V 6 N. 34 Reunions at Texas and Kansas Relays and some other stuff

Last month a number of old timers  got together in Austin, TX   and Lawrence, KS to renew acquaintences, tell lies and remember what it was like to be young and fast and strong, not worried about professional careers, golf swings, and stock options.  Thanks to David Webb who led off some of UT's great relays in the mid 60s and Mike Solomon a transplanted SoCal runner in Lawrence who sent on these pictures.  Some are recognizable even today.  Others we provide names to go with the mugs.  Even a couple of interloping Aggies from Oklahoma State showed up in Austin, Dave and John Perry.   It's been great corresponding with some of these guys and they've contributed a lot of good stories and clippings to our blog the past few years.  Fleet feet to all of you.

Dave Perry (Oklahoma State 1:47) David Webb (1:51.7 U Texas)  John Perry(Oklahoma State 1:47)

George, 

Dave Perry to my right, John F Perry to my left (Texas had a John Perry also).  To my Upper right, Bill Elliott, 7'3+" high jump @ 1968 or 69 ( but not now).  Recall when asked by T&FN how Bill did it (took up the flop only ever in '68), he was quoted "I just run like hell and jump like hell." From Sonora in far West Texas, he was recruited only for LJ and HH.  I don't have a current photo of Jim Metcalf which is reason I posted the old news handoff to Perry.

Bob O'Bryan, Preston Davis, James Means all Longhorns

"John, please send these on to Dave, Arnold, Tom v and anyone else. Jim, John and Dave, I am so glad you came again to the Relays.  This is the first time I got to see you and visit and I hope we can do so again next year and for many years. I caption this photo "Two 1:47 guys trying to boost up a 1:54 guy!"  Still awes me how you guys came from hs quarter milers to world record half milers. I am really sorry you didn't get that 7:13 which you deserved in 1965."
   David Webb    

That weekend someone found a document crediting David with a 1:51 relay leg which made his day.  Dropped his PR. ed.

George, 

thank you so much for featuring us in your latest post.  Please edit a few corrections, if you don't mind.  First, it was me who found my time of 1:51.7 fifty years later in clippings I went through from a Bob O'Bryan scrapbook. The reason I didn't know about it in the first place  is that Kansas Relays had the only women's watches on a first come first serve basis. When we won, I dashed off to claim a watch for my girlfriend of the time. I never learned what my first leg of the relay time was until a few weeks ago going through those clippings. 

Second, you mention a quote I had with Jim Metcalf  (correction Dave Perry?) and John Perry and me in the picture. There are blanks and that they should be it should say "Two 1:47 guys boosting up a 1:52 guy."

Last, I did not improve my best by two seconds. In fact I had a 152.2 at the Southwest Conference meet the year before. However it was a delight to find after 50 years that I had actually been in a class like yourself, with a 151.7r!

Thanks again for all you do and all you write, George.  We really appreciate and enjoy you keeping 60s track ALIVE!

"Bob O'Bryan, MD, excelled at 220-440-880, anchored 440 relay, ran mile relay; Preston Davis,as you know, 880-mile-3 mile-CC Champ and, sorry you might disagree, but the greatest come-from-behind anchorman of his era!; and my permanent road trip roommate, James Means, 100-220 and superb 440 relay leadoff, did so for three Olympians on US Army team (including Charlie Greene of Nebraska)."  David

Preston Davis and Ricardo Romo

Preston Davis and Ricardo Romo, others unidentified

KU Dudes  2016 KU Relays

Mike Solomon  (1973 Maccabiah  Games 1500 champion) ,  Jay Mason  (1972 O-Trials 5,000), Mickey Mathews (1968 O-Trials 100),  John Wilson (Long Jump)

Jim Neihouse,  Randy Julian(  WR DMR),  Thorn Bigley (WR DMR) ,  Jim Ryun (WR  4x880 indoor, 800, 1500, mile,  68, 72 Olympics)

Bob Bornkessel,  Gregg Vandaveer (13.5  110HH, pole vault),  Delario Robinson (NCAA finalist 110HH), Terry Porter (1976 Olympics PV)

Mike Solomon,  Mike Kearns,  Randy Julian,  George Byers (WR 60yd lows), Mickey Mathews, Rick Peterson

Jim  Metcalf from that OSU  WR two mile relay team sent the following photos and comments about the exchanges that they used.  These  were taken at the Texas Relays (1965?)

the photo of the hand off is between John Perry and Tom Von Ruden.  Tom ran the 3rd leg.   

