Vol. 2 No. 30 February , 1961

FEBRUARY 1961

The Russians are coming! The Russians are coming! At least Valeriy Brummel and Igor Ter-Ovanesyan are here to take on John Thomas and Ralph Boston in the New York AC Games and the National AAU meet, both in Madison Square Garden. Brummel is track and field's newest shining star, having broken Thomas' world record with a 7-4½ last month in Leningrad.

The NYAC games are held Feb. 17. If the Russian youngster is nervous about his first US competition, it doesn't show. When Thomas can't negotiate 7-2, Brummel is on his own. He is over 7-3 on his second jump. To the delight of the crowd, he has the bar placed at 7-5 because, as he says later, “I wanted to do better than I have ever done. He has three good shots, but doesn't clear. There will be another day, specifically eight days hence in same environs.

If Brumel is disappointed, it is nothing compared to the anguish of Ter-Ovanesyan who, presented with a runway 30 feet shorter than he is accustomed, can't get his step down and fouls six times. Boston needs no competitive incentive. He sails 26-1¾ for an indoor world record. Wins for Brummel and Boston, disappointments for Thomas and Ter-Ovanesyan; you could say the jumps had their ups and down.

Don Bragg, not used to being second banana, soars 15-7 for a meet record and has three near misses at 16-0. With that mark in mind, it is significant to mention that John Uelses places fourth with his first 15-0 clearance, perhaps an indication of things to come.

The most anticipated event on the track is the 880 where George Kerr beats Belgium's 800 world record holder Roger Moens 1:52.2 to 1:52.5. Hungary's Istvan Rozsavolgyi toys with the mile field, winning by 2.5 seconds over Peter Close in 4:04.0.

And now to the AAU meet. The jumps have the same Russian – American match ups and the excitement level has been ratcheted up a notch. Ter-Ovanesyan has his step down and takes the lead in the first round with a leap of 25-7¾. In the third round he becomes the second ever indoor jumper to reach 26 feet with a jump of exactly that distance. Boston answers in the fourth round with a 25-11¼, but time is running out. Neither improve in the fifth round and one jump remains for each. Boston is up first. With the crowd cheering wildly, the Olympic champion sprints down the runway, hits the board with two inches to spare and elevates. At the top of his jump it is apparent that this is a special jump. Indeed it is. The measurement is 26-6¼, a world record by 4½ inches. If you think it is all over but the shouting, think again. The Russian is made of stern stuff. He has been moving his mark back all evening and he does so once again. This is to be an all or nothing attempt. He is all out down the runway, hits the board and it is obvious that this is his best jump of the evening, well over 26 feet. Is it enough to beat Boston and take his WR? We'll never know. The red flag goes up. It is a foul by about an inch. The Russians want it measured anyway. They are turned down by judge Eulace Peacock who cites the rules. Eulace Peacock, does that name ring a bell? If so, it is because he was a 26-3 jumper himself in 1935. Were it not for Jesse Owens, he would have been the world record holder for 24 years until last summer.

The crowd anticipates the high jump match between Thomas and Brummel, but though it is exciting, the marks are an inch below those of last week, Brummel winning 7-2 to 7-0. How far high jumping has come in the last few years is measured by the 18 year old Brummel's apology for missing 7-3.

There is far more excitement on the track than there was last week. In the 1000 Ernie Cunliffe, pictured on the front page, comes within a tenth of the world record he set in Boston, splitting 54.5 and 1:51.9 en route to a 2:08.0 clocking, two yards ahead of Ed Moran. The milers jog through a 3:12.5, with Istvan Rozsavolgyi leading, before Jim Beatty destroys the field with a 56+ final quarter to win easily in 4:09.3. Hayes Jones, who had said he would be concentrating on the sprints in the future, ties the world record in the 60 yard hurdles, defeating Elias Gilbert. No times are given for the placers. Eddie Southern wins his first AAU indoor championship with decisive 1:11.9 victory in the 600.

Bruce Kidd is a crowd favorite and justly so. Record holder Al Lawrence takes the three mile field out with a 4:33 first mile. Houston teammate John Macy then trades the heavy lifting with Lawrence as they take turns leading laps. By two miles, reached in 9:16, Lawrence has realized it is not his day and fallen back, but Lazlo Tabori and the 17 year old Kidd are right there. Another lap and Kidd pops into the lead followed by Tabori. Goodby, Macy. For the next three quarters the Hungarian veteran stalks the Canadian teenager, never more than three yards back. He is still there at the gun and the race is on....but not for long. Down the backstretch Kidd opens up 10 yards, an advantage he stretches to 20 at the tape, winning in 13:47.0, claiming the fifth spot on the all time list. Lazlo has to be content with 13:51.6.

