12 N. 18 News and Updates, Grant Fisher, Willie Nelson, Blind Athletes, Relay Handoffs, Refugees, and Putin

 

Been collecting a number pieces and back burnering them.  Now on the front burner.

First however, a note from Richard Mach, Flint, MI

                                                                       Grant Fisher

Re: Grant Fisher’s 2 recent American Records: Did the math for both his ARs: 4:08.8/mile for 5 K and 4:16.2/ mile for 10 K.  Kid from down the street in Grand Blanc and sub 4 in HS and top nat’l X-C runner in HS and won NCAA 5000 m as a Stanford soph.  

Olympic 10,000m fifth-placer Grant Fisher smashed Galen Rupp's American record by over 10 seconds as he became the seventh-fastest man in history with 26:33.84. He only just won the race, having to overhaul Mo Ahmed, who took 25 seconds off his Canadian record with 26:34.14.

3-4 lbs lighter than in college it appears.  Massive upper leg muscularity, especially for someone covering such appreciable distances that quickly.  Without blazing leg speed, but, with 600 to go, he is running at 97-98%of his maximum flat-out speed and that has proven nearly devastating for those going w him in the race for the tape.  He also seems to handle varying speeds well in the midst of a distance race.   When with the best of the best, his choosing to control the pace; then going for broke with the ramping up towards home as the final touch while risky and always prone to failure, is, nonetheless, the ballsy tactics that will get into the heads of Kajelka, Beraga, Chelimo and Cheptegei.  BTW: Kajelka took down El G’s very OLD indoor mile WR and was someone not given to running such short distances.  Deference to the superior ‘on-paper’ runner has no place in track racing.  You might as well be saying, ‘back here we’re all racing for second.   I like Fisher’s head.  He is smart … in school and demonstrates tactical savvy out on the race course. May we see more of him.  

From Ernie Cunliffe:

At the Indoor AAU Championship Meet in Madison Square Garden I surprisingly won the 1000 yard race.   Not at all thinking I had a chance, I had no money at all and wanted to phone my wife in Oregon.   So who did I ask for $$?  I saw Glenn Davis, the meet promoter for the LA Indoor meet and also I knew him from the mid 1940s as he lived in Claremont, my home town and was the famous Mr Outside of the Army football team and a Heisman Trophy winner as well.

I approached Glenn and asked for a dollar to make a long distance phone call and he graciously gave me one.  I know, who makes a call for only a buck.?  I merely told my wife I had won and that was the end of the call after  maybe 15-20 seconds.

Over the years I looked for Glenn at the indoor meets to pay him back and never ever saw him again.   Sure I could have mailed it to him but I wanted the chance to see him and talk about Claremont and how we both ended up in different places.   The only other time I had to borrow a buck was in the Pikes Peak Marathon when I won the Ascent for my age group  (35+) and was talked into turning around and completing the full Marathon by going down the 13 miles to the finish line.   I had turned around in 3^rd place and as the field gradually started to pass me, I knew when I was in 7^th place after 23 miles  that it was over, so I turned off at the incline trail and borrowed a buck from an official to pay the fare for the ride down  thus saving the last 3 miles of the Marathon.  But this time I paid him back that night at the award banquet.

Thus I may be one of the few competitors who ever stiffed a meet promoter, Glenn, and didn't pay him the $1 I owed him from the AAU meet in NY City.

Ernie

                                                Willie Nelson on the Loose in Austin, probably late 1970's

Spent six days in Austin with the US team in the '74 20U meet with the Russians.  Didn't see Willie but this right hand with which I am typing shook the hand of Darrell Royal.  It was a handshaking procession for the coaching staff.  Started with city councilmen, county officials, etc and worked our way up the chain of importance.  Next to last was the governor and finally, leaving no doubt that we had reached the pinnacle, there was Darrell Royal.....There were five coaches who went out drinking every night, 3 whites, 2 blacks or maybe the other way around.  We always had a good time....The other odd memory was the night after the second evening of competition.  Early on everyone, Russian and US, had been given clothing and memorabilia.  In that package were Levis.  Didn't think a thing about that but, boy, the Russians did.  You didn't get Levis in Moscow in 1974.  That evening a Russian trainer offered me his attractive female assistant in exchange for my Levis.  Didn't take him up on that as I was married and she was young and appeared afraid.  Okay mostly she was young and afraid.  Roy Mason, Ukiah, CA  

What will Russia do now without McDonald's, Starbucks, and Payday Loans?

