V 13 N. 27 A Father and Son Tale of Running

 Here is a unique story about a father and son both on the same path in their running.  Darryl Taylor was on one of the top high school 2 mile relay teams in 1959 with Excelsior High School.  In those days no high school team (in Ohio, my home state)had yet broken 8:00 for the 4x880 yards.  I only know that, because Dayton Roosevelt in my home town were the first in 1962 at the Ohio St. Relays April 23, 1962, and I knew and had run against them for several years before going to college.  They were Warren Hand, Charles Reed, and cousins Lee Calhoun and Allen Payne.  See photo below this article.   Even today it is a feather in a team's cap to get an average under two minutes per man.  These guys were the best in their day.  In 1984 Darryl would be coaching at Rancho Alamitos HS and his son Greg would be running the same event with almost identical times.   It is exceptional  to see a son follow in his father's footsteps, although the new tracks don't leave footprints.  Take that as a little dig from an old timer.  I'm sure I'll be forgiven.  Darryl Taylor the father in this story and I have become friends through this blog and even discerned that we ran against each other almost 60 years ago in this event in Albequerque.  Darryl for Long Beach State and me for Oklahoma.  I don't think we ran the same legs but we were breathing the same air that night and we both got to see Oklahoma State's team have their break out race  that would start their journey to breaking the world record in the two mile relay.  So here is Darryl's story

George Brose

    

A TALE OF TWO TAYLORS

A FATHER AND SON STORY 25 YEARS IN THE MAKING

My son Greg has his 54^th birthday coming up today and I thought I’d look into something we both shared over a span of 25 years. After doing some initial research I was profoundly surprised at how very similar these two events actually were. Ever since the Mt. Sac Relays of 1984 were contested, I was much aware of how similar these two were on the surface, my race in 1959 and Greg’s race in 1984. The deeper I dug, the more intriguing the comparison became. Briefly in explanation, in 1959 I competed in the First Annual Mt. Sac Relays while wearing the uniform of Excelsior High School, Norwalk, California. Situated directly across the street from Cerritos College, over my four years at Excelsior I watched construction take place that would transform a well established dairy-land into a brand new Junior College that I would attend immediately upon graduation. Fast forward 25 years to 1984 and I was enjoying my 19^th year as Track & Field coach of Rancho Alamitos High School in Garden Grove, California. Over those 19 years I had made yearly trips with my best distance runners to compete in what had become one of the world’s elite competitions for aspiring Olympic competitors as well as a great opportunity for high school runners to gather and match strides with some of the top prep programs in the country.

The event I competed with on a chilly night in 1959 was the 2-Mile Relay where four men ran 880 yards each. My 1984 Rancho Alamitos 2-Mile Relay had done well on the Invitational circuit, having won the event at the Santa Ana Relays, Tustin Relays and Katella Relays and in the process broke the former school record set the year before. Early in my search I realized how similar this team matched up with my own high school team some 25 years ago. Further research found even more similarities:

 ***Both teams had a TAYLOR running, in this case a father and his son

***Both TAYLORS set personal high school bests on this night of competition

***Both teams consisted of three SENIORS and a JUNIOR

***Both teams featured a pair of Sub-2:00 legs

***Both teams, while setting a new school record, placed 2^nd at the finish line

***Both teams led the race until the final lap

***Both teams had to defeat several top Southern California teams in the process

***Both teams and their final times remain school records, Excelsior counting 61 years/Rancho 36 years

***Both teams won their event at the Santa Ana Relays 25 years apart with multiple wins over the season.

***Both Teams final times were nearly identical, Excelsior’s 8:02.0 and Rancho’s 8:02.4

 

***Each coach had a different approach to the race, my Coach Newman anchored with his fastest runner.             Coach Taylor had his fastest runner lead off from a standing start.

***Excelsior’s team ran under perfect conditions at night while Rancho faced a stiff wind throughout a daytime         competition that had the stadium flags flapping horizontally around the track.

***Excelsior’s team ran on a dirt track, albeit one of the best around in 1959, while Rancho ran on a state of                   the art All-Weather track.

