V 7 N. 34 April, 1967

APRIL 1967

    The outdoor season is starting slowly for everyone not named Randy Matson. As the more astute of our readers may remember, last month's report ended with mention of Neil Steinhauer's outdoor season opener. Oregon's Superduck tossed the 16 pound ball 68-11¼ on May 25. Did this serve as a wake up call for Matson?

    Whether this provided impetus or not for the Texas A&M senior we don't know, but his next three weeks are impressive. The week after Steinhauer's magnificent effort, Matson puts the shot 68-8 and surprises himself with a collegiate discus record of 201-1 in the Texas Relays.

    This is but a warm up for the following week, April 8, on his home field at College Station. He starts by whipping the discus 213-9, the second farthest ever, only 2½ inches short of Ludvik Danek's world record and erasing Jay Silvester's American record of 210-6. He also finds time for the shot where his 70-5½ barely missed his own WR of 70-7. All in all not a bad afternoon, but there is still more to come.

    Matson's final collegiate home appearance on April 22 is celebrated as Randy Matson Day. He makes it a memorable occasion with a throw of 71-5½, adding 10¼ inches to his 1965 world record. In the world of shot putting there is Randy Matson and then there is everyone else.

    That is not to say Matson is the biggest draw for midwestern track fans. That role belongs to Jim Ryun from Kansas. At the Texas Relays his 1:46.1 880 anchor brings the Jayhowks sprint medley team home in 3:15.2, the fastest ever run. But Ryun saves his individual effort for the hometown Kansas Relays where his 3:54.7 lowers Bob Day's collegiate record from 3:56.4.

    Wait a minute you may be saying, Jim Ryun ran the world record of 3:51.3 last year as a freshman. World record, yes, but collegiate record, no, as he was only a freshman and therefore not eligible to compete on the varsity level. For those of you left with a dropped jaw and a stunned stare, let me repeat that. If you are a college student in good standing and set a world record against some of the best competition in the world, it doesn't count as a college record because you are a freshman. See, when you explain it like that it makes sense....right?

Clyde Duncan went on to become coach at Texas Southern. The
Des Moines , IA, native still holds the Iowa record for
100 yards at 9.3 seconds.

    Texas Southern uses the Grambling relays to tie the 440 world record with a team of Bobby Evans, Clyde Duncan, Lee Smith and Jim Hines running 39.6 to equal the mark set by Southern University last year.

    USC's Earl McCullough has a pretty good day. In addition to his regular high hurdle (13.8) and 440 relay (40.0) duties, he finds time to win the long jump (25-2¼) and the 220 (21.4) in a meet at Foothill College in the Bay Area. Former Arizona State weightman Jon Cole is concentrating on the discus in his post collegiate career. His 204-8 throw on April 22 in Provo moves him to seventh on the all time list.

Calvin Hill as a Yale Eli

    Bits and Pieces. There is a photo of a Yale horizontal jumper, Cal Hill, who has set school records of 25-1 and 49-6¾. Remember him? He is the guy who took up another sport and lived in the Dallas area for some time. Here is another hint: he added a ”vin” to his first name. He also had a kid who took up basketball with a degree of competence......Photo on the front page of this issue of the mile relay team for Memorial High in Houston which has just set the national high school record of 3:11.8. Doing the math, that is 47.95 per leg. Star of the team is Dave Morton who leads the country's high schoolers in the 440 and 880 with 46.1 and 1:50.2. While they were at it, the Memorial lads also claimed the national record in the sprint medley with a 3:23.3 clocking greatly aided by Morton's 1:50.6 anchor. The old mark was 3:25.0, set a couple years ago by Wichita East anchored by some kid named Ryun.....How far we have come department: Russian Boris Trusov just established a world record of 19.1 in the 100 meters running with artificial legs. Wonder if that will ever be broken?......There is no doubt that Jim Ryun ran a 1:44.9 880/1:44.3 800 world record last year, yet the IAAF has not recognized it. The AAU says that the IAAF refused to approve it. Not so says the IAAF. It hasn't been approved because the AAU didn't sign the record application (although it accepted the mark as an American record). This is the result of the ongoing battle between the USTFF/NCAA and the AAU. The race was in a USTFF sanctioned meet. The battle between the AAU and the NCAA has been going on for most of this decade......

Terry Thompson leading the Pac 8   880

Terry Thompson Now

Top flight middle distance runner Terry Thompson has just transferred from Missouri to Oregon State and is now running for the Staters TC while awaiting transfer eligibility. He transferred so that he could spend time fishing. Silly? Maybe not. Seems Terry is a part time commercial fisherman with his own boat. He grew up in Newport, Oregon, the son of a fisherman. Last year he earned $11,000. To put that in perspective, according to the US Dept of Labor/ Bureau of Labor Statistics, that would be $81,755 in today's money. Our crack research bureau – floors 9-11 of the Once Upon a Time in the Vest building are devoted to research – has fleshed out the rest of Terry's life. He has been and still is a commercial fisherman with eight boats. Terry Thompson Bio  (click here)   For the last three decades he has been active politically. Today, were you to go to the county offices of Lincoln County, Oregon and ask for Terry Thompson, you would be ushered into the office of the Chairman of the County Commission. He has served on the county commission since 2002. Before that he was a member of the Oregon State House of Representatives.  Terry's son Travis would also be a trackster and captain the Oregon Ducks team in later years.

    We could jabber on like this, but lets save some for the Friday night gathering at the Dew Drop Inn. Last one to arrive buys the second round. Don't be late.