The Mizzou guy is Charlie Conrad taking the baton from Bill Rawson.

Speaking of Bill Rawson , just out of this picture, in a few years he would lose his life in Viet Nam.  See link:

Bill Rawson Viet Nam Memorial  

Several tributes written about him is you scroll down on the link.

close up of previous photo

Did you ever see how OSU handed off in the longer relays. We called it semi blind but this looks like a blind handoff, Tom never looked back once he started running. We always kept our torsos and hips pointed down the track instead of turning and grabbing. We think it gave us a big edge. Never dropped a baton.  John Perry

Dave Perry finishes a step and a half ahead of Lingle.  Were the exchanges the difference?

What  do you think three of our hand offs like this...

see the Mizzou guy waiting...Tom is running.  we were all strong and always handed off in the last half of the zone...in  a smooth run... it was the difference in our world record and in many of our close sprint medley and two mile relays. The USA national team should use this hand off.  would never have a problem.

ed. They might not have time to practice together.  Often the teams aren't selected until the last minute with all the agents politicking to get their runners on the team.

I noticed the comment at the end of the bit on our hand offs.

I realize they don't have time to practice.  that is the beauty of this hand off.  It is such a natural running motion that it does not take more than a few minutes of practice to learn it.

In the modern pass the receivers hand is high up and wrist twisted and his hand is moving all over the place.  The hand off guy has to run with his baton hand held up high to put the baton into the moving hand.  Both are running in an unnatural way insofar as arm motion is concerned.

In out hand off , the receiver simply drops his open hand palm down to his side and holds it steady.   The hand off man slaps the baton into the receivers hand on the up stroke of a natural stride.  he never is looking for a moving target and his pumping motion of both arms is never compromised.

You can see that in the photo.

the only thing they have to get down, is when the receiver leaves his mark.

We did not spend time practicing hand offs.  that is how easy it is...

Please put my rebuttal at the end  of the story.

thanks

Jim Metcalf


More from Jim Metcalf:

yes...Dave was our anchor man.  This was 1963.

I ran lead off and John ran second.  John was one of the great relay runners in the country.  He was noted for breaking runners.  You can see how far he is ahead of Mizzou.   I gave him an even hand off with Bill Rawson.  Actually, John told me if it was going to be even, to drop back a couple of strides which I did.

He took the baton and ran right up beside Bill Rawson and got very close to him and looked him right in the eye for a few strides and then passed him and took off.

When we broke the world record, I gave John about a 5-8 yard lead over USC.  He ran his first 220 fast but not overly so, letting the USC guy catch him.  He then sped up so that he came thru the 440 at 52 and the USC guy must have been right at 50.  John was a very strong 3rd 220 runner and he broke USC in half and finished up in 1:47.5.  and was over 2 seconds ahead of USC.  They had been touted to beat us easily by the press.  The race was over.

Our senior year, John was anchor and he was incredible.  His record speaks for itself.  He was strong and he was tough.  He anchored us to victory in the sprint medley and two mile relay at Kansas and Drake against Preston Davis of Texas,  Charlie Christmas from ACC, and Peter  Scott from Nebraska who was national champion that year.  John also had a 46.5 on the anchor on the mile relay.

That summer at Compton, which was run in the Coliseum, he beat Bill Cruthers  and  George Kerr from Jamaica.

John was one of the greats.

. 

This is the Texas Relays two mile relay in 1965. J Perry to Von Ruden on second to third leg. 

George,

Would you post the following about Bill Rawson. By the way, I really wasn't staring him down.  I was just making sure that I wasn't cutting him off when I took the pace. 

Bill was a real gentleman and we were friendly competitors.  For some reason, Bill got really tired of track. It's my understanding that Marines wanted him to run on the Quantico Team but he chose Vietnam. 

"Bill Rawson taught me how to run a tough 880 back when I was a sophomore in 1964. In the Missouri Dual that year he led the race every step of the way, including the finish. He set the Missouri Stadium record with a 1:50.3 880. I was right there with a PR and a new appreciation of how to run a fast steady pace. We ran many times afterward.

He was a Marine Platoon leader just out of TBS in Quantico when he was killed in Vietnam, a  tragedy. I look at his name everytime I go to the Vietnam Memorial.

 I've attached a couple of photos from the Missouri yearbook."

