v.4 n.87 The Value of Your T Shirt and a Phil Scott Sighting

Phil Scott with a pair of early Lydiards

A few days ago, Phil Scott our inveterate collector of old track shoes and restorer of old bicycles sent me an E-Bay sale picture of a 1974 T Shirt for US AAU women's cross country championships.  Our club , the Kettering Striders , had hosted that meet in Bellbrook, Ohio.  The bidding was to start at $130 or you could buy it for $179, astonishing.  This looked like a well worn shirt from somebody's attic.   Was it the cleaning out of an estate or the result of a divorce, I have no idea, but it brought out memories of my old T-shirts and the constant struggle with my wife to keep those old rags in the house and not put them out on the next trash collection day.  I was hoping too that Steve Price who coached the Striders might still have a box of those shirts stashed in his basement.  I would have offered him $5.00 each.

 Undoubtedly a few of you still have some of your old T-shirts or have memories of some of the really good ones.  Maybe you would like to share some T-shirt stories?     One of the great shirts I remember was from a 15Km race in Plymouth, Indiana called the Blueberry Stomp.  Marshall County Blueberry Festival is tied in to that race on Labor Day weekend.  It's a flat and fast course as I recall, though it's been 35 years since I've run there.   The starting line was covered with several quarts of blueberries and that is where the race took its name. By the looks of the kids on last year's starting line, they still make a nice T shirt.

We had one kid at Florida with some old cotton t's that you could see through. He loved those old shirts.

I have two t shirts from 1968   Tiger Shoes Mexico City Olympic Rings (has holes in Armpits)  and Alamosa, CO  Olympic marathon training site. (no holes but thin).  I usually wear them once every 4 years at Eugene, USOT.

Bruce Kritzler

I had a 1957 MId Atlantic Road Runners  T, but I think Judy pitched it.
Steve.

George,

Sadly, I do not have a collection of old running t-shirts. I gave them away freely over the years to friends, other runners, family, etc. A couple even got tossed out as "being around the house forever," according to my wife. At one time I was famous in our little Lehigh Valley (PA) as the guy with all of the foreign t-shirts from my ramblings across Europe, Asia, Africa, and the Middle East - but folks would admire them & I would give them away. All good things come to an end.

Jerry McFadden

P.S. I like your new format!

Funny but 2 days ago I was clearing out some stuff, including some old T shirts, to see if I had anything the US Olympic Archivist could use in the collection she maintains.  I figured they would only want medal 
winners or "name" athletes but she seemed interested that I had a complete USA sweat top, sweat bottoms, competition running singlet and running shorts from the 1960 Games in Rome.    I also found
a T shirt from the 1959 Pan Am Games, a T shirt from the 1963 Pan Am Games and a fairly decent
T shirt from 1960.   I plan on taking all the "junk", ahhhh, outfits down to the USOC office next week.
Ernie Cunliffe

Editor's note:   this email from Ernie is going to break the hearts of a lot of collectors of track memorabilia, but as I've discerned over the years in corresponding with Ernie, it would not be his way to sell something of that importance.  Where others might exploit their fame, Ernie is not one who pounds his chest to extol his deeds or make financial gain.  When he tells his stories, it is not in an egoistic manner, but more in, I might have done better, or wow, that other guy sure ran a hell of a race against me.   I'm currently reading Kenny Moore's book Bowerman and the Men of Oregon, and in it Kenny quotes Dyrol Burleson after running the first sub 4:00 mile at Hayward Field.  It is well known that Ernie set the pace for that race.   Here is what Moore relates,

     "...it was the crowns that mattered, not the times.  After his seemingly effortless 3:58.6 against 
     Stanford's Cunliffe, fans couldn't help asking how fast he (Burleson) would have run if he'd blasted 
     off with half a lap to go instead of 100 yards.  (The world record was Herb Elliott's 3:54.5.)  'It 
     doesn't matter,  ' Burleson would say and mean it.  ' I don't run for time.  I run to win.  That mile 
     was a credit to two men, and I'm not one of them. It was a credit to Bill (Bowerman) for preparing 
     me so well and a credit to Ernie for setting such a tough pace.'  "  

Well, done Ernie, in turning over those items to a place where they may be cataloged, preserved and displayed in the future.   

John Bork's T Shirts
George:

Nice web site upgrade. Youi're a whizz!

Does Jerry McFadden help with the technical side, too?

I have two Olympic Jersey's from the 1968 Games.

The first is from Australian High Jumper Tony Snezwell.