                                     FOR EXCELSIOR IN 1959

Don Pickering    Darryl Taylor           Chonito Perez      Steve Bruhns

 

DON PICKERING: A senior coming into this competition Don had a best mile time of 4:49.7, had run in the State XC Finals in Modesto as a Junior and was returning as a regular Varsity member of the track team. His best 880 going to MT SAC was the 2:04.4 he had recorded while leading off our winning effort at the SANTA ANA RELAYS in March. Don would cap his running careen by reaching the CIF PRELIMS with a school record breaking 1:26.4 later in the season.

 

CHONITO PEREZ: A senior distance runner who, during the 1959 season, had taken down one of the school’s most cherished records in the mile, his 4:28.7 at the COMPTON CUP erasing Art Pitmans 4:28.8 as a Sophomore at Compton. Chonito also ran in the State XC Championships and prepared for this big event by posting a best of 2:03.7 as second man in the Santa Ana Relays.

 

 STEVE BRUHNS:  Steve was the only Junior on the team but had earned a spot on this team with several close finishes in dual meets at 880 yards as well as setting a Junior 660 record vs Bellflower at 1:25.1. Steve was a solid performer for the team running 2:01.5 at Santa Ana and 2:01.6 in the Bellflower Relays. Steve would go on to Coach at Gahr High School right down the street from Excelsior.

 

 DARRYL TAYLOR:  I was a senior on this night with ambitions to run beyond high school and hoping for a personal best at Mt.SAC.  I had broken the Varsity 880 record as a junior running 1:57.7 at Compton as well as several clockings under 2:00 in dual meets and Invitationals the year before.  I had earned my first CIF medal as a Junior, placing 3^rd in the B-660 in 1958 after running 1:23.8 in League Finals.  My best 880 of my Senior year was again at Compton where I ran 1:57.2 in a winning effort.

 

FOR RANCHO ALAMITOS IN 1984 

 

Barry Baker     Phil Porter          Brent Stauter     Greg Taylor

PHIL PORTER:  This team’s only Junior but a future CIF Finalist and school record holder in the 440 with a sub 50.0 mark of 49.6.  As their coach I was scrambling to find a fourth man for this concerted effort to run a fast 2-Mile Relay and after Phil helped clinch another Garden Grove League Cross-Country Championship with a sub 16:00 clocking at Mile Square Park I knew I had the right man for the job. 

 

GREG TAYLOR: My son, who transferred from Edison High School to Rancho Alamitos after attending my Yosemite Running Camp since in the 2^nd grade and in the process had close ties to several of Rancho’s best. Greg was Garden Grove League F/S Champion in his first year, hitting 4:41.0 and came to Mt. SAC with a best of  2:00.9 recorded at the Tustin Relays a few weeks before Mt. SAC. Two hours after this Mt. SAC record relay, Greg led off the Distance Medley Relay with a best ever 1320 of 3:16.8 handing the baton in first place.

 

BARRY BAKER:  Barry had shown flashes of a fine half-miler right from his Freshman year running 2:05.5 before shocking us all with a sub 2:00 a year later to become only the 2^nd 10^th grader in Rancho history to break that magical barrier. Barry followed that up with 1:58.8 as a Junior and 1:58.6 as a Senior.  Barry was also a prominent fixture on three Garden Grove League Cross-Country Championships and a strong team member or Rancho’s 3^rd and 4^th place team finishes in the CIF Finals.

 

BRENT STAUTER: Brent transitioned from a long jump/triple jump/sprinter to cross-country/middle distance runner after his Sophomore year. During the summer between his Junior and Senior year, Brent and Greg pursued a 1000 mile summer of long runs, spending a month on Kauai as part of that challenge. Having run 2:00.7 as a Junior, that summer of hard work paid dividends in his Senior year, as a few short days after this Mt. SAC Relays he broke  the school record for the 800 meters, hitting 1:55.5, a record that remains after some 36 years of challenges.