Though some results from the Boston AA meet were mentioned in the last issue, the story appears in this month's. Ernie Cunliffe set the world record at 1000 yards of 2:07.9 in winning by 3.5 seconds. John Thomas set the American record in the high jump with a 7-3 clearance. It would have been the world record had not Brummel jumped 7-4½ a few hours earlier in Leningrad. Thomas, after clearing 7-3, was quoted as saying, “That's enough for one night. I'm satisfied.” Here is a question to ponder. When he said that, did he know of Brummel's jump?

Speaking of Brummel, the classic shot of him touching a basketball rim with his right foot appears on page 15 of this issue.

Now it is February 3 and we are at the Millrose Games at the Garden. Henry Wadsworth bests Don Bragg in the vault, 15-4 to 15-0, Tarzan's first loss at MSG since 1957. The Florida vaulter also takes second in the high jump at 6-6. Hungary's Istvan Rozsavolgyi has said that he is in shape to break Ron Delany's 4:01.4 world record in the mile. For awhile it appears this could be the night. Ernie Cunliffe leads through the quarter in 61.5, but Rozsavolgyi takes over and quickens the pace to 2:01.7. Could we be viewing a record?......No, wait. False alarm. Rozsa slows and Deacon Jones is forced to take over before the 1320, reached in 3:05.3. With two laps (320 yards) left “the slim Magyar zoomed to the front”. Jones hangs tough, but is dropped with half a lap to go. Rozsavolgyi coasts home in 4:06.0. “Cunliffe, apparently out of it, finished fast to grab second in 4:06.4 with Jones at 4:06.5.”

It's the next week and we are at the Sports Arena for the LA Times meet. This 17 year old Canadian, Bruce Kidd, just continues to impress. On tonight's two mile menu we have Al Lawrence, Max Truex, Jim Beatty and John Macy. The veterans let the kid take the lead, but the pace is a dawdling 2:25 at the half. No other splits are given. The pace picks up, but it is still tactical. The youngster leads - “mincing along on his toes” even - for 21 of the 22 laps. At this point “Beatty put an end to all the foolishness with a 160 yard burst that covered the final circuit in an unbelievable 18 seconds”. Beatty 9:05.7, Kidd 9:07.7.

Bert Nelson writes: “The best time of the meet was the 2:08.7 for the 1000 yards by Ernie Cunliffe. Off form with the tail end of a cold, Ernie bolted to the fore halfway through the race and hung on for a diminishing but decisive five yard margin over Jim Grelle.”

Eddie Southern's 57.8 takes the 500 over Jack Yerman and Mal Spence, 58.1 for both. George Kerr, the best 400-800 runner on earth, logically is comfortable in the 600. He wins in 1:11.1 over Mal Spence's twin, Mel, who clocks 1:11.9.

In an odd footnote, the outstanding performer of the meet doesn't go to any of the above, indeed not to any performer in an open race. It goes to crowd favorite Tom Sullivan of St. George High in Evanston, Illinois who wins the high school mile in 4:13.7 with painful splits of 2:01.5 and 2:12.2.

Remember how discouraged Dyrol Burleson was after his thumping at the hands of Jim Beatty last month? Well, apparently Coach Bowerman knows what he is doing. Burleson is in New Zealand kicking some major Olympic butt. On Jan. 21 in Auckland he handles OG 5000 champ Murray Halberg in a 1500, 3:47.4 to 3:47.7. Four days later in Napier he outruns Bill Baillie by two seconds with a 4:04.0 mile. The best is yet to come. Back in Auckland on the 28th he takes on Halberg and OG 800 champ Peter Snell at a mile and leaves them both behind: Burleson 4:05.6, Snell 4:05.7, Halberg 4:06.4. On Feb. 1 in Dunedin he once again handles Halberg 4:01.2 to 4:03.6. Good? Yes, but you ain't seen nothing yet. In Christchurch on the 4th he lines up for an 800 against all three Olympic 800 medal winners, Snell, world record holder Roger Moens and George Kerr. No description of the race is given, but when the dust clears, Burly has won in a personal best equaling 1:50.0. The medalists finish in the same order they did in Rome: Snell 1:50.1, Moens 1:50.4, Kerr 1:50.6. That he stubs his toe in a final mile against Halberg four days later in Wellington, 4:04.2 to 4:04.8, doesn't diminish the success of the Oregonian's tour.