Jim,

I was in the Marines and came in to run this DMR with the Pacific Coast Club at Mt Sac. First time that I ever handed off to John Mason. I supposed we practiced a couple of times on race day. Fastest DMR in the USA that year. 

John

From Ernie Cunliffe:  (A few of you may not remember Ernie if you are under the age of 60. However most of us do.  He ran for Stanford, set a WR for 1000  yards at the Knights of Columbus Games in Boston, and represented the US in the 800meters at the Rome Olympics and coached for many years at the Air Force Academy.

Ernie Cunliffe taking Dyrol Burleson to the first sub 4 mile on Oregon soil.

As all of you know I did not have a lot of natural speed.   Thus I was the 2nd leg on the Mile Relay due to my best
440 out of the blocks a pedestrian 49.2.   My theory was to receive the baton way up at the last part of the relay
zone, thus making my roommate Dick Lassen run a 450+ and I would hand off at the very lst part of the relay zone
giving me a great 420+ or - and make the 3rd guy also run about a 450.  This always gave me some pretty good relay times as the coaches timed the baton at the finish line for the relay legs.

For the 4 x 880 relay I always anchored so I took the 3rd runners baton way at the lst part of the relay zone since
my mile runs had given me a lot of strength.   Thus I ran about a 900+ or - and the 3rd guy a 860.

We never worried about the baton hand offs but I note that Okla State had some pretty slick exchanges.

V 6 N. 33 Starting to get fired up for the Pre

The Willamette River, Eugene, OR
Accent on the 'a' 

     In a couple of weeks Roy and I will be making our third consecutive trek to Eugene for the Prefontaine Meet.  This year  we've been accredited by no less than  the Diamond League  as free lance journalists.  Whoop Dee Doo!    I'll believe it when I see the badges at the press conference sign in on Friday afternoon. The first two trips culminated in visits  to Nike headquarters in Beaverton,   Bill Dellinger's home in Eugene , and attending a gathering with Pre's former UO team members at the bar where Pre once worked.  Interviews with Joe Kovacs and Renaud Lavillenie were face to face highlights with current world class athletes.

     Roy roads it up from Ukiah, California, and I drive down from the Comox Valley on Vancouver Island.  We're into our sixth year doing this blog now and sort of have a nonverbal deal of quitting when we hit the 1970 date of Roy's reviews of Track and Field News  fifty years after the fact.  We just put out the May, 1966 review.  Roy writes the review, I find the photos from various sources and our buddy Steve Price proofreads everything for accuracy.  The other stories come to us in a myriad of ways.  Readers send us ideas, some send us pieces they've written.  Sometimes looking for photos on Google Images leads us to other stories.

     Steve lives in Piqua, Ohio.  Yes, Virginia, there is a Piqua, Ohio.   Some of you may remember a fair to middln' road runner who hails from Piqua named Rick Callison.
I think he was an 8th place  Boston finisher back when.    How 'bout Bob Schul who grew up on a farm a few miles south of Piqua down Route 48 near West Milton?

Track Town Pizza,  a must stop when in Eugene.

One of the sites I'll be seeing the evening of May 28

     Back to the Pre,  some think that it may be the lesser of the three big meets in Eugene this year with the NCAA and Olympic Trials also on the menu.  That could be true.  It will lack the tradition of the college competition of the NCAA  and the drama of the Olympic Trials.   Some may also be questioning if the Pre is not a bit early for the world class athletes to be flexing their muscles with the Olympics coming in August.  Still the prize money offered by the Diamond League should draw in a few good aspirants.  Seeing twenty sub 4 minute miles in one afternoon though can  be more than  entertaining.   How many clear cut favorites to win medals in Rio will be there is yet to be determined.    One thing is sure ,  there will be a mob of appreciative fans and a gathering of some highly tuned athletes.   We can only wish the doping story was a non story but that's what the sport is today.  Yesterday the Russkies got slammed again in the world press with allegations that several of their  medallists at Sochi were proven to be doping.   We probably won't be seeing their athletes in Brazil this summer, but we won't miss too many big names except their hurdler Sergey Shubenkov. The Games have a recent history of abandonment, including the African boycott in Montreal, the US boycott in Moscow and the Russian reciprocity in Los Angeles, and  the US threat to abandon in Berlin.  But those were self imposed.  This one will be a withdrawl of an invite to the party.  Well, so it goes.   That's world politics.  Mankind just seems to always be trying to take advantage over one's neighbors, from  the first migrations out of Africa looking for easier prey to Homo Sapiens supplanting Neanderthal men in Europe, tipping their spears with bronze, to using long  bows at the battle of Agincourt,  to colonization of the world by Europe, and to modern recolonization by international corporations and agribusiness.  Corruption and cheating are more a way of life than we care to imagine.