 

 

BEST RELAY TIMES 1959 AND 1984 COMBINED

YEAR    1^ST LEG                    2^ND LEG                     3^RD LEG                     ANCHOR    PLACE             TIME

1959:   Pickering-2:03.8          Bruhns-1:59.8             Perez-2:02.6                Taylor-1:56.2   2ND    = 8:02.0

 

1984:   Stauter-1:57.6             Taylor-2:01.5               Porter-2:03.4               Baker-1:59.9   2ND    =8:02.4

 

1984:   Stauter-1;56.6             Taylor-2:00.9               Porter-2:04.8               Baker-2:01.6   1ST      =8:02.6

 

1959:   Pickering-2:03.4          Perez-2:02.7                Bruhns-2:00.5             Taylor-1:57.8   1ST      =8:04.4

 

1959:   Pickering-2:04.6          Perez-2:03.4                Bruhns-2:00.6             Taylor-1:58.0   1ST      =8:06.6

 

1984:   Stauter-1;58.4             Porter-2:03.2               Adams-2:06.2             Taylor-2:01.5   1ST      =8:09.5

 

For the record, our team in 1959 had a much easier time breaking the school record. The standing record in 1959 for Excelsior High School had been established back in 1957 in the Long Beach City College Relays held on their campus track. On April 22, a team of two Sophomores, a Junior and a Senior earned a 4th place finish as the Varsity school record holder in the 880 at the time anchored the team in 8:25.0.  I was one of the two 10th graders and I led off, running 2:05.7.  I passed the baton to Junior Ernie Chadbourne who chipped in a 2:09.5. Next up was super-soph Art Pitman, a 4:28.7 miler already who ran 2:05.5 before handing off to Al Guzman, our only Senior and the school record holder at 2:01.0. Al ran the fastest time as he anchored in 2:04.3. Total time was 8:25.0.

 

That record stood for one year as in 1958 at the Santa Ana Relays a different line-up took almost three seconds off that record, running 8:22.5 while again, placing 4^th. This time it was a single Sophomore, two Juniors and a Senior and for me, this meet marked my first time under the 2:00 barrier, a major objective for any high school middle distance runner.  Splits came in like this:  Soph Steve Bruhns opened strong in 2:03.3. Junior Chonito Perez followed in 2:08.6 as the future school record holder in the mile (4:28.7) tested the waters as a middle distance runner. Senior Ernie Chadbourne had an off day, running 2:10.6 which gave me a host of targets to aim for while chasing down those other runners. My 1:59.5 made my day as we moved up to 4^th place just inside the medals. A return to the Santa Ana Relays showed some great strides as we finally won one early in the season, hitting 8:08.4  from Pickering’s 2:04.4-Perez’s 2:03.7, Bruhns’ 2:01.5 and my slightly faster 1:58.8 for a new record. Mt. SAC’s electric atmosphere gave us everything we needed to make one more big drop to make a splash inTrack & Field News.

 

The Rancho Alamitos team’s target was a much faster 8:06.9 record, recorded in 1977 which like our own challenge paired a couple of sub 2:00 marks. The 2-Mile Relay mark went back my 3^rd year coaching when in 1968 we finally had a good group of hard working guys. A sophomore and three Juniors ran 8:19.5, Chevalier leading off 2:08.5, Soph Gary Cauble-2:07.6, Junior Ted Bechtel 2:02.0 before Junior Jim Carne anchored in 2:02.5.  Seven years later in 1975 the record took a big hit to 8:11.3, a great time without a sub 2:00. Breggar Moore set the stage with a 2:02.3, future 1:56 man Steve Besaw 2:02.9, Mike Houghton’s 2:02.3 before Jeff Allison, only a sophomore finished in 2:03.8.  A short two years later another new mark saw three half-mile specialists all Juniors getting closer to that 8:00 mark, Bill Bruton starting in 1:59.8, Pat Boles racing to a PR 2:02.5, Harold Besaw at 2:05.8 and Future CIF Finalist Lonnie Pyle grabbing a 1:58.8 on the anchor to take five full seconds while lowering the record to 8:06.9.  The record dropped to 8:03.9 at Mt. SAC in 1983 with three of the 1984 record breakers assisting Senior Gary Ruddell in a nice improvement to 8:03.9:  Stauter-2:01.4 to lead off, Gary Ruddell at 2:00.1, Greg Taylor 3^rd man 2:04.3 and Barry Baker earning his fastest time as a Junior at 1:58.8. Our record foursome prepped for Mt. SAC at Tustin Relays in 8:02.1 with Stauter blazing 1:56.6, Taylor 2:00.9, Porter-2:04.8 and Baker racing 1:58.1 on anchor. So, the stage was set for a long lasting school record that stands today after 36 years at 8:02.4.

