The party is pretty much over for US athletes this year. With the end of the European tour, all that remains is our minimal participation in the World Student Games in Tokyo August 30 - September 4.
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| Tommy Smith |
Ron Whitney completes a marvelous season in the 400 hurdles with his 16th win in 17 meets. His 49.8 gives him the gold by four tenths over England's John Cooper.
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| Ron Whitney |
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| John Cooper |
(Cooper was killed in the Turkish Airlines Flight 981 crash outside of Paris, France on March 3, 1974.)
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| Gaoussou Kone |
Gary Carlsen's 196-4 discus throw puts him 15 feet up on the competition. Tommie Smith loses the 100 to Gaoussou Kone of the Ivory Coast but returns to win the 200 in 20.7. Neil Steinhauer wins the shot at 62-11½ and takes third in the discus at 174-5. Van Nelson leads the 5000 and 10,000 until the final straight where he is out-sprinted by home town hero Keisuke Sawaki both times. An injured left arch leaves Wade Bell in sixth (1:48.9) far behind Australian Ralph Doubell's 1:46.7.
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| Ralph Doubell |
The lack of emphasis the US has placed on this meet is evident in the the 400 relay where a makeshift team of Smith, Whitney, Copeland and....wait for it......Seagren places fifth in 40.7.
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| Ralph Boston |
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| Randy Matson |
This is not to say there isn't competition at home. Most of it is of the all comers variety. Surprisingly, shot putter Dave Davis has returned from retirement and, without benefit of significant competition, has posted a lifetime best of 64-8 ½. Good to see you back, Dave.
In our last report we told you of Rick Sloan's amazing decathlon debut. His 7869 points place him sixth in the world this year and sixteenth on the all time list. Now we have further details. The August issue of T&FN had the meet in Culver City. The correct location is the track at venerable Mt. San Antonio College. We can forgive this error because, on July 14-15 in the SPAAU Championships in Culver City, he got through the first day in impressive fashion before dropping out with an elbow injury which kept him from throwing the javelin. His 7869 came four weeks later on August 11-12 in the SPAAU Invitational. His marks this day in smoggy, 95 degree conditions are 10.7, 22-5, 44-0½, 6-9½, 48.6 and 15.2, 155-4½, 16-5, 115-9, 4:28.6. The 20 year old UCLA junior works with assistant coach Ken Shannon in field events and head coach Jim Bush in running events.
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| Payton Jordan |
Bits and pieces: Stanford head coach Payton Jordan has been selected as the head coach for the US Olympic team next year.....You have to love Bill Toomey. In an unreported meet in London he won the 400 in 47.4 then returned to place second in the intermediates in 53.2.
Reports that he helped the maintenance crew sweep up after the meet are not true......All fifty states contest the traditional 100, 200, high jump, etc, but some events are not conducted in state meets nationally. If you attend the state meet in Indiana or Michigan with hopes of seeing the discus, you will be disappointed. The javelin is contested in 19 states and the triple jump in 10. The event with the greatest growth is the 2 mile which is included in 23 state meets. Six years ago it was run in only two states. If you can guess who these innovators are, you are really, really good. We'll let you ponder this until the end of this report....
Several readers have asked about the picture of Dyrol Burleson. It was taken last year in Turner, OR at Cascade HS when he addressed some to the Cascade students. The article is from the Statesman Journal electronic news. Written by Jusin Much.
Dyrol Burleson Article Clik here. There are some glaring innacurracies which any of our older readers will catch. We choose not to go into them. Ed.
Is Dyrol Burleson back in the game? Maybe. The ex-Oregon great has been maintaining fitness on a 50 mile per week regimen but is now doubling that in preparation for an attempt at making the Olympic team.....George Young is also on the 100m/wk plan in preparation for the Olympics, a quest dependent on whether a bleeding ulcer remains dormant. He says he was in top shape in April when the ulcer kicked up and forced him to curtail training.........
Half miler Morgan Groth has nine months left in the Marines. Having been assured he will not be going to Viet Nam, he is considering reenlisting if he will be assigned to the west coast so that he can train under the guidance of his Oregon State coach, Sam Bell, now the head man at Cal.....
