowthread.php%3F153960-Un-cuento-contado-por-un-idiota-que-nada-significa-El-mundo-de-ayer-(1960-1980)%26s%3Dcfe4f8cb05174278ce3475c26ab81caa

Walt Murphy's Today in Track and Field and Cross Country
http://www.trackandfieldnews.com/index.php/display-article?arId=69823
This daily report on historical happenings in track and cross country, provides a daily reminder of what happened in the past in our sport.  It's found on the Track and Field News website.