Vol. 3 No. 11 March , 1963

Jim Beatty

March 1963 Indoor track is dead. Long live outdoor track. Yep, the indoor season has come to an end and in the warmer climes the outdoor season is going full steam. The indoor season has not gone quietly as the weekend of March 8-9 produces a world record and two American records. Let's go to the Chicago Daily News Relays where the largest crowd of the season, 16,758, watches Jim Beatty take a shot at Murray Halberg's 2 mile world record of 8:34.3. The field includes the iconic teenager, Bruce Kidd, Poland's Witold Baran and Beatty's LATC teammates, Bob Schul and Merle McGee, but as far as Beatty is concerned it is race between him and the clock. Coach Mihaly Igloi prescribed a 62 second opening quarter and that is what he got as Beatty hears teammate Bob Seaman call out 61.5 at that point. Bob Seamon

                                                  Grelle                   Schul            Beatty

The rest of the field is willing to let him go. The next splits are 2:05.3 and 3:08.9 before hitting the mile in 4:13.5. Sixty-five second quarters will produce the record and that is what the former North Carolina runner produces the next three quarters: 65.0 (5:18.5), 65.2 (6:23.7) and 65.3 (7:29.0). With the record virtually assured, the crowd erupts, exhorting Beatty to ratchet it one more notch. He responds with a 61.7 and the record is his at 8:30.7. Jim Beatty now owns both the indoor (8:29.0) and outdoor two mile world records. Lost in the hubbub is a great race by the heretofore unheralded Schul whose strong finish brings him home in the third fastest time ever, 8:37.5. Indeed his last mile is faster than Beatty's. Kidd, who has missed training time because of an infected blister on his foot, is well back at 8:55.4. Kidd's University of Toronto  
             Bill Crothers


teammate, Bill Crothers, is taking aim at Peter Snell's 2:06.0 1000 yards WR. Running from the front, he barely misses, finishing in 2:06.4.
 In second with a new American record is Missouri's Robin Lingle who runs 2:07.6.
    Robin Lingle

 There is a notable mile as well. Jim Grelle vs. Tom O'Hara with Bill Dotson thrown into the mix.
Dotson seen taking a baton from Ted Reisinger at Drake Relays later in the year 

The field follows a rabbit through a 58.9 quarter before O'Hara is forced to take over. The next quarter slows to 2:01.2 before the pace rallies a bit at 3:02.5. At this point O'Hara leads with Grelle and Dotson right on his heels. When the gun sounds on the tenth and last lap Grelle moves wide to pass and nearly allows Dotson the inside advantage, but they are only running for second place as O'Hara moves away easily to win 3:59.5 to 3:59.8 for second place Grelle and third place Dotson. The next evening, Saturday, March 9, finds us in Milwaukee for the USTFF meet where 19 year old Brian Sternberg from the University of Washington separates from himself from former WR holders John Uelses and C.K. Yang by clearing 16-3½ to set the American record.His vast potential is demonstrated on his second try at a WR height of 16-9½ as he just brushes the bar off with his chest.

