V 9 N. 26 May, 1968 Relays Weekend

May 1968 #1

Penn, Drake and Mt SAC all on the same weekend.

PENN

Roger Bannister about 1952/53

How do you spell Penn Relays? V-I-L-L-A-N-O-V-A, that's how. The Wildcats dominate with a record five relay wins, the mile, two mile, four mile, distance medley and sprint relay.

Of special note is the continued emergence of Larry James as a quarter mile force. The junior has been progressing nicely this season. In February he won the indoor USTFF 500 in 56.0, only half a second off the WR. In March he won the indoor NCAA 440 in 47.0, the fastest ever run on an 11 lap to the mile track. April 6 saw him run his first out of the blocks 440 since high school when he ran 45.2 in a dual meet with Tennessee*. These were merely steps leading to his performance at Penn where he anchored the Wildcats mile relay team to victory with a blistering 43.9 lap, the fastest ever run by a human being under any circumstances.

Whereas James has suddenly appeared on the world stage, he has been competing in track since he was 11. Obviously, he was an extremely talented prospect when he went out for football as a ninth grader at White Plains HS in New York. One needs to question the wisdom of the freshman coach who played him at left guard. Seeing the futility in getting beat up by big guys, James abandoned further gridiron adventure to concentrate on track. As a senior, he was state champ in the low hurdles (18.7) and placed second in the 300 intermediates (38.0). Then it was off to Sacramento for the Golden West meet where demonstrated his versatility, by triple jumping 48-7 to place fourth. More importantly, he was a key cog on White Plains' national record-setting 880 (1:25.4) and mile relay (3:12.7) teams. All this said, he was only the second best quarter-miler on the team behind Otis Hill.

Dave Patrick anchors the sprint medley, distance medley and the two mile yet neither he nor James is selected the outstanding athlete of the meet.

Dave Patrick

Frank Murphy

That honor goes to teammate Frank Murphy who split 1:49.1 for his 880 in the 2MR, broke open the DMR with his 2:53.6 1320 and anchored the 4MR in 4:04.1.

Ian Hamilton, Charlie Messenger, Frank Murphy, and Dave Patrick after their
WR 2 mile relay set earlier in February at the Mason Dixon Games in Louisville.

Tribute to Larry James by Walt Murphy

DRAKE

Drake 1953

Click your heels together three times and say “There's no place like the Drake Relays” and we are in Des Moines where Saint Cloud State senior Van Nelson captivates the crowd with three mile (13:17.4) and six mile (28:22.2) victories.

Van Nelson  tailed by Lou Scott?

 Texas, anchored by Dave Morton's 45.4, runs 3:05.5, the fastest mile relay in the country this season. Lamar Tech and Ohio, anchored by Randy Clewis (45.6) and Emmett Taylor (45.2) are second and third in 3:07.3 and 3:08.1. 

Sunday none of this mattered when the news came that the plane carrying the Lamar relay team of Don Delaune, Mike Favazza, Waverly Thomas, Clewis, half-miler John Richardson and coach Ty Terrell had crashed, killing all aboard.

Southland News Story on the 50th Anniversary of the Crash 

MT. SAC

Continuing west we arrive at the Mt SAC Relays where the highlight is the removal of Jim Ryun as a world record holder. Okay, we're stretching this a bit. Jim was co-owner of a world best, specifically the distance medley. As the DMR is not a recognized WR event, his Kansas team's 9:33.8 was only listed as the fastest ever. As such, it is the target for the Fort McArthur squad of Bob Tobler, Darnell Mitchell, Tom Von Ruden and Preston Davis.

Bob Tobler

 

Tom Von Ruden

Preston Davis

                             If I could find a picture of Darnell Mitchell I would put it here.

Tobler leads off in 47.2. Mitchell runs the 800 in 1:50.2. Von Ruden's 2:56.1 places responsibility squarely on Davis' shoulders. The former Texas star is up to it, running his mile in 3:59.9 to establish a new world best of 9:33.4. Yep, all that work for four-tenths of a second. Removing some of the glitter from the performance was the fact that much of the crowd is still filing in as the race is being run.

George…

There is a backstory to our Distance Medley World Record.  Originally our Army coach, Ralph Higgins of Oklahoma State fame, had picked Bob Tobler (440), Tom Von Ruden (880), me on the 1320 and Bob Day of UCLA fame for the mile anchor.  He had put the numbers to paper and thought we had a chance to get the WR.  However, after beginning our warmup, Day began to feel weak and complained to Higgins that he didn’t feel well enough to run.  Once Bob began throwing up Higgins knew that he had to find a fourth.  Who?  Higgie settled on Darnell Mitchell who he moved to the 880.  I doubt Darnell had more than 20 minutes to warmup.   Coach asked both Tom and I what we wanted to do and both of us opted for the 1320.  Coach picked me for the anchor.  Higgie tells me later he chose me because of my two recent runs, a 3:40 in the 1500 at the Australian National Championships in March and a 4:01 mile at the Texas Relays in early April. 

