Two days ago I received the foto below from Thomas Coyne one of our regular contributors asking if anyone could identify the runner(s) in the picture. Thomas' only clue was that the track was in Kalamazoo, MI on the Western Michigan campus. and the following message from the sender, a Mr. Tom Vance.
The caption says, “Western’s track for many years was inside Waldo Stadium. In the background is the Oakland Gym, and West Hall at the top of the hill. Men’s track and field along with cross country dominated during the 1950s and 1960s, led by Coach George Dales.”
Here's the pic. Before looking for the answer below, can you activate the necessary neurons and rejuvenate the synapses to come up with an ID? And: What do the pith helmets tell you? How many other giveaways are in the photo?
And the answer is, thanks to Dr. John Telford.
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George, it was the Michigan AAU championships in Kalamazoo in 1957--not 1960. The winner was MSU's Willie Atterberry out of old Detroit Eastern High School with a 47.3 at 440 yards--I beat him later in the year. Earlier, Willie had won the Ohio Relays 600-yard dash in Columbus in an incredible world-record 1:08.5. I won the 600 there the next year in a pedestrian 1:11.3 over Roger (Buddy) Gum of Kentucky. The 3rd-place runner in that photo in the 1957 Mich. AAU is my WSU teammate Ralph Carter out of Detroit Northern High School, a former Marine Corps quarter-mile champion who later became a professor at Rutgers. Willie Atterberry could also run the half-mile in 1:48, the quarter in 46.9, and the 440 hurdles under 51--all on archaic dirt-and-cinder tracks of the day.
I won the Mich. AAU at WMU in 1958 with a 48.3 and finished a step behind 32-year-old Wayne State alum Pete Petross in the 220 in a failed attempt for a double. I was 22 years old at the time. Pete--who anchored our Detroit Track Club world-indoor-record 880 relay team in Yost Fieldhouse at Ann Arbor, and who later became the principal of Detroit Mumford High School--could run the 100 in 9.6 and the 220 in 20.9. He was a five-time Mich. AAU sprint champion.
I won the Mich. AAU 440 again in 1959 with a 47.3 over John Bork, but I finished 2nd to John in 1960--which I think was the year he won the NCAA half-mile for WMU.
Also in 1959, I ran a 45.9 440 from scratch in a handicap 440 that I won at the Scottish Games in Williamsville, New York. That was faster time than my sub-47-second clockings when I finished 2nd to NAIA champion Bob McMurray of Morgan State in the 1957 NCAA 440 final in Austin, Texas and 2nd to Reggie Pearman of the New York Pioneer Club in the 1957 NAAU final in Dayton--a race in which the staggers were mis-measured. 1956 Olympic 400-meter champion Charley Jenkins of Villanova was 2nd in both of those races, and McMurray, Atterberry, and future Olympic 400 champion Mike Larrabee of the Southern California Striders were also in that NAAU 440 final.
In 1960, I lost a match race to Rex Cawley of Southern California, 46.8 to 47.0 when I stumbled on a stone near the finish. - John T.
When you ask John a question, you get an answer. John's answer drew some more questions out of me and we had the following exchange.
Thanks for all those details, John. I'll forward them to the guys who sent them
to me. Bork will enjoy that.
I remember as a high schooler watching Willie Atterbury run in the Big 10 indoor
meet about 1960. In 63 he got called up at the last minute to fill in for
an injured 400IH Jim Allen in the Russian duel in Moscow.
They flew him in from Finnland I think. Got there just in time.
He may have won the race.
From our blog post Link: Jan. 12, 2016 "Jim had a slight hamstring problem in
Moscow and didn't run the meet. Payton Jordan found Willie Atterbury
running in Scandinavia and got him on a plane without a visa and into the
meet at the last minute making a clean sweep in the 400IH which was
needed to edge the Russians in that meet."
| Nov 29, 2022, 9:16 PM (17 hours ago) |  | ||
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I didn't see the National AAU, I was still in grade school, but do think I saw you run
in the state AAU one year in Dayton.
Those two national AAU meets 1953 NS 1957 could have put Dayton on the map,
but the organizers screwed up a bunch of things including mismeasuring
those staggers
George, that second time I raced in Dayton was in the Ohio AAU in 1961 when I
won the 440 in comparatively slow time and brought a relay team of 1961 Detroit
high school 440 finalists with me which included Dennis Holland--who later
long-jumped 26'3" for WMU--to run with me on the winning mile relay there against
adult runners. My 48.3 carry on the second leg put the kids in the lead we never
lost. I wasn't training much then, because I was taking doctoral courses at night
and teacing English at Southeastern High School and and volunteer-coaching the
Southeastern track team during the day.
An incidental comment on the late Willie Atterberry: In 1961, I was the Best Man in
his first wedding. - JT
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