After 59 years, James Metcalf, John Perry, Tom Von Ruden, and Dave Perry were inducted into the OSU Hall of Honor recently. The Perry brothers and Jim Metcalf were present. Tom Von Ruden passed away in 2018. When I was at the University of Oklahoma we frequently ate their cinders in various races. It was always a great rivalry. Coming from Ohio, I didn't fully understand the origins of that rivalry. We referred to them as 'The Damned Aggies' and we were known to them as 'the Tea Sippers'. I just knew we better be ready whether it was at a cross country meet, indoor track, or outdoor track, or a spelling bee. We had an annual outdoor dual meet and again, both teams knew they best be ready to do extra service for a team victory. In typical dual meet fashion, some of the lesser lights on the team often played a huge role by getting a third place in the Triple Jump or the Discus throw to add to the team's point total. I sort of recall that Von Ruden occasionally filled in during the Triple Jump. Running three races was not unheard of in those meets.
But this honor is really about the Cowboys raising the bar to the international level when they set the World Record back in 1965. The Sooners first became aware that there was something in the making for the OSU quartet in 1964 when we met them at the Albequerque Invitational Indoors in the Two Mile Relay. We hung tough with them for two legs with Long Beach State in the mix and Darryl Taylor of LBSU can attest to that, as he was in that race. On that third leg Von Ruden blew everyone away with a 1:51.6 leg and their fourth runner had the track to himself the rest of the way. A 1:51 in those days was national caliber. We felt pretty good getting second in that meet. We were also lucky to win another indoor Two Mile Relay at Texas Tech when the Cowboys got caught in a snowstorm on the way to the meet and didn't get there in time. We still had to beat Texas, Houston, and Abilene Christian that night. If it hadn't snowed, we probably would have had another second place trophy. We had to come over the same roads as they did. I never heard exactly why they didn't make it. We may have left campus a few hours earlier.
Remarkably those four guys came to OSU with less than stellar credentials. Von Ruden was a walk on from Coeur d'Alene, ID, Metcalf was a fair to middlin' half miler out of Altus, OK. His older brother Danny had been a very good distance runner for the Cowboys and had graduated by the time Jim arrived. The Perry brothers, a year apart came to the university from Muskogee, OK with 49-50 second 440 PR's. I think one of the things that helped them was that Coach Ralph Higgins kept them out of cross country for the most part and made them into half milers, focusing on a lot of repeat 220's in the Fall season. I think only Von Ruden occasionally ran cross country. In 1968 he would qualify for the finals of the Olympic 1500 meters. They also raced a flat out 440 each Friday in an intrasquad relay during that Fall training period. John shared their workouts with me and Bill Blewett a few years ago and we were astounded. I was also impressed with how slow those 220's were run in the early Fall and then very gradually built up speed as Winter approached. By the time Indoor season came along, they were pretty well tuned. They showed that in that first 1964 race in Albequerque.
The following youtube link is a 7 minute presentation played at the induction ceremony.
History of the World Record Team
An older correspondence with John Perry gave more backdrop on their team history beginning with that Albequerque race in 1964 and their World Record with the splits.
(Albequerque) Jim Metcalf was a freshman and thus not eligible to run varsity in those days. Here is a recap of those days in John Perry's words:
"We ran John Winingham, John Perry, Tom Von Ruden and Dave Perry in that order. Don’t have the splits except the race was even until Von Ruden got the baton, New Mexico was also in the race and was the pre-meet favorite. This was Tom’s breakthrough race and he ran a 1:51.6, destroyed the field and gave Dave a huge lead. Our winning time was 7:42.8, Oklahoma ran 7:47.4 and Long Beach ran 7:48.4. George Brose was on the Oklahoma team. Darryl Taylor and Tom Jennings were on the Long Beach team and Darryl also ran the 1000. He was third behind Jim Dupree. OSU also won the mile relay in 3:16.1, Striders were second in 3:16.3 with Adolph Plummer running a great sub 47 anchor leg. We ran Jack Miller, Ray Bothwell, Dave Perry and John Perry in that order. Jack Milller was the Big 8 indoor 440 Champion that year and was unbeatable on the first leg. Our mile relay team was better than our two Mile relay team. The mile relay team won every indoor race including the Big 8 and USTFF in Milwaukee. I’m not counting Chicago where Bothwell got knocked down. However, we changed the order: Jack Miller, John Perry, Ray Bothwell and Dave Perry."
"We only ran one more two Mile relay Indoors in 1964, a winning 7:32.4 over Drake who had just won the Indoor USTFF. The meet was at Kansas State on 220 indoor dirt. Our splits were John Winingham 1:53.9, John Perry 1:53.1, Tom Von Ruden 1:51.5, Dave Perry 1:53.9. We also won the Mile relay in 3:15.2 (David anchored in 47.8)."
"Outdoors, Higgins decided to concentrate on the Mile relay because Missouri could beat everyone in the Midwest relay circuit in the 2 mile and DMR. They had 4 good 880 runners: Larry Ray, Bill Rawson, Charlie Conrad and Robin Lingle at anchor. Lingle was a lot faster than any of us in 1964 and Rawson and Conrad were 1:50.0 runners. Our Mile relay team got third at Kansas and then went to Penn instead of Drake for the final big relay meet. We got two close thirds at Penn. Villanova beat us without Noel Carroll (Tom Sullivan anchored and beat me) in the two mile and Morgan State and St. John’s beat us in the Mile relay. That’s about it for 1964, we took a lot of road trips after school was out including Stillwater-Houston-Corvallis. We lost our edge and didn’t run that well. David made the NCAA finals in the 800m and qualified for the Olympic Trials where he was eliminated in the semis. I made it through the first round of the NCAA but got knocked out in the semis."
"We waited until 1965 to race Missouri and beat them at the Texas Relays in 1965. Now we were faster on every leg than Missouri (Jim Metcalf, John Perry, Tom Von Ruden and David Perry) and they never raced us again. That’s the year that we ran 7:18.3 at Fresno for the official outdoor World Record. It could have been faster but David hadn’t fully recovered from Strep throat. Our best individual times in 1965 were Metcalf 1:48.5, John Perry 1:48.5, Tom Von Ruden 1:49.2 (relay) and Dave Perry 1:47.7."
The official splits in the WR race were James Metcalf 1:50.6 , John Perry 1:47.5 , Tom Von Ruden, 1:49.2 , David Perry 1:51.0 . David was recovering from a bout with strep throat. Three weeks later he ran a 1:47.7 at the Federation meet in Houston.
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