I forgot all about the world record attempt and by the time Tobler, Darnell and Tom finish their legs there were no competitors visible on the finish straight…I had to have had a 200+ yard lead.  I had not paid any attention at all to split times by Bob, Darnell and Tom.  I do notice that it’s very quite...there couldn’t have been more than 50 people in the stands and only a few athletes on the infield.  I take off at a decent pace figuring to run around 4:05.  At the first quarter I hear Higgins “62-63” and I was quite content to continue at that pace.  At the 660 pole I hear Higgins screaming at the top of his lungs, “four minutes, four minutes!”  TVR is standing on the finish straight yelling “four minutes gets the world record!”  As I get to the half-mile pole Higgins is yelling splits of “2:04-2:05!”  I’m in trouble as I suddenly realize what is going on and I need to get to 4:00 minutes to have a chance to get the WR.  I get a nice surge of adrenaline as several of our Army teammates are around the track and Higgins is everywhere…he’s about 70 at the time and I am still amazed at the sprinting he must have done to get me the splits at each pole…and I get to the finish line just under 4:00 and .4 clear of KU’s record.  My fondest memory from that day is the hug and kiss on the cheek I received from Coach Higgins when it was announced we had broken the world record.  BTW, if I am not mistaken, Kansas, with Jim on the anchor, breaks the Army world record one year later!

Best regards,

Preston Davis

Randy Matson is up for the challenge of his two closest shot put competitors, Dave Maggard and George Woods. Though not reaching the 70 foot mark that only he had thrown, his 69-1 easily tops Maggard's and Woods' bests of 65-10 and 65-9.

Randy Matson

* Here is a

reality check for old timers. That Villanova – Tennessee meet mentioned in the third paragraph drew a crowd of 9200. What would any top collegedual meet draw today? Let's rephrase that sentence to include the words “if dual meets existed today”. Your writer recalls early morning runs with a buddy in which, in addition to world problems, the impending USC – UCLA dual was doped out with the score changing on each run. “Sure, SC has three discus guys with better marks, but the UCLA kid is only four feet behind their second and third guys. If he can get a second, that's a six pointchange.”

The high school event to watch this year is the high jump. On April 20, Compton's Reynaldo Brown clears 7-0½ to break Clarence Johnson's national record by a quarter of an inch. He had a week to bask in the glory of this achievement before Wasco's (CA) Otis Hailey claims the record with a leap of 7-1¾. They won't meet until the state meet. Rest assured, our diligent reporters will be there covering it.

In a previous entry we had discussed the great talent of the Compton and Centennial high schools. Let's put this in perspective. Imagine that you are Pat Bradford. On April 23 Pat jumps 6-11¾ to become.....not state record holder, not district record holder, not school record holder, but #2 guy at Compton High. Oh, and by the way, Compton has a third unnamed kid who has cleared 6-5¾. Wonder if he will letter?

In addition to Hailey's HJ, three other national records have been bettered this season. Bob Bornkessel of Shawnee Mission High in Kansas clipped six tenths from Joe Kurzrok's 37.3 record set in last season's Golden West.

Port Neches of Groves, TX no longer holds the 440 relay record but it hasn't left the state. Fort Worth's Kirpatrick High blazed 41.1 to shave off a tenth.

As long as we are in Texas, let's pay homage to the greatest prep shot putter ever, Sam Walker. The Samuel High (Dallas) senior once again broke his own record with a throw of 72-3¼. How dominant is he? He has now bettered Karl Salb's record of 69-6 six times this season and holds 8 of the 10 all time best marks. Only Salb and Dallas Long (69-3) remain on that list. As we are early in the season, it is likely that by season's end, the top ten will be Sam's exclusive territory.

The second T&FN May issue is coming up soon. A highlight will be the name of that third Compton jumper. Stay tuned.

   What a nice blog entry today especially since I knew of many of the athletes.  It also caused me to lament the current demise of the Penn, Drake, and Mt. SAC relays, especially the first two.  Coaches and athletes now have no interest in relays because that is just a weekend wasted without a real opportunity to record an NCAA qualifying mark.  Coaching bonuses and NCAA appearances are all that matters.  Running in front of 52,000 fans at Penn, being part of the Iowa friendly hospitality at Drake, and basking in the huge fields at Mt. SAC are quickly passing away.  Too bad!  Bill Schnier