One of first known cheaters using a bronze tipped spear.

      Greed seems to be what makes our world go round, not the love we are often led to believe.  Heard a politician say , "Love your neighbor" lately?  They he/she would get any votes with that campaign theme?

     Nevertheless we'll soldier on with this blog, because we get a lot of positive feedback from the people who read it.  Take care and have a great month of May.  

     Here is a piece on Pre sent to us by Ed Odeven who writes for the Japan Times.  We'll put some more of Ed's work on our blog in the future.  Thanks, Ed.

The Pre from Ed Odeven and Japan Times

V 6 N. 32 May, 1966

MAY 1966

    Bob Seagren, Tommie Smith and Jim Ryun, oh my. We've got the Kansas, Drake, Penn and Coliseum Relays, the Mt. SAC Invitational and “the greatest performance in the history of track and field” for you. Curl up in your recliner with a cup of hot cocoa and we'll tell you all about it.

  Kansas Relays
  April 21-23 finds us in Lawrence, Kansas for the Kansas Relays. On the first day Jim Ryun gives the crowd a reason to come back the next two days when he anchors the Kansas frosh distance medley with a 3:59.0 mile and a 53.6 last lap. On the 23^rd here he is again, this time in the Glenn Cunningham Mile.
A faster pace puts him at 3:00.7 at the 1320 but leaves plenty in the tank for a 55.1 finish and a collegiate record of 3:55.8, breaking Bob Day's 3:56.4 set last year. You would think that would be enough, but Jim is a team guy. He rounds out his day with a 47.0 anchor on the Kansas frosh mile relay team. Jim turns 19 next week.
Penn Relays

    Marks at the Penn Relays the following week are depressed by the rain. Villanova sophomore, Dave Patrick provides excitement with a come from behind 4:04.6 mile in the distance medley to allow the Wildcats to take that trophy home.

Drake Relays

    On the same days, 1076 miles west, the sun is shining in Des Moines for the Drake Relays. Texas Southern upsets arch rival Southern in the 440 relay (40.2 to 40.6) but that's the only time Southern relay teams don't breast the tape. They come within a tenth of a second of Abilene Christian's WR in the 880 relay in 1:22.6 then add the mile (3:07.4), two mile (7:3l.2) and sprint medley (3:19.2) to their win total.

    The 480 yard shuttle hurdle relay isn't run often but this day's edition must be burned forever in the memory of Nebraska's Ray Harvey. Running the anchor with a two yard lead over Michigan State, he hits the last hurdle and goes down. MSU wins and sets a collegiate record of 57.4.

    Saint Cloud State may have found a distance runner in Van Nelson. The sophomore leaves two mile winner Oscar Moore ten seconds in arrears in winning the three mile in 13:29.2, then 19 hours later takes the six mile in 28:48.6, the fastest in the nation this year.

  

Mt. Sac  Relays
 Closing our eyes, clicking our heels together three times and repeating the phrase, “There's no place like Mt. SAC” and suddenly here we are on the very same weekend at the Mt. SAC Relays in Walnut, California.

    The running highlights are pretty much confined to “watch Tommie Smith on the anchor leg”. The San Jose junior puts on a jaw dropping exhibition of anchor leg running on both the 440 and 880 relays. He misses catching the Southern California Striders by a yard in the 440 but his acceleration stuns the fans. In the 880 relay he comes off the curve a yard behind USC's Fred Kuller then opens a staggering seven yards by the tape. In the world of sprinting at this moment there is Tommie Smith and then there is everybody else.

    The great marks are in the field events. USC's Gary Carlsen pulls the upset of the day, topping three time Olympic discus champion Al Oertner 195-0 to 194-8.

Dr Gary Carlsen,
now a dental surgeon in Huntington Beach , CA
would go on to make the US team in Mexico City

Ed Burke throws the hammer 223-11 to beat Hal Connolly by five and a half feet, only his second victory over the former Olympic champ and long time world record holder.

    Art Walker's 53-10 ¼ triple jump misses his American record by a mere ¾ inch. Ralph Boston takes the long jump at 26-4¼, but is pressed, as Gail Hopkins opens his outdoor season with a leap of 26-2 ¾ .