C.K. Yang

Brian Sternberg

 Remember the 1968 Harvard – Yale game where Harvard comes from 16 points down with 42 seconds left to tie the game and the headline reads “Harvard beats Yale 29-29”? Well, the Big Ten meet is something like that. With only the mile relay remaining the score is defending champion Wisconsin 38, Iowa and Michigan 35. Points are awarded on an 8-6-4-2-1 basis. Wisconsin is in trouble because 46.7 man Elzie Higgenbottom is injured and won't run. Last week Iowa ran 3:16.0. Michigan has yet to break 3:20. Splits are not given for Iowa, but somebody was doing something well because they run 3:14.7 to hold off the 47.0 anchor of Michigan's Kent Bernard by a tenth. Michigan State is third and Wisconsin fourth. Final score: Iowa 43, Michigan 41, Wisconsin 40. Or at least that is what it was when the team buses were boarded and the arena lights turned off. Turns out things aren't quite that simple. Michigan has filed a protest over placings in the 60 where Wolverine Ken Burley was given sixth and Illinois' Trenton Jackson placed fourth. Nine days later Big Ten commissioner Bill Reed reviews the film of the race and reverses those placings. Michigan beats Iowa 43-43. The outdoor season blooms rich with promise. As the year starts the WR at 200 meters on the turn, 20.5, is shared by Britain's Peter Radford, set in 1960, and equaled Villanova's Paul Drayton last year. This situation is about to be altered dramatically. February 10 at the Southern Games in Pointe-a-Pierre, Trinidad, 100 yard world record holder Bob Hayes joins the 20.5 200 club. Now it is March 2 in Coral Gables, Florida and he braves a hindering wind in the straight to cover the slightly longer 220 yards in the same time. The 20.5 log jam doesn't last long. In Tempe, Arizona, in an evening dual meet with Utah, 20 year old Arizona State sophomore Henry Carr simplifies the record keeping with a 20.4 220. It is not as if this is a designed record attempt as he PRs in winning the broad jump at 24-1¾, takes the 100 in 9.6 and runs on both winning relay teams. The front page story gives the background of his amazing potential. As a high school sophomore in Detroit he ran 9.7 and 20.8 on the straight. The next year he added the 400 to his repertoire, running 9.6, 20.6 and 48.3 and broad jumping 23-4½ . He continued his improvement as a senior with 9.5, 20.6 and 47.8 performances. The warm weather and longer season in Arizona as a freshman agreed with him as he tied the freshman record of 9.4 in the 100, established a frosh record of 20.1 at 200 on the straight and had a 45.5 carry on the ASU mile relay team. As good as his new 220 record is, it doesn't last long. Under the heading of “Late News” we learn that four days later on March 23 he has done it again. In what appears to be a triangular meet with USC and Arizona, he runs 20.3, clipping a tenth off his previous mark. He also wins the 100 at 9.5 and, although not mentioned in the brief notes, probably runs legs on the 440 and mile relays. The latter is almost assured as the Sun Devils set a national collegiate record of 3:07.2. Pretty sure they didn't do that without Henry on board. Hopefully we will have more information, specifically splits, in the next issue. At this point we can say with confidence that Henry has earned his scholarship. Also in the “Late News” column, we learn that John Pennel has wrested the outdoor pole vault WR from Pentti Nikula, topping his mark by half an inch on March 23 in the Memphis Relays. The impact of this mark is reduced by the fact that Nikula's indoor mark is over half a foot better. Retribution may loom when the Finn is able to get outdoors
.If outdoors ever happens in the Finnish climate.
Penti Nikula today


Other items in this issue include the headline, “Another Double by Dyes”. It seems that at the West Texas Relays held March 16 in Odessa, the amazing Jerry Dyes has won his third javelin – broad jump double in as many weeks, throwing 244-2 and jumping 23-9½. The previous week in the Border Olympics in Laredo, he posted marks of 240-3½ and 24-0, efforts that, along with leading off the winning Abilene Christian 440 relay and placing fourth in the 100 at 9.8, earned him the meet's outstanding athlete award. There is a pretty good high school athlete in Texas who may bear some watching. He is 6-6, 220 pound Pampas HS senior Randy Matson who last year showed promise with shot and discus marks of 64-7 and 186-6. As a senior he has spent his time playing football and basketball, sports in which Texas sports writers have confirmed that he is “above average”. While no specifics are given for football, “above average” appears to be a term applied loosely in basketball as he was voted to the Texas AAAA all state team and lead the state in rebounding with 18.2 a game. This season, after one day of practice, he has thrown 64-1¾ and 188-7½. We'll keep an eye on this kid and see if he improves.Matson will go to Texas A&M, but the U. of Oklahoma can't be faulted for not trying to get him to Norman. They gave scholarships to two of Randy's buddies from Pampa hoping Randy would decide to attend OU.

Vol. 2 No. 98 September, 1962

SEPTEMBER 1962

The season has pretty much run its course in the US, so Mihali Igloi takes Jim Grelle, Lazlo Tabori, Bob Seaman and Jim Beatty on a European Tour. Let's see how it turns out.