.Want to catch up on track in Louisiana? You can do so by requesting a free copy of “Louisiana Track and Field”. The address: 1525 Lowerline Street, New Orleans, LA 70118......And now the answer you have been waiting for. The two states that had the two mile in their state meet in 1961 are Georgia and Maine. But then you probably already knew that.
This just in from Tom Trumpler: He has added additional information about that quiz on how many states ran the 2 mile back in the day. I am adding Roy's name to his letter.
George (and Roy), another state was California, which first contested the two mile run at the state track & field championships in 1965.
- Ralph Gamez of Berkeley H.S. had the honor of being the first 2-mile champ, and he also repeated in 1966.
- The attached JPG pic of the results (from Bill Peck's great book on the history of the Cal State T&F meets 1915-2006) notes that the temperature was 90+ degrees.
That is true, but on the track the temperature was 100+ degrees, and driving around Bakersfield that afternoon, all the temperature displays at commercial buildings were hovering at 103-104 degrees.
- A second footnote declares -- "Mike Ryan (Wilcox H.S., CC) ran 8:57.8 on November 7, 1964 for an all-time California HS best."
- Because of the November date, with a 2-mile run on a track, this most likely was recorded during the 5-man 2-mile time trial for T&F News "Postal National Cross Championship."
- So, George (and Roy) are asking "Why didn't young Mr. Ryan run the 2-mile?"
- In the 1960's, California state rules did not allow an athlete to run 2 distance races in the same meet. Athletes like Mike Ryan and Tim Danielson may well have excelled in two races, even at the state meet, but they had to choose one of three races: the 880, mile or 2 mile.
- So, then, George asks "Well, which event did Tim Danielson and Mike Ryan run in 1965?"
- On this same hot Bakersfield track, Tim Danielson (junior from Chula Vista) became the 1965 state mile champ with Mike Ryan finishing second.
George (and Roy) a second attached JPG file shows the results from that same meet for the 880 -- a phenomenal battle on a sizzling hot track between Richard Joyce and hometown favorite Clark Mitchell, with Joyce prevailing in a then National HS Record of 1:48.8, and Mitchell taking the silver medal in 1:49.3. It was the greatest HS 880 race ever run.
- Also included for fun is a video summary of the 1965 Cal state two mile:
http://lynbrooksports.prepcalt
Thanks again for allowing us to relive these classic memories!
Tom Trumpler
Camarillo, CA
Wonderful response Tom. I too got caught up in your answer, and then when I reread Roy's question, I noted that he referred to the number of states having the two mile in (1961) not 1967, the year of this particular replay. While California started running the two mile in 1965, the question was about 1961. This was indeed confusing to all of us, except Roy. George
*********
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| Bill Toomey |
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| Dyrol Burleson |
Dyrol Burleson Article Clik here. There are some glaring innacurracies which any of our older readers will catch. We choose not to go into them. Ed.
Is Dyrol Burleson back in the game? Maybe. The ex-Oregon great has been maintaining fitness on a 50 mile per week regimen but is now doubling that in preparation for an attempt at making the Olympic team.....George Young is also on the 100m/wk plan in preparation for the Olympics, a quest dependent on whether a bleeding ulcer remains dormant. He says he was in top shape in April when the ulcer kicked up and forced him to curtail training.........
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| Morgan Groth |
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| Sam Bell |
George (and Roy), another state was California, which first contested the two mile run at the state track & field championships in 1965.
- Ralph Gamez of Berkeley H.S. had the honor of being the first 2-mile champ, and he also repeated in 1966.
- The attached JPG pic of the results (from Bill Peck's great book on the history of the Cal State T&F meets 1915-2006) notes that the temperature was 90+ degrees.
That is true, but on the track the temperature was 100+ degrees, and driving around Bakersfield that afternoon, all the temperature displays at commercial buildings were hovering at 103-104 degrees.
- A second footnote declares -- "Mike Ryan (Wilcox H.S., CC) ran 8:57.8 on November 7, 1964 for an all-time California HS best."
- Because of the November date, with a 2-mile run on a track, this most likely was recorded during the 5-man 2-mile time trial for T&F News "Postal National Cross Championship."
- So, George (and Roy) are asking "Why didn't young Mr. Ryan run the 2-mile?"
- In the 1960's, California state rules did not allow an athlete to run 2 distance races in the same meet. Athletes like Mike Ryan and Tim Danielson may well have excelled in two races, even at the state meet, but they had to choose one of three races: the 880, mile or 2 mile.
