Many years ago I spent some fun weekends in Lawrence, Kansas running in the Kansas Relays, the middle jewel in the crown of Midwest relays along with the Texas and Drake Relays. The following is a review of the book "The Kansas Relays: Track and Field in the Heartland" by Joe Schrag appearing in the Topeka Capital Journal on May 9, 2014. Thanks to Mike Solomon for making this known to us and introducing us to Joe Schrag, the author.
Once news broke that every rake, hurdle, pit and stop watch would be carted out of Memorial Stadium, the Kansas Relays was no longer spinning along an oval as much as it was stuck at a crossroad.
This spring his historical account of the Kansas Relays was published, and sub-titled, "Track and Field Tradition in the Heartland." The book was released at the same time as the inaugural running of the meet at its new home, Rock Chalk Park.
"Nothing had really been written about the Relays," Schrag said. "I was just afraid after 86 years that when they moved to a new spot, they were going to lose a lot of that tradition with the Relays in a new place. There had just been too many significant happenings going on to let that happen."
Frankly, Schrag had concerns over preservation of the Relays, which was first contested in 1923.
"I was a little worried about that. My nostalgia got the better of me sometimes," he said. "But track has been so successful for KU, the deserve their own place. Now they've got it, and there's a lot of pride in the facility.
"I was one of the naysayers early on and wondered why would we take it out of such a nice setting. But the reality and the economics of it is, in the new park, hopefully they can sell advance tickets so the place can be full and there will be a lot of energy."
The slick, hard-bound book is essential for any track and field enthusiast. For that matter, the historical accounts, as well as the pictures and artwork, make the book a fantastic read for anyone.
For KU fans--heck, sports fans-- the work would make the perfect addition to any den or man cave. The pictures are that good, the writing that comprehensive.
Schrag, a longtime coach at Topeka West High School, remains heavily involved in track and field as a meet official. He worked at the Relays this year as events coordinator. On Friday schrag again attended the City Carnival, a track meet that has since been renamed after him.
"I'm proud of my dad for writing the first book on the KU Relays," remarked Schrag's son, Myles, "I tink it's long overdue and enjoyed immensely the process of working with him on it. I really believe it's one of those situations where the absolute perfect person to write a book on a subject did dso, but I admit, I'm biased."
Myles was instrumental in convincing Joe to write the book. As an acquisitions editor for Human Kinetics Publishers, Myles was deeply involved in the project.
"In short, the book would not have happened without him," Joe said. "It was kind of humbling to have the son tell the dad what to do, but it wouldn't have worked any other way."
Schrag's association with the Relays began as a high school distance runner for Norwich. As a senior in 1957, he captured the mile run in the smal-school classification, though he clarifies that he was in the "slow section."
"I was from a small school and I pretty much ran on dirt tracks," Schrag said. "They didn't have cinders on a lot of them. So it was a big deal, simply because there was a lot of athletes there and we were going farther than we'd went before. It was a big deal to me. They even had lodging underneath the stadium, just kind of barracks. They put kids and coaches there in the same rooms."
When Schrag began competing in high school, the world's top milers were bidding to crack the 4-minute barrier.
One chapter in his book is devoted to the feat, which observed it 60th anniversary earlier this week.
The chapter features KU standout We Santee, and his quest to attain the elusive mile standard first recorded on May 6, 1954, when England's roger Bannister was clocked in 3:5.4.
"I really enjoyed doing th part about Santee, because that was my era and I was hooked on the 4-minute mile business," Schrag said. "But I also did not know about the early years and the promotions by (John) Outland and (Phog) Allen, and how they tried to get the thing off the ground. It was interesting to me."
Together the pair became know as the father (Outland) and the founder (Allen) of the Relays. The high jump champion at the first relays was KU's Tom Poor, who went on to compete at the 1924 Olympics in Paris.
Since then, scores of Olympians passed through...along with many aspiring high school contestants.
Schrag, a three-timeKCAC champ in the mile for Bethel, obtained his masters degree at KU, then went on to become a longtime coach beginning in 1962. He took over as West's head coach in 1972. Schrag was named the honorary referee for the Relays in 1977 and was inducted into the Kansas Relays Hall of Fame in 2 those days a lot, and the suc007.
"I can still visualize two of the races Winston Tidwell ran when he set the 800 record, which was since broken by (Olympian) Leo Manzano, "Shrag said. :And then there was the Hazims, particularly Sharrieff, who had the record in the high jump for a while. I liked those days a lot, and the successes our teams had there."
Read the book and you get the impression any day-rain or shine- was a good day for Schrag whenever it involved the Kansas Relays. Kevin Haskin
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