V 5 N. 62 July, 1965 NCAA Meet

July 6, 2015, 10:39 pm

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JULY 1965 NCAA CHAMPIONSHIPS

We have broken up the July issue into two parts. This deals with the NCAA meet. The second report will cover the AAU championship and big doings in Europe. So, just like the lead in to the Lone Ranger radio show, join us now as we return to those thrilling days of yesteryear.

Edwards Field Today

It is June 17 and we are at the University of California's Edwards Field. The battle for the team championship has been skewed by the absence of two certain winners, Washington State's Jerry Lindgren and Texas A&M's Randy Matson. Lindgren is a freshman and therefore not eligible. Matson “didn't consider the NCAA meet important” according to Cordner Nelson's report.

Before we begin, let's whet your appetite with a trivia question that you can spring on the gang when they gather Friday at the Dew Drop Inn. Ask if anyone knows the slowest final lap run in a winning NCAA mile. Go ahead, take a guess yourself. No, you are not even close. Read further and you will be armed with the answer.

For the first time since 1949 there are two double winners. New Mexico's Clarence Robinson takes the long jump and the triple jump with marks of 25-10 ½ and 50-2.

Clarence Robinson with Coach Hugh Hackett

Doug Brown of Montana has to work a little harder for his double, 36 laps worth. He wins the six mile by well over half a minute in 27:59.2 to break Al Lawrence's collegiate record by 36 seconds. Two days later in the three mile, his margin of victory is slightly less, three inches to be exact. After leading most of the way, he looks beaten when Kansas' John Lawson jumps him on the backstretch of the last lap. Brown comes back on the curve and pulls even down the straight. They fight shoulder to shoulder to the tape with Brown getting the call as they are both timed in 13:40.2.    We spoke to John Lawson this week, and he mentioned that the "call" took about 45 minutes to decide.  It wasn't real obvious. ed.

Doug Brown and Coach Harry Adams

Nebraska sophomore Charlie Greene lives up to the potential he demonstrated before being injured last year, taking the 100 in 9.4 over Darrel Newman of Fresno State.

Charlie Greene,  Nebraska

North Carolina College's Edwin Roberts has a disappointing three days.

Edwin Roberts

Roberts is the co-favorite with Greene but false starts out of the 100. With scratches and injuries to his main competitors, he is a strong favorite in the 200. Apparently this news hasn't reached Villanova's Earl Horner who comes off the curve in the lead and holds off Roberts as they both run 21.1.
earl horner  Not much out there on Mr. Horner.  Click on link to left for a 2000 article about him.

Kentucky State's Jim Kemp has assumed the favorite's role in the 400 off his 46.2 semifinal. He certainly is not the crowd favorite as two California kids, Dave Archibald and Forrest Beaty, are setting their blocks in lanes six and seven. From his position in lane two he can keep an eye on them. Beaty is out early and leads down the backstretch before Kemp corrals him on the curve and enters the straight a yard ahead. Archibald is two yards back. The situation doesn't change and Kemp wins, 46.2 to Beaty's 46.3 and Archibald's 46.4.

When interviewed, Kemp says, “I thought that Cal boy had it. I was done in but I looked over at him and he didn't look good. I thought maybe he had given up and I called up enough to finish.” A tired Beaty replied, “At least he had the energy to turn his head. I didn't”.

Forrest Beaty

Ed. Note.   Jim Kemp was one of those rare people who could run a full gamut of short races from a 9.3  100y , sub 46  440, 1:48  880, and  may also have run a sub 4:10 mile, but that is unconfirmed.   Not sure if he had an official mile time.  It would be interesting to know.  Legend has it that he went to California to run a 440 and nobody showed up, so he got into the 100 not having a competitive 100 under his belt and ran and won in 9.3.  If anyone can confirm the 880 and mile times, please contact us.
The NCAA meet has an excitement advantage over the other national caliber meets in that there is a team championship and it matters (as opposed to the AAU which no one really cares about). Brigham Young, New Mexico, San Jose State, Oregon, California, Washington State and Southern California all have realistic championship aspirations. One by one, they slip out of contention until only Oregon and USC are left. We will follow these teams through the rest of the meet.

The 880 has the possibility of a dynamite match up between Olympian Tom Farrell of St. John's and Oregon State's Morgan Groth, the owner of the world's fastest time this year. This dual doesn't happen because Groth will be running the 880 in next week's AAU meet and therefore has chosen the mile this week.

Farrell and Groth a bit later in the year

That is not to say that Farrell is a shoo in. No, indeed, the field is loaded. George Germann of Seton Hall, Dave Perry of Oklahoma State, Wade Bell of Oregon, Darnell Mitchell of Ohio U. and Noel Carroll of Villanova are all capable of winning.