From Russ Reabold  Trojan Force

One is my NCAA results page: http://trojanforcestats.us/NCAAResults.html

The results from 1921 to 1999 are typed up and easy to glance through. 2000 and on are just the original results. I know T&FNews has something similar, but I started my results research before I even knew T&FNews had this info. (I started doing research on these back in 2003)

The other page is my All American page: https://usctrojanforce.com/usc-all-americans

While it has links to USC teams & athletes, the AAm information is T&F generic that I think is interesting and not what most people think when it comes to All American status back in the day.

From John Perry:   "Blind Hand Off is Worth  0.2 Seconds.   John Perry handing off to Tom Von Ruden  2 mile relay  Kansas Relays, 1965  Where are the other incoming runners?

Perkins School for the Blind in Watertown, MA, competes in track and field early in 20th Century.

A few weeks ago I posted a picture of young boys with visual challenges competing in the shot put.

Looked through the internet and found this description of competition in 1915

Room to run

Dr. Allen made the best use possible of the playground area on the South Boston campus, but the school simply needed more room. In 1912, Allen and the school’s trustees moved Perkins to new, spacious quarters with acres of open land in Watertown. The main building boasted a swimming pool and a bowling alley, and both Lower and Upper Schools had fully equipped gymnasiums. The following is a 1912 description of the new gymnasium in the Howe building:

“It is a hall two stories high and of 90 feet in length with a running track in the balcony about the sides, 15 windows light the hall from above the balcony while seven slits – on the floor level – aid the upper windows in giving illumination. Nevertheless, it is rather dark on a cloudy day. The gymnasium is well equipped with the best supplies, such as ropes, rope ladders, horizontal Swedish ladders, stall bars, adjustable parallel bars, the horse, wall machines (i.e., weights), parallel bars, dumb-bells, punching bag, etc. The running track has a railing with a special hand guide about it and in addition, the outer corners of the turns are raised. The floor is made of a linoleum preparation; and all the apparatus is removable, as was the case at Jamaica Plain.”

Group portrait of the athletic team from the Boys’ Department in 1908. This Perkins team participated in the first outdoor contest of the National Athletic Association of Schools for the Blind, held on May 16, 1908.

Team Perkins

Team sports and athletic events were a natural outgrowth of the renewed emphasis on physical education classes at Perkins. The earliest photograph of a school sports team dates from South Boston in 1908, with the caption, “Athletic Team, Boys Department.” Perkins participated in the First Outdoor Contest of the National Athletic Association of Schools for the Blind, held on May 16, 1908. The events included shot put, standing broad jump, standing high jump, three standing jumps, running broad jump, 50-yard dash, football throw, 50-yard three-legged race, and 50-yard sack race. Dr. Allen reported:

“Our boys took part in May in an interscholastic contest with 12 other schools for the blind, each on its own grounds, we’re holding our meet at the kindergarten. Their time and opportunity for practice had been so limited here that they were at a great disadvantage, but while they did not win in any event they made a creditable showing.”

In 1910 athletes from four schools for the blind (Overbrook, Batavia, Boston, and Pittsburgh) met at Overbrook, PA, and “contested in running dashes, broad and high jumping and shot putting. Perkins came out third.”

Victory

Just a short time after the move to Watertown, the boys’ athletic team hosted an indoor track competition against Framingham High School. Dr. Allen included this summary in his Annual Report to the trustees:

“In the gymnasium on March 12, 1912, the Perkins Institution boys defeated a team from Framingham High School in an indoor track meet, the score being 53 points to 9 points. The Framingham boys were point winners in but four events. This was the first time that the Perkins Institution boys ever contested with a high school in track athletics, but it marks a growing tendency among our pupils to abandon contests with other schools for the blind in favor of those with schools for the seeing, and in these meets, they neither ask nor expect concessions of any kind.”

The boys held competitions throughout the school year to determine the best football players. In June the “individual champions of the school meet those of the local high school and the team of the Pennsylvania School for the Blind.” (AR, 1922, p. 22)

Track

Later, the boys also competed with teams from the New York Institute for the Blind. Although the teams were not always victorious, such competitions offered other rewards. The following is Dr. Allen’s account of a meet in New York:

“On June 7, 1928, six of the boys and myself left for New York via the canal. The trip was delightful. Even the opportunity to dance was given to the boys, as there were some young ladies on board whom we knew. The track meet with the New York School was of the highest order. Our boys took their beating in the best of spirit; they were true sports and I am tremendously proud of them. No one could have wished for a finer meet, a better spirit, or a better group.”

And finally from today's headlines:

Thought this would be of importance to all our readers.   From The New Yorker

Satire from The Borowitz Report Manufacturers of Performance-Enhancing Drugs Impose Sanctions on Russia A visibly rattled Putin said, “Anyone who attacks Russia’s ability to dope its athletes is striking at one of our nation’s grandest traditions.”