Gleaned from columns: Bobby Poynter has left his San Jose problems behind and is now enrolled at LA State....Istvan Rozsavolgyi has a guilty secret: he is a “chain smoker”, knocking off three or four cigarettes in succession each evening....Roger Moens says his best days are behind him and that he won't break his 1:45.7 800 world record, but neither will Peter Snell. “He is too heavy. He is a shot putter on the side.”.....Vern Wolfe who coached three high school national record holders in consecutive years (Jim Brewer in the PV, Dallas Long in the shot and Karl Johnston in the discus) and then took an assistant job at San Jose State, is now the head coach at Foothill Junior College. Wonder how far his climb up the coaching ladder will go?......Speaking of how far, Ralph Boston, whose broad jump record is a fraction of an inch short of 27 feet, is a confident guy. He says he can jump 30 feet....And finally, Bert Nelson vents, “At Rome many of our runners wore disgraceful dirty gray sweats into the stadium in place of their official blues. They wore non standard uniforms in Greece and London. And some refused to wear numbers in the London meet. None of our athletes are good enough to be allowed to do this and our coaches and managers should see that they don't.”

We'll close with an ad. Kansas coach Bill Easton will lead a “Hawaiian Track Party” for ten days in July. There are no meets, but there will be clinics which will display Easton's “wealth of coaching experience and know how plus genial personality.” Airfare from San Francisco, accommodations at the luxurious Waikiki Biltmore and many activities are included for only $315. Sign up now.