    John Pennel beats Sam Kirk in the vault on misses at 17-0 but it was Kirk who comes oh so close to clearing 17-5 and taking Bob Seagren's world record.

    The high jump provides a “how many times have you seen this?” moment. Terry Doe of San Jose State places ninth with a clearance of 6-10, the same height as the winner, Mike Lange of Arizona State. Something about attempts and misses.

Southwest Conference Championships

    The next weekend the Southwest Conference Championship, held in Austin, Texas, provides Texas fans with plenty to cheer about. Longhorns Richard Romo and Preston Davis take the mile and half mile in 4:05.9 and 1:48.9 and teammate Gil Smith wins both sprints, allowing Texas to upset Rice 58-55. If Romo's name sounds familiar it might be because he ran a sub four minute mile that was the school record for 42 years and has been the president of the University of Texas at San Antonio for the last 16 years.

Quantico Relays

    Kentucky State's Jim Kemp displays his versatility at the Quantico Relays, running a 1:49.4 anchor on the sprint medley (to beat Villanova), a 220 leg on the half mile relay and a 45.9 anchor on the mile relay as the Thoroughbreds win all three.

Mike Manley

Mike Manley last year in Eugene with your intrepid reporters

Mike Manley wins the steeplechase in a nation leading 8:52.4. Pat Pomphrey of Tennessee holds off Leon Coleman of Winston-Salem to win the high hurdles by a tenth in 13.7. Charlie Mays wins the long jump at 25-11 ½.

San Jose State All Comers Meet

And now for what Track and Field News terms “the greatest performance in all track and field”. Surprisingly it doesn't happen in a major competition, but a simple all comers meet. Perhaps “simple” is a misleading adjective as the meet takes place on the campus of San Jose State University, a major power in collegiate track. All the t's have been crossed and all the i's have been dotted as far as possible world record recognition is concerned.

    Although the 200 meters has been run on a curve for some time now, the straightaway 200 is still a ratified record race. That record is 20.0, set in 1956 by Dave Sime and equalled in 1962 by Frank Budd. It stood until the afternoon of May 7 when Tommie Smith settled in his blocks. Nineteen and one half seconds after the gun is fired the names of Sime and Budd are erased from the record books. The Portuguese Scoring Tables are consulted. Not only is this the greatest sprint race of all time, but it rates higher than Randy Matson's 70-7 shot put or Ron Clarke's 27:39.4 10,000.

Tommie Smith besting Lee Evans in 44.8

Smith comments, “I thought I had a good chance for the record, but it was my third race of the day and I hadn't concentrated on it or thought about it a lot.”

Coach Bud Winter says Tommie's increase in stride as the race progresses is significant. He has measured his stride from 120 yards out. How could this be possible? Here's how. It is a dirt track and no one has been permitted to step on the track in that portion of lane four all day. As soon as the race is over the tape measure comes out. His stride went from 8'5” at 120 yards to 8'7” at 200 to 8'9” for the last three strides.

    As other worldly as Tommie is as a sprinter, maybe this isn't his best event. He dabbles in the long jump, jumping a couple times in a few meets just to fill the time. His best mark is 25-11, but actually 26-10 from where he took off. Les Bond, his teammate and a 25-5 and 52-4 horizontal jumper says, “If Tommie concentrated on the long jump, he would certainly do 27 feet soon and 28 feet sometime.” Tommie's reply: “Les is a good friend.” Then he added, “But I do think it is possible”.

    As it stands at the moment, Tommie won't be entered in the AAU Nationals or any international meets this summer. He is committed to a summer camp in conjunction with his ROTC program. It begins the day after the NCAA meet.

    Note: In the Letters to the Editor column, reader George P. Meade vividly supports T&FNews' claim. “Tommie Smith's 19.5 200/220 seems valid with six watches showing 19.4 to 19.6 You advisedly class it as 'The greatest effort ever' in Track Newsletter, May 12. In one race Smith cut the furlong time by as much as all the great sprinters have been able to do in 40 years (Ronald Locke, 20.5 in 1926). In that 40 years, starting blocks have come into use and tracks have greatly improved.” Well put, George.