- So, then, George asks "Well, which event did Tim Danielson and Mike Ryan run in 1965?"
- On this same hot Bakersfield track, Tim Danielson (junior from Chula Vista) became the 1965 state mile champ with Mike Ryan finishing second.
George (and Roy) a second attached JPG file shows the results from that same meet for the 880 -- a phenomenal battle on a sizzling hot track between Richard Joyce and hometown favorite Clark Mitchell, with Joyce prevailing in a then National HS Record of 1:48.8, and Mitchell taking the silver medal in 1:49.3. It was the greatest HS 880 race ever run.
- Also included for fun is a video summary of the 1965 Cal state two mile:
http://lynbrooksports.prepcalt
Thanks again for allowing us to relive these classic memories!
Tom Trumpler
Camarillo, CA
Hey Bucko,
Wonderful response Tom. I too got caught up in your answer, and then when I reread Roy's question, I noted that he referred to the number of states having the two mile in (1961) not 1967, the year of this particular replay. While California started running the two mile in 1965, the question was about 1961. This was indeed confusing to all of us, except Roy. George
Then from John Bork:
Trump:
Good stuff ....
And in that great 1965 - 880 Race won by Richard Joyce, Greg Hall from Aviation didn't even
make the final. What a great group of HS 880 men!
Didn't Rich Joyce contract "Gout" at USC which dramatically curtailed his running?
Also, worth noting than none of those outstanding 880 State Meet finalists went on to better things in college?
Sadly.
Buck
Aka: John Bork
Response from Tom Trumpler:
880 1965 Calif State Final:
- Greg Hall of Aviation HS did run in the 880 state final.
- See footnotes with prelims heat results at the bottom of the 880 JPG file.
- Greg Hall of Aviation placed 3rd in heat 1 with the same time (1:54.3) as Richard Joyce to qualify for the final.
- Greg ran slower than 1:53.6 in the final, so he just wasn't listed. The problem for Greg was that he went out with the leaders running a 54 second first lap (Joyce ran 54.0, 54.8). Then trying to hang with the leaders, in 100 degree heat, he fell back in the pack.
- Buck, interesting that you and I now live approx 750 feet from each other (on a direct line down the hill), and that Greg Hall now lives four miles from us on Blanchard Road off of Santa Rosa Road.
P.S. to George: One year later, John Bork became the cross country and track coach at Aviation High School, Redondo Beach, CA
Hey Bucko,
880 1965 Calif State Final:
- Greg Hall of Aviation HS did run in the 880 state final.
- See footnotes with prelims heat results at the bottom of the 880 JPG file.
- Greg Hall of Aviation placed 3rd in heat 1 with the same time (1:54.3) as Richard Joyce to qualify for the final.
- Greg ran slower than 1:53.6 in the final, so he just wasn't listed. The problem for Greg was that he went out with the leaders running a 54 second first lap (Joyce ran 54.0, 54.8). Then trying to hang with the leaders, in 100 degree heat, he fell back in the pack.
- Buck, interesting that you and I now live approx 750 feet from each other (on a direct line down the hill), and that Greg Hall now lives four miles from us on Blanchard Road off of Santa Rosa Road.
P.S. to George: One year later, John Bork became the cross country and track coach at Aviation High School, Redondo Beach, CA
- 1961 or 1965, as long as there were kids getting the chance to run the 2-mile (in dual meets, section and state championships), that was a blessing for distance runners.
- In the 60's in California, distance runners were only permitted to run one event per meet (880-mile-2 mile), while the sprinters and leapers and throwers were allowed up to 4 events.
In dual meets, that meant that, without the 2-mile, all the distance runners had to hope for one of the 3 slots for their school in the 880 or mile. All the other distance runners then became spectators, or, the coach would intentionally sit some exceptional runners, just so the underlings would have a chance to earn points for a letter.
- Fortunately for me, in 1964 our league was among a few chosen statewide as a test-bed to see how adding the 2-mile would impact (mostly added time to run the meet) dual meets. Things went well, and in 1965 the 2-mile became a state sanctioned event for dual meets and the state championship.
Tom Trumpler
Tom Trumpler
George,
Clark Mitchell went on to run for UNM. I think his career PR was 1:48+. Pete Brown
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