V 12 N. 59 A Poem by Dr. John Telford

 

Summer almost over, Fall on the way, cross country just around the corner, and I haven't done Jack Diddly on this blog for several weeks.  Great thing about the internet.  Nobody can tell you what to do or give you a deadline.  It's all about what you 'think' you have to do or say.  Anyway,  I know my colleague Roy Mason has sent me some poetry by Darryl Taylor via the US Postal Service to put on this blog,  and I've been sitting on some more by Dr. John Telford.  For those of you who are not of a certain age,  John Telford was one of this country's premier 220/440 sprinters in the late 1950s.  He just didn't quite have his best year in 1956 or 1960.   I remember seeing him run in the state AAU meet in Dayton, OH about 1957 and he just smoked everyone around.   That was when the 440 was sometimes run staggered through the first turn and everyone went for the pole on the back stretch.  It was like a Nascar short track race on steroids.  Oops, I shouldn't have used that term writing about a track meet. Well, in 1957 nobody had heard of that term in a track and field context, so I think I'll skate on that one.  

John Telford has stayed in the Detroit area it seems all his life.  He was once superintendent of Detroit Public Schools.  He has been a social critic and activist, has published several books and been  a  proponent of Creative Insubordination, his words, and the title of one of his books.

Amazon has this to say about Dr. Telford

Dr. John Telford has long been called a lightning rod for controversy. He retired in 1991 as Deputy Superintendent of Schools in 98 percent white Rochester, Michigan, where skinheads riddled his house with midnight gunfire for hiring black administrators. After retiring, he became an executive director in the Detroit Public Schools, where he clashed with inept top administrators. He served most recently as the superintendent of the Madison District Schools and was fired for recruiting hundreds of Detroit students against the wishes of white residents.

Undefeated at 400 meters in Europe as a world-ranked sprinter, Dr. Telford coached champions and authored a noted book on the quarter mile--The Longest Dash. In 1978, he was inducted into the Wayne State University Athletic Hall of Fame. He has written newspaper columns, hosted radio shows and directed human-rights agencies. A former director of the innovative and controversial Division of Basic Education at Macomb Community College and a published poet, he also taught at Wayne State and Oakland universities.

Wayne State University named Dr. Telford its Distinguished Alumnus of the Year in 2001 for his civil-rights activism. A Detroit high school track is named for him. Throughout the years, his students have consistently pronounced him a great teacher. Their accolades are the ones the 73-year-old activist values most. 

This is from an older document.  John would be in his mid 80's by now. ed. 

Here is John's poem on the  1957 NCAA final

Poet's

Corner

Dr. John Telford

DPSCD Poet-in-Residence

THE 1957 NCAA 440 FINAL:

A 65-YEAR REFLECTIVE

We hadn't enough space 

 To run a reasoned race: /

Eight headlong 'quarter-horses' humored / 

No  such thing as 'pace.' / 

If that race could be erased / 

And galloped once again, / 

I'd start my home-stretch run / 

When the starter shot the gun! 

I finished second in a near dead-heat photo finish with a big sprinter from Morgan State, 

breaking the tape with my neck and flying past him a step beyond the tape in quarter-mile time time 

for both of us within .6 of a second from the world record. The 1956 Olympic

champion finished third in time equivalent to his Olympic win.

As celebrated sportswriter Heywood Braun once opined of

French champion Georges Carpentier, who had temporarily rocked world heavyweight

champion Jack Dempsey in the second round, "Life's tragedy

isn't that a man LOSES—but that he ALMOST wins."

Former DPS (Detroit Public Schools) superintendent John Telford--a WSU (Wayne State University) alumnus--was an NCAA and NAAU

All-American who went undefeated at 200/400 meters in 1957 representing the U.S.

in Europe on our national team. Tune him in on WCHB

AM1340 Detroit radio Saturdays at 9:30 a.m. and Mondays

at 6:30 p.m.--and Wednesdays

on WJZZ Internet television

at 10:00 a.m. Contact him at

DrJohnTelfordEdD@aol.com

or at (313) 460-8272.

In case you are wondering who those other runners in that race were and their times:

1.  Bob McMurray  Morgan State    46.8

2. John Telford Wayne State University  46.8

3. Charlie Jenkins Villanova University 47.1

Other books by Dr. John Telford

I would also encourage you to look for interviews with Dr. Telford on youtube.

Loved your article on John Telford but did not know any of those later-life things.  I had a good running friend who was XC coach at Rochester HS when John was deputy supt. of schools.

   I loved his book, The Longest Dash, because he gave the best description I have ever heard as to how to run the 400.  He said the start was like lighting a match:  the burst of flame was the first 100 and the steady state was the second 100.  In the third 100 you had to get back to work and in the fourth 100 you worked hard to maintain your form.  He was quite a runner and clearly an important person in Detroit and surrounding areas. BILL SCHNIER