Vol. 1 No. 72 December 1959

DECEMBER 1959
Front page photos are of Ray Norton, winner of the top US trackman award, Parry O’Brien, the top field event man, and Martin Lauer, the Athlete of the Year. Vasiliy Kuznyetsov, the Russian decathlon WR holder, is named the best field event performer, but doesn’t rate a photo.
Let’s run through the events. Norton edges Kansas’ Charlie Tidwell for first in the 100. Bobby Morrow is sixth. Norton repeats in the 200, this time beating out Italy’s Livio Berruti. Eddie Southern certainly did not have a dominant year, losing four of his ten races, but somehow he beats out undefeated George Kerr who won their only match up. Chuck Carlson, who had the year’s fastest time, 45.9, is third.
Stefan Lewandowski of Poland is the 800 winner. As in the 400, it could have been one of several. His 1:46.5 is the second fastest time of the year and his victory over WR holder Roger Moens apparently is enough to rank him one spot above. But wait a minute, neither of them won that race. They were beaten by five meters by Sweden’s Dan Waern. Waern is only seventh. The fastest time of the year, 1:46.2, belongs to sixth ranked Paul Schmidt of Germany. If there is any truth to the adage that 88% of success is showing up then Schmidt got screwed. He ran an amazing 23 800’s in 1959.
Istvan Rozsavolgi of Hungary is the clear number one in the 1500. He has the year’s fastest time, 3:38.9, and is undefeated. Dan Waern is second. Where is Herb Elliot you may ask? That would be sixth. He concluded his season on March 14 and raced only four times, all miles, with a best of 3:58.9, never leaving Australia. Poland’s Kazimierz Zimny tops an exclusively European top ten in the 5000/3M. Third ranked Pyotr Bolotnikov of Russia tops the 6M/10K rankings which, with the exception of the eighth placer, Pan Am winner Osvaldo Suarez of Argentina, are also all-European.
Although Americans fill seven of the ten places in the high hurdle rankings, the top spot is taken by Martin Lauer of Germany, based primarily on his questionable 13.2 WR, four tenths better than his next fastest time. He lost only once, but never ran against the Americans. Hayes Jones and Lee Calhoun are second and third. High schooler Rex Cawley makes the list in tenth.
An undefeated season and the year’s fastest time, 50.1, puts South Africa’s Gert Potgieter atop the 400 hurdles list. Dick Howard is second and Olympic champion and WR holder Glenn Davis is sixth. And here is Rex Cawley again, this time ranked 8th. The kid may have a future in this sport.
The achievement of the seven foot high jump hasn’t seemed to have had a lasting effect. It has been done only once in 1959, appropriately enough by Charlie Dumas who jumped exactly 7’0”. This jump combined with an undefeated season up to a lackluster 4th in the dual meet with the Soviet Union is enough to rank him first.
The pole vault belongs to the U.S. Don Bragg, Jim Graham and Aubrey Dooley all have vaulted 15’5”, but Bragg’s consistency earns him the #1 ranking. Other Americans are Graham, 2nd, Bob Gutowski, 3rd, Mel Schwarz, 4th, Dooley, 6th, Ron Morris, 8th, George Mattos, 9th, and J.D. Martin, 10th.
As good as we are in the PV, we aren’t in the Hop-Step-Jump. No American makes the list. Russia’s Oleg Fyedoseyev wins 8 of 10 competitions and has the best mark, 54-9½, to take first in the rankings.
Our guys do better in the broad jump. Greg Bell, whose 26-7 is only an inch off Jesse Owen’s WR, takes first. The soon-to-be-great Igor Ter-Ovanesyan of the USSR is second. Irv Robertson is third. Not to be over looked in the soon-to-be-great department is 8th placer Ralph Boston.
If there is an event that looks rosy for the US in next year’s Olympics it is the shot put. Only seven putters have bested 60’ and five of them are Americans. Parry O’Brien’s first place ranking is the seventh of his storied career. He is followed by Dallas Long, Bill Nieder and Dave Davis in the 2-3-4 spots. Charlie Butts is 7th.
The hammer throw rankings are a pick ‘em sort of thing. Vasiliy Rudenkov of the Soviet Union has thrown 222-10 and lost only once. Olympic Champ Harold Connolly has thrown 222-8½ and lost twice (once being a lackluster effort in the Pan Am games). More significant is his other loss, a 219-0 to 216-7 defeat at the hands of Rudenkov in the USSR-USA dual. It is enough to give the Russian the first place ranking.
The great Janusz Sidlo of Poland takes the javelin title. His 280’8½ best is short of fourth placer Al Cantello’s WR 282’3½, but though they never met, Sidlo has a better competitive record. Kansas’ Bill Alley is fifth.
The decision as to who is the best decathlete in the world is perhaps the easiest of all. World record holder Vasiliy Kuznyetsov of Russia has had a dominate season. His 8357 total leaves second place in the dust by 362 points. Does that mean he is a shoo-in for the Olympic gold? Maybe not. That second placer is Athlete of the Year Martin Lauer who competed only once, but it is enough to rank him second. C.K. Yang and Dave Edstrom are 3rd and 4th. Wait a minute, where is Rafer Johnson? Not on the top ten list, that’s where. Injuries have made this an off year for the Olympic champion.
But what of the Stanford Fall Championships you may be asking? Sure enough, there is a short story with the lead paragraph, “Ernie Cunliffe, noted as a half miler, switched to the two mile today and ran 9:18.8 at the Stanford Fall Championships”.
The following has been gleaned from various columns. Dyrol Burleson “in a recent attempt to run four quarters in 60 seconds each” “with George Larson and Dick Miller pacing him. His first quarter was 59.5, the half in 1:59.5 and three quarters in 2:58. He was timed a 3:26 with a 220 to go.” The reporter goes on to say that Burleson was losing ground to Miller, didn’t realize how fast the time was and quit. Does this sound right to you? Me, neither. He runs 59.5, 60, then accelerates to 57.5, throws down a 28.5 220……and then quits? First, he had to have timers yelling his splits. This is a time trial set up for specifically for him to run fast. He knows his splits. Secondly, unless it is an extremely slow pace, milers don’t get faster on the third lap. He has accelerated dramatically on the third lap. He continues this pace (actually slightly increases) through the first half of the last lap. He is on world record pace…..and he quits? Something doesn’t ring true here. (Sorry, I couldn’t suppress that; it just popped out.) …….Of the 49 WRs existing in on Jan. 1, 1950, only one remains, Mel Patton’s much-tied 9.3 for 100 yards…….The greatest distance runner of all time? That’s easy, Emil Zatopek. At one time he held every WR above 2 miles, ten in all.
There are three “Profiles of Champions”, Dave Davis, John Macy and Ray Norton. Macy’s is particularly interesting. Thank God he shortened his name from the Jan Miecznikowski he was stuck with at birth in Poland. As a 14 year old, he fought in WWII in which his mother, brother and two sisters were killed. He was a 22 year old senior at an army school when he began his running career after realizing that he was faster than anyone else in the Polish army. In 1954, while in Bern, Switzerland for a meet, he requested and received asylum at the American embassy. He came to the US in 1956 and received a scholarship from the University of Houston.
A sample of his training is included. He trains six days a week, ll months a year. Mon: “trot” six miles; Tues: 12x120, a total of five miles; Weds: 5-7 miles; Thurs: 8-12x440; Fri: trot, exercise, hurdles; Sat: 6x60, total of 8 miles. Doesn’t seem much for a 5000-10,000 guy does it?
The shoe war has heated up. Cliff Severn’s 3/8 page Adidas ad has been countered by a half page Puma ad. Puma now has a dealer in the US, the aptly named Sports Equipment Corp out of Urbana, Illinois. Gill has also bought a half page ad: starting blocks and jump standards.