Here is that Dayton Roosevelt team (7:58.9) I mentioned in the intro.

I was able to find a newspaper article from Dayton saying that the Roosevelt team did get the national record for the 2MR in 1962 at 7:49.85.   I didn't know the high schools were getting timed to 1/00 sec. and not sure where that race was run.  Perhaps someone can find that for us.  George

The following comment came from Tom Trumpler:

Hi George,

Thank you for posting Darryl Taylor's comparison of his and his son's 880 yard and 800 meter high school running experiences.

Two minor, but interesting things to note:

 1) - In his time comparisons twixt 1959 and 1984, Darryl didn't note that the California high schools last ran the 880 yard half mile and the mile (4x440 = 1760 yards) in 1979.

     - From 1980 and on, the distances were the 800 meters and the 1600 meters for dual meets and the California State H.S. Meet.

     - In his text, I think Darryl only mentions a metered distance once, that being Brent Stauter's 1984 1:55.5  800-meter run at the Mt. Sac Relays.

       Did he convert the timed 1959/1984 results to compensate for the slightly shorter metric races?

     - Conversions are:   880 yards = 804.671 meters, and, the mile's 1760 yards = 1609.344 meters

     - The 4x880 yard two-mile relay covers 3520 total yards. The 3520 total yards convert to 3218.688 meters.

 2)  - The Compton Relays in 1959 ran a six-turn 880 yard race. At that time, the 220 yard race was run on a straightaway with no turns, so the tracks were laid out with the 220 starting line chute placed well before the track's oval portion began.

      At the Compton Relays, this deeply set chute was mirrored on the other side of the track. For the high school portion of the meet with multiple heats,  this allowed for one 880-yard heat to begin, then after running six turns that heat would finish in the opposite chute, while meantime back at the opposite side starting chute, the officials had the next heat ready to start without having to deal with stragglers finishing.

      - Darryl doesn't mention that his 1958 and 1959 times in the 880-yard run benefitted slightly from the advantage of only needing to make 6 turns.

P.S. -  I ran a high school 880 yard heat at the Compton Relays, it was exciting to have the gun go off without a staggered start, with a very large group of runners going down that long straightaway before making the first turn and then going "chute to chute" to the finish.

From Loren Drum:

Hello George:  I enjoyed your article on high school two mile relay times and runner’s times. My friend Chuck Frawley won the Texas State 5A 880 yard Championships in both his Junior an Senior years. His Tacosa High School also set the National Two Mile High School record in 1962. He went to U of Texas  where they also set national records along with Ricardo Romo, the first Texas to break 4:00 for the Mile. We are all getting ready for the 2023 Texas Relays at the end of this month. Best Wishes, Loren

Dear George,

Your message brought back some fond memories.  Growing up in Grand Rapids, Michigan, we never had  much experience with events like the two-mile relay.   The only two relays were the 880 relay, and the mile-relay. Things have change since, however.  Nevertheless, Paul Wiegerink, our far-sighted track coach, entered us in the Spartan Relays (indoor) in 1966.  I was part of a two-mile relay team that ran 8:29.7.  (Our times, if I remember correctly were 2:07, 2:07, 2:09, and 2:05 plus the fractions).  That had to have been  a school record because it was the first time that we ever ran the event.).   We didn't score any points although I think that we couldn't have been far off from 6th, which did score.  If they had run that event in the City's dual meets, we would have won in a walk each time.

That 8:29 is still a respectable time for that event in high school, wouldn't you say?