Igloi

Tabori

Beatty defeating Jazy at L.A. Times

Jim Grelle

Bob Seaman

The first meet on August 6 on London's White City track goes less than well. The four are entered in the 2000 meters, but there is no hope of a fast time because rain has turned the track into a sea of mud. Grelle, Beatty and Tabori drop out, deciding “not to risk injuries and jeopardize the rest of the tour”. Seaman toughs out a 5:20 second place behind Derek Ibbotson's 5:19.2. The British press is not kind. “This regrettable and most unheroic showing could be interpreted as underlying the need for a more Spartan American cross country season.” Ouch!

The second stop came three rainy days later on Oslo's famed Bislet track where the quartet is entered in the 1500. The sun makes an appearance by race time, but the track is anything but fast. Igloi wants a quick first lap and he gets it. Seaman takes it out in 56.4. Beatty is a tenth back before moving into the lead on the second lap and passing the 800 in 1:57.0 and the 1200 a minute later. Grelle makes it interesting, closing on Beatty on the final curve, but the American record holder lifts in the last 60 to win and take half a second off his record with a 3:39.4. Grelle and Seaman clock personal bests of 3:40.2 and 3:42.7 in second and third. Tabori, unsure of his fitness, surprises himself with a 3:43.9 for fourth.

If this is August 15 we must be in France, right? Avranches to be exact where it is cold, wet and windy. A match between Michel Jazy and Beatty has been anticipated, but for some reason doesn't come off. Jazy runs the mile. Beatty is entered in the 3000 with the goal of breaking Jazy's world record of 7:49.2. He is joined by Tabori and Grelle. The home country opposition will come from Michel Bernard. Tabori does the donkey work for the first two laps before Beatty takes over, closely followed by Bernard. The two of them quickly separate from the field. The 1000 passes in 2:36.0, but the second 1000, completed in 5:16.2, puts them 4.2 seconds behind Jazy's pace, eliminating any hope for the record. Bernard doesn't lack for courage, but Beatty pulls away on the last lap for 7:54.2 to 7:56.0 victory and the American record. Grelle is third in 8:13.8. Tabori injures his Achilles and finishes fourth in 8:21.0 and “is of little use the rest of the tour”.

Seaman takes on Jazy in the mile. After a slow 3:07.0 three quarters that costs Jazy his first four minute mile, the Frenchman goes to the afterburners that Seaman doesn't have and wins 4:01.4 to 4:03.6.

Michel Jazy

And now it is August 18 and we are back at White City where a dry track awaits. The goal is to show the British press what they can do in the feature event, the mile. Once again it is Seaman doing the work on the first go round at 57.5 and once again Beatty is a tenth back. Grelle takes over on the second lap with Beatty coming aside at the 880 in 1:58.2. Now Beatty is on his own. He completes three laps in 2:58.8 with Grelle in close attendance. In fact, Grelle is running the race of his life. With half a lap to go, he does the unthinkable, passing Beatty and taking the lead. However the North Carolina grad is not done. He rallies to pull even at the 1500 in 3:41.3. Surprisingly Seaman, also running the race of his life, is only six tenths back. Down the straight they come. Gradually, Beatty's strength begins to pay off. He hits the tape a couple yards ahead of Grelle in a US record of 3:56.5. Grelle runs 3:56.7. Britain's Stan Taylor catches Seaman at the tape with both being timed in 3:58.0. Smiles all the way around as the four have produced PR's. Taylor is the first Britain to break four on English soil.   the editor must take umbrage with this fact.  Obviously Bannister was the first Englishman to break four minutes on English soil.  Checking the records Derek Ibbotson ran 3:57 in London in 1957.  Other British runners who preceded Taylor in breaking 4 minutes, though not necessarily on British soil were Chris Chataway 3:59.8 one year to the day after Bannister's historic race on May 28, 1955, then Brian Hewson in the same race, Ibbotson 3:59.4 on August 6, 1956, Ken Wood 3:59.3 on July 19, 1957, and then Taylor appears to have been the next Brit to  break 4 minutes on August 18, 1962, with a time of 3:58.01. ed. 