Vol. 1 No. 54 February, 1959

FEBRUARY 1959
Like January, there isn’t much meet in this issue either. This is not to say epic performances were not achieved. On the front page is a photo of an exuberant Don Bragg emerging from the sawdust at the Philadelphia Inquirer Games with a new PV world record of 15-9 ½, breaking Dutch Warmerdam’s 16 year old indoor mark and leaving outdoor WR holder Bob Gutowski behind at 15-4. “Bragg’s muscular chest hit the triangular crossbar, flipping it over, and Bragg crouches in the sawdust while he watched the bar quiver. Then with 10,650 spectators cheering, he dances wildly with joy.”
The National AAU meet in New York produces four indoor WRs. Ron Delany motors past Hungarian star Istvan Rozsavolgyi on the last lap for a 4:02.5 win, running his indoor mile record to 29-0. Bill Dellinger breaks Greg Rice’s 17 year old record in the three mile by nearly nine seconds, running 13:36.9. Parry O’Brien ups his SP record to 62-1¾. Seventeen year old John Thomas provides what is intrinsically the best mark of the meet when he jumps 7-1¼ , the best jump ever indoors or out.
The seldom run 300 gets a working over. On Feb. 7 Purdue freshman Dave Mills clocks 30.8 for a University of Illinois fieldhouse record in a race he had not intended to run. George Kerr had taken the first heat of the 440 in 48.6. Running in the second heat, Mills doesn’t get a gun for the final lap and didn’t go to the afterburners until it was too late, resulting in a 48.8 clocking. (Dave, it is 2¾ laps. This isn’t higher math.) Upset, Mills asks to be included in the 300 field 20 minutes later. On the same day not far away in East Lansing Olympic champ Glenn Davis runs 30.5 only to see the backside of Pittsburgh’s Mel Barnwell who clocks 30.0 to break the American record set by Herb McKinley 12 years earlier.
Kansas and Oklahoma hook up twice. On Feb. 2 in a dual meet in Lawrence, Kansas edges the Sooners 70-52. Dee Givens and Gail Hodgson of OU are double winners, with Givens winning the 60 and the 60 lows while Hodgson takes the 880 and the mile. The Sooners weight duo of Mike Lindsay and Dan Erwin go 1-2 in the shot at 57-10 and 56-4. The Jayhawks, still looking for Cliff Cushman’s best event, run him in the 1000 where he rewards them with a victory. The two powerhouses clash again in the Big Eight meet Feb. 28. This time the Jayhawks dominate 70-30. Givens pulls a hamstring in the 60 and is done. Hodgson wins the mile, but is a well beaten fifth in the 880. Lindsay and Erwin dominate the shot with 58-4 and 56-0½. Cushman seems to have found a home in the 1000 where he runs 2:11.6 to crush the field by over two seconds.
There is mention of the inaugural Mount San Antonio Relays to be held April 24-25. Wonder if that will catch on?
To close on an up note, let’s go to Compton College where the USC freshmen are taking on the hometown boys. Eighteen year old Dallas Long is looking to break Parry O’Brien’s shot put WR of 63-2 in his very first collegiate meet. Rumor has it that he has thrown 65 in practice. An interested spectator is one P. O’Brien. Indeed the kid does it, dropping one out at 63-4. Well, he has sort of done it. The slope is too great, so no record is allowed. The record holder’s fire has been ignited. He comes out of the stands, goes into the locker room, changes into his “briefs” and warms up. “When ready, the 27 year old Southern California alumnus steps into the ring, musters all his skill, strength and pride – of which he has considerable – and explodes. The result – 63-6.” Youth is not served this day, but there will be others and we will be there to see how this plays out. Until that time…….