Coliseum Relays

John Tushaus

    Six days later and 400 miles south we are at the Coliseum Relays where fans see a world record and two American records. We should probably amend that to “a few fans”, as one AR is produced at 6:47 PM, before a mere thousand spectators. Arizona's John Tushaus, the NCAA champion, opens the javelin throw with a 241-10 effort. Nice throw, John, but no one is excited. That changes on his second throw which just keeps going and going and going....until it lands 284 feet away, an American record. Only three men have thrown further. He fouls on his next throw and, pretty sure he has won the event, retires for the evening.

   
 As great as Tushaus' throw is, it may not be the best field event performance of the evening. Randy Matson is back in form. He disposes of the possibility of a challenge by Neil Steinhauer with an opening throw of 69-2, a mark that only he has surpassed and then only twice. Steinhauer's 64-6, betters the 64-2¾ personal best of.....wait for it......Perry O'Brien, who demonstrates the possibility of potential in this event. Once the shot put competition is disposed of, Matson wins the discus at 195-11, especially impressive as he beats all the country's best throwers save the absent Al  Oerter.  Likely they will tangle soon.

The real fun takes place on the track. Four half milers at USC think they have a chance at Oklahoma State's 7:18.4 world record in the two mile relay. The competition – Texas and Villanova – is there and so is the tradition. The Coliseum Relays have produced a 2 mile relay world record four times in the last twelve years.

    John Link's 1:51.1 leg gives the Trojans a two yard lead on Villanova with Texas ten back on the first leg. The Wildcats and Longhorns close on Bruce Bess, but with 220 left, the Trojan accelerates and hands off with a nine yard lead after a 1:49.7 clocking. Dave Buck opens up twenty yards en route to a 1:48.8 split. But here comes Richard Romo of Texas, “the once great mile prospect now crippled with speed killing tendon injury”, who closes the margin to the original nine yards and moves the Longhorns past Villanova with the fastest non-anchor leg of 1:48.2.

Preston Davis

Ricardo Romo

     

Dave Patrick

Dennis Carr

 The record  is within sight. But here comes Villanova's Dave Patrick who passes Texas anchor, Preston Davis and pulls within six yards of SC's Dennis Carr, before Carr's steady pace pays off with a 1:47.8 split and gives the Trojans a 7:17.4 world record, a full second better than Okie State who set the mark two years earlier in this very meet. Davis rallies to give the Longhorns second in 7:18.6, two tenths ahead of Villanova.

As good as the two mile relay was, the open two mile may be even better. Let's see who is on the starting line. There is Bob Day. Next to him are former Oregon stars Dyrol Burleson and Jim Grelle. Here is the fast improving Tracy Smith. Nineteen year old Jim Ryun is waiting patiently for the competitors to be called to the starting line. Most of these guys are very effective wait and kick types. Someone has to set the pace. Not to worry, also in the mix is Kip Keino. No one in the stands is leaving to get popcorn.

    Will Keino set a fast enough pace to burn off America's four fastest milers? Well, sorta, kinda....no, not really. He leads through 3 laps in 3:09.3 with everyone in close attendance. The mile is reached in 4:13.6. Keino opens up a four yard lead on the next lap (5:17.8) but Day, Grelle, Burleson and Ryun, in that order, aren't going away. Smith has fallen back eight yards from Ryun. Keino allows the pace to drop to 66.4 on the sixth lap (6:24.2) and Grelle is on his heels followed by Ryun, Day and Burleson. A hundred yards later Day is on the infield grass writhing in pain. “I was feeling great. I was just ready to go. Something snapped in my right heel tendon. It just popped.”

    Day is gone and shortly thereafter Burleson falls off the pace. Now it is Keino, Grelle and Ryun. No time is given for the seventh lap but it had to be in the 64-65 range, playing into the hands of the big kickers. Keino has to drop Ryun and Grelle before it becomes flat out sprint. With 500 to go, he throws his orange cap to the infield and it is on. Ryun says he was thinking, “If he can keep up the kick from here in, he can have it.” Keino is flat out, but there isn't enough gas in the tank. Ryun strikes in the middle of the final curve. Grelle goes with him. Keino is done.

    With forty yards to go, Grelle pulls to within two feet of Ryun, but can gain no more. Their final lap is 56. 4. Both are credited with an American record of 8:25.2. No time is given for Keino, but his last lap is 61.5. Rudimentary math puts him at 8:30, give or take a few tenths. Smith passes Burleson for fourth as they finish in 8:37.4 and 8:39.6.

    The mile relay is significant as UCLA ends California's 34 meet winning streak in convincing fashion, 3:06.9 to 3:09.1.

