V 9 N. 17 A Few More Musings: on An old poster, the dieing Relay Meets, Matt Boling

Hey,  in 1938, how many six packs of Foster's would it take to get you to take off your clothes and pose with your wife's pie plate?  
Thanks to Ned Price for sending this to us.

Lest we forget, Leni Reifenstahl got Glenn Morris, the 1936 Olympic decathlon champ,  to strike a similar pose for her Olympia film.  She was said to be having an affair with him at the time.  This chap is probably off some sheep station in the Outback.

Here we are already after briefly noting this morning the lack of action on this blog.  Now two postings in one day.  We ain't dead yet.

Other musings.  I watched the World Relay Championships with feigned interest and was monumentally bored.  It was worse than NASCAR, and the mixed events were even worse.   Maybe and this is a big maybe, the mixed relays might be a tad more interesting at the end of the Olympics or World Championships when teams are made up from medallists in the individual events with north - south or east - west team competition like the old World Cup.   Just doesn't look like that much fun.  Maybe if they had to jump over flaming pits of oil or get chased by uncaged tigers?  But then that would be like the Roman Colisseum, and that would bring on the final decline and fall of western and eastern and southern civilization.  Nothing compares to the  college relays which are sadly and rapidly dieing as college dual meets did years ago with the chase for NCAA qualifying times all but taking away the glamour of Texas, Kansas, Mt. Sac,  Penn and Drake.  The Big 12 and SEC held a relays competition on the same weekend as Penn and Drake and drew many big teams away as did a relays meet in Florida.    Conversations from a few friends below show a common sentiment.  

George,

I’m very disappointed in what happened to the three most exciting events of our college careers. The other events that really stuck in my memory (which means that it was a big deal) are the Big 8 Championships and the OU Dual. Drake was my favorite, the announcer knew everybody and gave a play by play during the races. Kansas is terrible now, Kansas is the only major university competing at the Kansas Relays. The college relay times are really slow. 

Texas Relays is really boring, each event has 10 sections or so and it takes forever to get the meet over. Saturday used to be a 2 hour competition packed event with college relay followed by University and the colleges were outstanding, Southern, Texas Southern and Grambling put on a show. 

Tom, Jimmy, David and I would talk about the two mile relay and our goals everyday for months before we finally got the conditions and competition for our World Record at Fresno. 

Drake times were always faster than Penn but it was because the Penn Track was terrible. We ran at Penn in 1964 and Hig tried to talk us into going back in 1966 to get revenge on Villanova but we told him “no”. John Perry

 I agree with John Perry.  Drake and Penn were fabulous meets, loaded with outstanding performances and supported by huge and enthusiastic crowds.  The track crowds are not plentiful enough for every school to have a major meet, but when there is one or more already established, the track community needs to embrace it and support it.  Penn still got a good crowd but because the competition was so mediocre, I doubt if that support will continue.  Filling in at both Drake and Penn are the professionals because the college teams are just not present but the pros just do not have a following and there is no sense of rivalry such as OU vs. OSU.  As usual, our downfall is usually not from without but within.

   Bill Schnier

  Dual or tri mets are the best.  Think about other sports:  Army vs. Navy.  Ohio State vs. Michigan.  Florida vs. Florida State.  USC vs. UCLA.  For 10 years we had the best of all worlds with the Southern Ohio Cup:  Cincinnati, Miami, Ohio.  A team in black, a team in red, a team in Green.  It was scored combined men and women.  The intensity was electric.  At first the athletes assumed they would get no marks because there were not many teams, but at the end of the year many if not most of the seasonal bests came from that meet for all the teams.  It did not last past 10 years because Ohio dropped men's track and Miami cut half their scholarships.  Back to large invitationals because we had lost our rivals.

Dear Will and Friends:

I feel rewarded to see so many people attending the Penn Relays!

It's the only place other than Hayward Field at U of Oregon that

is contested to a relatively full house.

I think that the 10,000 to 20,000 Jamaicans that fly up to watch their high school, college and Olympic

athletes compete helps out a lot. 

I  am not particularly fond of their USA vs. the world format. But, hey it, seems to be a winning formula.

Did you notice that the guys holding the finish tape - stood a yard back of the finish line so as not to interfere with the electronic Timing Cameras? 

Also, While I still remember the 3  lanes inside the main track, but, I had never seen them use these three lanes for relay events before, which required

teams in those lanes breaking out for the pole after using up their staggers,  With the teams in the outside lanes breaking for the pole and teams on the inside

lanes breaking out foir the pole, I was surprise that no one got pinched off or squeezed out! Yikes! It seemed to me that they used those extra 3 lanes for straightaway events like the100M Dash and the Hurdles! ????  

I love seeing Renaldo "Skeets" Neimiah being interviewed. Did any of you pick up on where he is coaching?

Do any of you know how many Jamaicans actually now attend.

I  heard the 20,000 figure 4-5 years ago.

As for The  Drake Relays, the small market that Des Moines offers and the shitty weather

really dampens attendance there.

When I competed at Drake for Western Michigan in 1959 thru 1961 we only had one year of snotty-rainy weather,  in 1960.

If it were not for the USATFF Contact with NBC/NBCSN Drake would disappear into the corn fields.

PS: Anecdote  from Drake Relays circa 1959 or1960.

      I remember that Charlie Greene, who was at the top of the sprint world back then, thought he had discovered the anecdote

      for signing autographs. I was next to him at the base of the stands signing a couple of autographs

     (even though I was an unknown). Well,  there was Charlie hauling out a rubber stamp & stamp pad & began stamping his autograph on eager kids programs!

     I remember some kids being turned off by Charlie's audacity! You had to laugh!

As for the ACC and SE Conference teams, etc. It is what it is. you can't blame them for staying close to home and performing in warmer more predictable weather.

(Aside from potential for tornado's)

I, too, deeply miss the days, now long gone, where teams had budgets that allowed for a full schedule of dual meets!

I was fortunate to be part of a WMU team that defeated mighty Big Ten Champs in a dual meet.

About 3,000 students attended that meet. They went crazy when we slammed the 3 mile, led my Jerry Ashmore and them won the mile relay!

John Bork

WMU Class of 1961

And finally  How about Matt Boling of Houston Strake Jesuit running 44.74 on a 4x400 in Texas?  He also has a 9.98 wind aided 100 meters.  The real deal?  We think so. 

Matt Boling