Best wishes,

Bruce Geelhoed

As I recall,  in the early 60's the 2 mile relay was a pretty common event at the big high school relay meets, usually in April.  By May, things were getting serious in prep for the district meet to qualify for the State.  There were no regionals then in Ohio.  The open 880 and mile run at the state meet would have 45 or 50 entrants running in three heats and a winner picked from the compared times.  In 1961 I won the fast heat but lost to Mike Gallagher of Toledo Libbey who won the second heat.  I had no excuses, because when I stepped to the line I knew what I had to run to win.  It was a doable time but I had crashed that week as far as performance went.  It was my third track meet in 8 days.  (District on previous Saturday,  City Meet on Tuesday, and then the State).  Mike went on to Western Michigan and ran on their two time NCAA champion cross country team.   My cross country career was a total dud at Oklahoma.  After the State Meet mile that Mike won, he was gentleman enough to tell me that had he been in the fast heat, he would not have run as well because of nerves on the main stage.  He said he ran better if no one was paying attention to him.  And he certainly did that day.  George Brose

From Darryl Taylor:

George-I truly appreciate the comments from Tom and Chuck. Again, a minor comment or two. In 1959, the high school only Invitational was called THE COMPTON CUP which I believe was later changed to the COMPTON RELAYS. Another change was going to a day meet instead of racing at night, which also added another element of excitement for high schoolers. If you picture the Compton track and stadium, called RAMSAUR STADIUM I believe, we did indeed run out of the chute and finish on the opposite side of the track but the 880 took 3 turns to complete as 6 turns would go much beyond 88o. And, as a high school coach for 46 years I was well aware of the switch from yards to meters but didn't bother to mention it as it was the final time for the 4X800 meter relay vs the 2-mile relay that was remarkably similar. Had I either converted the 1959 race to meters, we would have run, according to T&F News, 7:59.2; had we converted the 4x800 to 4x880 the final time would have penciled out to 8:04.7 and the comparison, although still interesting, would not have matched up as well when staged side by side. All minor details in the end.

And one more minor item I should have mentioned. In 1959 there were several schools that had already broken the 8:00 barrier, including Bellflower HS right over the riverbed from Excelsior. Ty Hadley and his Bellflower team mates lowered the National Record to 7:56 before he and a team mate enrolled at OCCIDENTAL COLLEGE where they also set a World Record outdoors. Ty Hadly was a 1:59 half-miler at Bellflower and took a full 11 seconds off that high school mark to run 1:48 for Occidental. Ty later spent a few years coaching at Long Beach State before I arrived on campus. I've always wondered what I might have run had we run under Coach Hadley. Again, thanks to both Tom and Chuck for their posting those fine Texas 2-Mile relay performances. Made me wonder if the anchor man LEE CALHOUN was related to the great Olympic hurdler of the '50s,LEE CALHOUN. I hope we get some further contributions.

Darryl:   Lee Calhoun from Dayton Roosevelt and then U. of Oklahoma, as far as I know was not related to the hurdler Lee Calhoun.   However his half brother Billy Calhoun who went to Dayton Dunbar HS ran about 1:59 in high school.  He also came to the U. of Oklahoma and won two NCAA indoor 440 yard titles,  one was a tie.    Lee won the Big 8 600 his soph year  but I don't believe he won any further titles.  He also doubled in dual meets as a triple jumper.  Every point counted in those meets as anyone from our age group can tell you.  After a rough few years, Lee became a store front preacher in Washington D.C. and eventually moved on to serve in T.D. Jakes' mega church in Dallas, TX.   Allan Payne of that Dayton Roosevelt team was cousin to Lee and Billy.  He was wounded in Viet Nam.  Shattered knee.  George

George, 

The father/son article in your recent issue was very interesting and an amazing story.  However, let me add a little more narrative on the High School 2-mile relay.  I ran for Wichita East HS in 1958, then coached by Bob Timmons.  We won the 2-mile relay at the 1958 Kansas Relays in a time of 7:57.0 (Charlton 2:05.2, Holgerson 2:00.9, Stone 1:56.9, San Romani 1:57.0), falling 1 second short of the then National Record of 7:56.0 set by Bellflower HS in California.  My information shows that Bellflower's record was set in 1953.  That was the only opportunity we had to even run that race and Coach Timmons had us pumped up.  As in the track world, we had just run the second fastest HS time ever and walked away disappointed.

I continue to enjoy your newsletter!

Bill Stone