The seonod is a West German Olympic Jersey from Arndt Krueger of UCVLA/Germany..

Believe it or not, they were willing to trade their second Olympic Jersey for a Southern California Striders T-Shirt. 

we were just that powerful and famous back then! 

Another One from Ernie

Hey George here is something I just remembered when the subject of T shirts  came up.   As many know, the Olympic athletes like to exchange uniform items.   In Rome, I swapped a running singlet with a

South African Discus thrower, Stephanus du Plessis, who like me, did not make the podium or for that

matter the finals of his event either.   He was 6'3" and about 240 lbs so his singlet was merely something

I kept for years along with many other treasures I had swapped over the years.

In 2000 I was on a trip to Africa and as a last minute thought, I put the singlet in my bag and carried it

throughout the continent until I was in South Africa.   I asked the tour guide if there was any way I could

get his singlet to him or to his family.   As luck would have it one of the hosts knew the du Plessis family

and said he would take the Olympic singlet to them.   I might add, that the competitor number was still

attached, so they would know it was genuine.  I learned a little later that he died in 2001 but did get

the singlet and in the words of our tour guide, the family was "over the moon" after 40 years to get

a significant item from his 1960 Olympic participation.   He had also been in the 1956 Games and was

twice a gold medal discus winner in the Commonwealth Games plus a bronze in the shot.



This club patch also from South Africa came from an Oklahoma teammate in 1961.  Brian Du Plessis was a 48 sec. 440 runner, but more notably was a Springbok Junior, ie a member of the national junior rugby team.  He gave me his running vest which I kept for years and saved the patch when I 'outgrew' the vest.   The initials stand for Krugersdorp Athletics and Sports Club.  Ernie, we both knew DuPlessis athletes.  The family name is not uncommon in South Africa.  Probably from the French Hugenot settlers who came to South Africa in the 18th century via Holland.   George Brose

The Phil Scott Siting

Going on about Phil Scott who has been featured on this blog with his collection of track shoes and his son Jason who coaches with Phil at Cedarville University in Ohio,   Phil is one of the nation's major track nuts.  You could call Phil in the middle of Thanksgiving dinner next week and he would talk track with you until late in the night.  His mother once told him,  "Phil, I only asked you what time it was, not how to make the watch."     Well, back in the early 1970's  Phil was a fair to middlin' decathlete winning the US juniors in 1970 and US JUCO championships in 1974 at Santa Barbara.  

Most of us who have seen the picture have sent some comments around.  We're not sure Phil was this big, but maybe he was, and our memories have just faded.  Here is some of the chatter the photo elicited beginning with Phil's first message.

Found this picture today in some old boxes looking for Christmas lights.  Best shape of my life with Steve Price coaching me.  The college system got in my way of real relaxed training.    Phil

Do you think that shot of Phil is real or faked?  Was he ever that big?   George

What a stud muffin!!   Steve

If I had one athlete who remotely looked like you I would be satisfied.  Marc Arce (U. of Findlay coach)

Phil ,  I gotta believe you were 100% natural, living on breast milk and Wheaties.   What a shoulder and biceps.  You could have been a gladiator or chariot driver in biblical times.   George

I believe the shot you were throwing went aobout 68' 9" at least.  You better blow up that picture , make it into a poster , and save for your grandchildren.   Bill Schnier

I think I'll do one for my grandchildren too, but with my face.  George

Phil, did you photoshop that head on Russ Hodges' body?   Bruce Kritzler

I cannot remember him being that big, but who knows.  Maybe he will send us a 'just kidding' email.  On the other hand I don't think he has the means to put his head on someone else's body.   Steve.

Hey Folks that is me all 185 lbs 5'10" body only supplement I took or could afford was flintstone vitamins. I lifted 3 times a week in old building behind my home . I think Greg Price though was bigger and stronger than myself.  Coach Barney Cook from strides put me on a weight schedule.  I could bench 340.  Squat 450 dead lift ???  Took a beating on me later after 12 hour back surgery. I was clean but could not beat cheaters. But I have a conscious:) Thanks for all the nice comments and for Steve Price being my coach and motivator!             I won Jr . NATIONALS 1971 PENTATHLON        INDOOR NATIONALS PENTATHLON 1972.       CA. JR. COLLEGE 1973 DECATHLON.            

1972 OLYMPIC TRIALS Qualifier. Could not compete a nail went through my foot on construction site.

Phil Scott

Now that's from the horse's mouth.   George