    A day passes and we find ourselves 225 miles north on highway 99 in Ratcliffe Stadium on the campus of Fresno City College for the venerable West Coast Relays.

    The reward for driving our VW bus that far is Bob Seagren's world record vault of 17-5 ½ which removes Fred Hansen's name from the record books by 1½ inches. The 19 year old “ineligible Glendale JC sophomore” then tries the highest height ever attempted, 17-8. Doesn't happen, but we have the rest of the season to anticipate.

    Before Seagren's heroics, it appeared that Art Walker had the athlete of the meet award wrapped up. His 54-4 triple jump is an American record and tenth all time, a mere six inches out of second on the list.

    Remember those SC guys who set the two mile record last night? Well, they are at it again. Unfortunately Texas and Villanova aren't here to spur them on as Bruce Bess (1:49.7 last night) rips off a 1:47.8 on the second leg to put the Trojans in great shape to upgrade their record, but the competition is lacking. Dennis Carr (1:47.8 the previous evening) can manage only 1:49.6 on the anchor and the guys fall two tenths short of their Coliseum mark. Still and all, not a bad weekend for the cardinal and gold.

    As good as Seagren, Walker and the SC relay team are, the crowd has come to see Tommie Smith who has grown up in Lemoore, just 30 miles down the road. Smith will be running three relays. He anchors the San Jose State team to victory in the 440 relay, making up a deficit of eight yards on UCLA and New Mexico. The crowd anticipates his efforts in the 880 and mile relays but is disappointed as injuries to teammates cause the Spartans to scratch these events.

Big Eight Championship

    On the same weekend in Columbia, Missouri, Nebraska has a memorable Big Eight Championship meet. Led by Charlie Greene, who takes the sprints in 9.3 and 20.8, the Cornhuskers win their first league title in 16 years.

Charlie Greene

Boxed in the 100?  
Many of our readers are long time track guys, greatly experienced, tellers of great track and field stories. Okay, let's try this on for size. How many times have you seen someone lose a 100 yard dash because he was boxed?   See answer below?

Central Intercollegiate Athletic Association

     Return with us now to the Central Intercollegiate Athletic Association meet in Petersburg, Virginia on this same weekend. Ed Roberts of North Carolina Central has won the 100 and 220 the previous three years. Doesn't happen this year.  For some unexplained reason, there are nine runners in the 100. That wouldn't be unusual except that there are eight lanes. Roberts is “boxed” and drops out so that he won't be injured. You can't make up stuff like this.

Northern Division Championships

    One might think that this weekend was already packed full with great achievements, but wait, there is one more. Gerry Lindgren has been down with the flu for the past month. He returned to competition last week with an 8:39.6 two mile, but that performance gave no indication what was to happen this week in the Northern Division Championships. On a cold, windy Saturday afternoon in Seattle, the Washington State sophomore passes two miles in 8:37 and keeps going for another mile, breaking his own American record of 13:04.2 and coming within six tenths of a second of Ron Clarke's three mile world record, clocking 12:53.0.

Pacific Athletic Conference Championships

    Another week has past and we are now at Stanford for the Pacific Athletic Conference Championship. UCLA doesn't have the injured Bob Day, but it matters little as the Bruins crush USC and defending NCAA champion Oregon 80-44-37. On this day Gerry Lindgren is feeling “tired all the way” but manages to take the three mile easily in 13:12.8 over UCLA's Geoff Pyne (13:20.6) and Oregon's Kenny Moore (13:26.2). The night before Moore took the steeplechase in 8:49.4 to become the favorite for the NCAA title. Teammate Bruce Mortensen also shaded nine minutes, finishing second in 8:59.8.

A Small Meet at Oxy

    A performance worth noting at a meet at Occidental College on that same day is a 45.2 anchor by Lee Evans of San Jose City College. We'll be watching to see if he develops.

We'll close with these signs of the time. The California Relays gifts winners of events – including all members of a relay team – a choice of a watch or a $75 radio. Wonder if anyone has one of those radios sitting on a mantle piece right now....... You may obtain sequence photos of technique of Jozeph Schmidt and Janis Lusis by sending a self-addressed envelope with ten cents postage to Dick Bank, 292 S. La Cienaga Blvd., Beverly Hills, Calif. 90211.

    Any of the above can and likely will be discussed when we gather at 6 o'clock Friday at the Dew Drop Inn. Last to arrive buys the second pitcher. Don't be late.