Three days pass and now we are in Helsinki where once again the competition is at four laps. Guess who leads the first lap. If you said Seaman, you would be right. The problem is that he is too fast, 54.5. Beatty follows in 55.5. The pattern is that of the White City race. Grelle takes the second lap with Beatty passing him at the half mile with both at 1:55.6. The pace slows predictably on the third lap with the bell reached in 2:58.0. Although by himself at this point, Beatty has enough in the tank to close in 58.3 and finish in 3:56.3 thus breaking his own American record. Once again Grelle is second, this time in 3:58.8. Olavi Salonen delights the Finnish crowd with a 3:59.1 for a national record. Seaman and Tabori are fourth and fifth in 4:01.8 and 4:06.2.

                                                  Olavi Salonen

I call this the Flying Olavi's

Olavi Salonen 135 (2nd) 3:40..2  ,  Olavi Vuorisalo 221 (3rd) 3:40.3 , and Olavi Salsola 12 (1st) 3:40.2

all defeating Dan Waern 7 (4th) 3:40.8    in Turku, Finland July 11, 1957.

Obviously 'Olavi' loosely translates as 'fleet of foot' in Finnish.  Of note in 

this race, Matti Nurmi, Paavo Nurmi's son finished a distant ninth place 2.2

seconds slower than Paavo's personal record for 1500m.

Three days later and we are still in Finland, this time in Turku where the order of the day is a rainy 50 degrees. The feature race is the 5000 where Beatty is taking a shot at Vladimir Kuts' 13:35.0 WR. The track is wet and the competition less than competitive. Tabori takes the lead on the first and third laps with Beatty leading the second and fourth. From this point the LATC star is on his own. His kilometer splits are 2:40.6, 2:45.2 (5:25.8), 2:48.2 (8:14.0), 2:49.0 (11:03.0) and 2:42.0 for 13:45.0 and yet another American record. Oh, make that two American records while you are at it, as he passes three miles 13:19.2. One has to believe that, given competition, a dry track and proper rest, the world record is within his grasp next season.

Perhaps Igloli's boys stayed at the dance too long. There is one more meet. (“Another one? Aw, come on, coach.” ) Yep, we are in Borlange, Sweden, on a 382.5 yards to the lap track with three lanes on the backstretch, running 2000 meters. Beatty wins in 5:10.9, only nine tenths off Fred Dwyers' AR. Seaman is second in 5:11.6 with Tabori third at 5:17.4. One would have to think that there were four very relieved distance runners.

Other happenings covered in this issue include Italy's Salvatore Morale's 49.2 400 hurdle clocking, tying Glenn Davis's world record and Harry Jerome's two 9.2 100 yards, tying Bob Hayes and Frank Budd. Pytor Bolotnikov revises his 10,000 WR by six tenths with a 28:18.2 performance.

Do you consider cross country among Peter Snell's strengths? Me neither, but we are both wrong. He is the 1962 New Zealand cross county champion, covering a manly 6¾ mile course “with a tough hill on each of three laps and 33 obstacles, some of them over five feet high” in 35:36 to win by 41 seconds.

After much foot dragging, the NCAA has finally entered the 20^th century, replacing the 220 lows with the 330 intermediates, adding the triple jump to all meets and the six mile to the championships and increasing the championship meet to three days. Equally important is the inclusion of tie breaking rules on misses and attempts in the high jump and pole vault, something that has been standard in the AAU meets for years.

Page 16 has the national relay rankings. Oregon shows pretty good range, winning the 440, the two mile, four mile and distance medley. Texas Southern tops the 880, Arizona State the mile and Santa Clara Valley Youth Village the sprint medley.

In Bert Nelson's “Of People and Things” column he makes two suggestions that sound reasonable. He proposes running the two mile in high school meets and, to spice up invitational meets and make the decathlon more popular, having half a decathlon (not a pentathlon, but the first or second day of a decathlon or any combination thereof) in major meets.

Odds and ends: John Uesles has been suspended by the Florida Gold Coast AAU for “demanding and receiving $185” for competing in a local meet......Former Texas sprinter Dean Smith has been given a feature role in the movie “PT 109”......Grace Butcher recently ran a 5:04 mile in practice, believed to be the fastest ever by an American woman......As the mile started in a meet in Branford, Canada an unidentified runner left the stands and jumped in the race, taking the lead by the half and winning in 4:46 only to keep running to a waiting car and driving off. Who was that masked man? We'd like to thank him. Hi-Yo, Silver, away!......An undocumented survey of top US athletes occupations reveals that the most common field of employment is teaching followed by sales. Among those with less common fields of endeavor are Parry O'Brien – banker

April 23, 2007

Parry O'Brien, whose fascination with the shotput and physics fueled a career in which he held the world record from 1953 to 1959 and won two gold medals and a silver medal in four Olympic games, has died. He was 75.

O'Brien, who revolutionized the sport by devising a new throwing technique, died Saturday while participating in a masters' swim meet in Santa Clarita. His wife, Terry, with whom he lived in the Rancho Belago section of Moreno Valley, said he had suffered a heart attack.,

 Mike Herman – stock broker, Willie Atterberry – laboratory technologist, Jay Silvester – field engineer for a scale company, Pete Mundle – statistical consultant, Buzz Sawyer – draftman, Jim Beatty – insurance claim adjuster, Herm Wyatt – juvenile counselor, Phil Conley – mechanical engineer, Kent Floerke – claims adjuster, Doug Smith – bank employee, Herm Stokes – instructor at the Philadelphia Police Academy, Alex Breckenridge – career Marine officer, Ira Davis – personnel manager and Ron Ulrich – computing analyst. Some are still in school. Keith Thomassen and Jerry Siebert are graduate students in physics. Bob Vinton is in law school. John Gutknecht is a graduate student in biology. As satisfying as those sound, for pure sexiness none match the employment of Terry Beucher. He is a jet pilot in the Air Force......In case you thought track and field was over for the year, let me remind you that the British Commonwealth Games will be held Nov. 22 - Dec. 1 in Perth, Australia. Be sure to stay tuned.

Vol. 2 No. 60 LATC club members identified

In an earlier posting we asked if anyone could identifiy all of the LATC cross country runners in the photo sent to us by Paul Ebert.

A response came from Orville Atkins and Ron Larrieu on the website
www.tracktalk.net/showthread.php?t=10838

I know 6 or 7 of the runners in that picture.  They are all very accomplished racers.  The picture must have been taken in the first half of the 1960's.  I did not begin to train under Coach Mihaly Igloi and with the Los Angeles Track Club until after the 1964 Tokyo Olympics.  I think that by then 4 of those pictured had left the Club.  I contacted Ron Larrieu and here is whaqt we have come up with.  In one or two cases we may be incorrect and our spelling may not always be right.

The top row from left to right appears to be:  Dennis Carey.  If number two'sw name is Ebert, we do not remember him.  (Paul Ebert of Sparta Wisconsin, U. of Oklahoma, and U.S. Army, actually supplied the picture.  He was a 4:06 miler and won the Drake Relays open mile in 1962.  Ed.)

Merle Magee, the hardest trainer I ever knew.  He was the only running coach 800 meter runner Johnny Gray had.


Wilbur Williams, I trained with him for 9 years.  We ran as a team in several 10 mile 2 man road relays.  In 1973 Wilbur ran 1500 meteres in 4:05.9 and a mile in 4:24.3 at age 40.  Both times were US Masters Records. 

John Pittman?
Coach Igloi.

The bottom row,  left to right goes like this: 

Peter Mundle, he was one of Coach Bill Bowerman's  "guinea pigs" at Oregon,  He and I travelled together to see several Olympics.  Pete kept US age graded records for many many years.

Tom Rodda, a fine friend and a fine runner.

Jim Grelle, Also trained with Coach Bowerman at Oregon.  Was 8th in the 1960 Rome Olymic 1500 final, Was edged out for 3rd place by 17 year old Jim Ryun in the 1964 Olympic Trials.

Ray Hughes

Ernie Schultz  Sp??

The race pictured may have been in Inglewood's Centinella Park.  In those days there were many S.P.A.A.U. cross country races in Sept., Oct. and early Nov.  The Championship Meet was held at Pierce College beginning in November , 1961 through to about 1970.

The Los Angeles Track Club was sponsored by the Losangeles Atheltic Club which at that time was an elite male Club in downtown LA.  A few days before races we were sent there for steam baths.

Orville Atkins

#15

OrvilleAtkins  Legends Who is  in this Igloi group?  We posted this Join Date: Apr 2010 Posts: 110

Last edited by OrvilleAtkins : 06-23-2012 at 05:43 PM.