V 6 N. 31 Robert Earl Johnson, Don't Know Him? Read This from Gary Corbitt

Gary Corbitt's Latest Posting brings us the history of this incredible runner, long forgotten.

Celebrating African American Running History
African Running History Project (1880 – 1979)

Robert Earl Johnson (1891 – 1965)
The First Great Amateur African American Distance Runner

Running History July 12, 1924:
In the cross-country Paris Olympics in 1924, Johnson finished third behind the great Finland duet of Paavo Nurmi and Willie Ritola. Along with receiving the bronze medal and he also led the U.S. cross-country team to a second place silver medal. Johnson also placed 8th out of field of 43 in the Olympic 10,000 meters in 1924; setting a personal best time of 32:17.

Earl Johnson was a two time Olympian (1920 & 1924). History records him as the first internationally ranked African American long distance runner. He competed from 1914 to 1926 from distances of one mile to twenty-three miles. At the time Earl was the only Negro athlete to have made the Olympic team in a distance running event.

Earl Johnson’s U.S. National Championship titles are as follows:
1921 6 Mile Cross-Country
1921 – 1923 5 Mile Track
1921 – 10 Mile Road (victory over Ritola)
1924 10 Mile Road in 54:29 (victory over U.S. marathon Olympians Albert Michelson and James Hennigan)

He finished second to Willie Ritola in the 1922 Berwick Marathon; a distance of nine and three-quarter miles. His time of 48:36 was just three seconds off the previous course record. The Berwick race has a tremendous history of bringing top college track athletes to race the top road runners. Most of the great runners over the eras starting in 1908 have raced in Berwick, PA on Thanksgiving Day.

Johnson was also a marathon winner. In 1921 and 1923, he was first in the Detroit Marathon, a 22 mile event whose inadequate distance prevented Johnson’s name from appearing in official marathon histories. His time in 1923 was 2:09 which was 8 minutes faster than in 1921. An illness in 1924 prevented him from running the Boston Marathon that year.

Earl Johnson was born in Woodstock, Virginia and graduated from Morgan College in Baltimore. He competed for the Edgar Thompson Steel Works AA team near Pittsburgh. He became a sportswriter for the Pittsburgh Courier and managed an African American sandlot baseball team at Edgar Thomson Works.

To learn more running history:
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V 6 N. 30 Merv Lincoln R.I.P.

When you write about the good old days , you often have to mention the passing of old heroes.
Sunday  May 1, 2016  Merv Lincoln left us with memories that even the toughest guys don't always win the big race.  Merv was the epitome of a well disciplined gentlemen who put it all out on the fields of human performance.   If it hadn't been for a guy named Herb Elliott who was equally as gifted and maybe even a tad more tenacious on the track, we might be remembering Merv as the greatest of his day.  There were others as well in the early 1960s like John Landy,  Brian Hewson,  Derek Ibbotson, Ron Delany, and a host of others who might be considered the men of their times.

Merv was a disciple of the Franz Stampfl interval training school compared to Elliott's more unconventional mentor Percy Cerutty.    Both systems were effective though Cerutty's school may have been less practical to the urban runner.  There weren't sand dunes and weight rooms in every neighborhood in those days, but there were tracks  and stopwatches just about everywhere that could be used as a measuring board for one's progress on the cinders.

Last month I was able to obtain some seldom seen photos of athletes in the 50s and 60s in the archives of Wright State University in Dayton, Ohio.  They come from files of the local newspaper The Dayton Daily News,  and Wright State graciously allowed me to copy what I wanted.   Photos appearing below are from those files.  Primary sources where known  are also cited.

Dayton Ohio National AAU Meet, June 23, 1957
overtaking Bob Seamon and Burr Grimm on last curve of mile run

You can see the 100 , 110 HH, 880, PV, and Mile finish on this video.

if you look closely at the finish of the mile you will see Franz Stampfl come

out to greet Lincoln right after the finish.

Dayton, OH,  hitting the tape in 4:06.1

Newspaper editor's notes on back of photo

Lincoln and Franz Stampfl arriving in San Francisco for his US tour.

Finish of unknown race, probably Australia

All Photos are courstesy of Dayton Daily News Archive
at  Special Collections and Archives, Wright State University.
(not for sale or commercial reproduction by this blog)

Merv Lincoln , obit    provided by Dennis Kavanaugh.   Thanks Dennis.

the aussies ruled for a time then when their population was about what Ohio's is now.  the Hungarians were coming.   Richard Trace