Mitchell takes the field through the 220 in 26.7 with Farrell and Carroll in close attendance. Bell moves up on the leaders and is on them as the quarter goes by in 54.6. Perry, who is well back at this point, makes his move down the backstretch, catching them by the 660. Mitchell still leads in 1:21.8 over Carroll and Farrell with Perry and Bell shoulder to shoulder and then Germann. Farrell lives by his kick and today it doesn't let him down.

Wade Bell

He has been working on his speed this season and has a 46.9 quarter to his credit. Now it comes into play. He passes Carroll on the curve, then Mitchell on the straight en route to a five yard win in 1:48.1. Carroll gets by Mitchell for second in 1:48.9 but the Ohio runner holds off Germann for third as they cross the line in 1:49.2. Bell, fighting for precious team points, moves too early and runs out of gas, finishing fifth but supplying the Ducks with two much needed points. (Germann's twin brother Herb, will win the indoor 1000 yards in 1966).

Groth didn't tangle with Farrell, but UCLA's Bob Day will supply more than enough challenge in the mile. Day has set NCAA records in the mile and two mile this season. His 3:56.4 is the fourth fastest mile in the world. Groth is a fantastic finisher. The question is whether Day will allow him to be near enough in the final straight to use his speed advantage.

Bob Day

The answer to that question is no. Let's make that NO! At least that is Day's strategy. He is out at an insane clip, passing the quarter at 55.3. Seeing this as madness, the field lets him go, confident that they can make contact soon. Soon does not come. Day is through the half in 1:53.4. He had planned 1:57.  A few years later the sportswriters must have forgotten this race when Filbert Bayi would take off this way and was hailed as a revolutionary.   Now Day knows he is in trouble but the foot doesn't come off the accelerator. The next two 220s go off in 30.0 and 31.3 putting him at 2:54.7 at the bell. He says of this moment, “I was dying. I looked around, saw that everyone was far back and made up my mind to hang on.”

For the spectators the last lap must have been like watching a car wreck, horrible but you can't look away. Day is in trouble, yet the field is well back. The penultimate furlong passes in an agonizing 32.5. The field is closing but the gap is still so large that fans can't gauge a point where Day will be caught. It is obvious that Day has nothing left, no kick that he has been saving. Now it is simply a question of finishing. Each step is more labored than the one that precedes it. Mothers are covering their children's eyes. Bob Delany of BYU and Robin Lingle of Missouri are closing like vultures on road kill. Mercifully Day escapes their clutches, staggering home in 34.6 to win in 4:01.8 as Delany and Lingle finish in 4:02.4 and 4:02.5. Ed Dean of Notre Dame passes a fading Groth for fourth in 4:03.6. Groth, fifth in 4:04.7, says of Day, “I expected him to go out fast, but not this fast”. He says Day has beaten him “both mentally and physically”. Day says what was the prevalent fear of those watching, “ I thought I was going to faint in the stretch”.

Alert readers have already known the answer to the trivia question posed at the start of this report. The slowest final lap in a winning NCAA mile is 67.1. In the words of the immortal Walter Cronkite, "And you were there."

There is no way to accurately recreate the ebbs and flows of the team race but the next two events are critical in determining the outcome. Stanford just set the world record of 39.7 in the 440 relay last month. The Indians win the first semifinal in 41.1. New Mexico is second in the same time. San Jose State becomes the odds on favorite by winning the second heat in 40.7 over Michigan State and Nebraska, both at 41.1. Sadly for Stanford, their only world class sprinter, Larry Questad, has pulled a muscle in the 100 and is not available for relay duty.

The final is no contest. Wayne Herman of San Jose is out early and the Spartans, with Tommie Smith anchoring, win easily in 40.5. Nebraska 40.9, Michigan State 41.1, BYU 41.1 and Stanford 41.2 trail. This is ten points in the San Jose column yet there is no rejoicing as Tommie Smith has pulled a muscle in the last couple yards. He will run the final of the 220 but is never a factor, finishing in 22.0. Essentially this win has ended the Spartans' chances for the team title.

USC is banking heavily on the high hurdles. Paul Kerry, not in championship consideration until he won the Federation meet last week in 13.7, is the Trojans' best hope

 but Theo Viltz has also made the final. Their job is made easier by injuries and illnesses that have kept several top hurdlers from entering. The pre-meet favorite, Jerry Cerullia of Utah State, wins his semi in 14.1 but hits every hurdle in the doing. The other semi goes to Gene Washington of Michigan State in 14.0. Viltz and Kerry each placed second so the Trojans are counting on some big points.  

Theo Viltz  in HS leading, ran 14.4 in HS

Theo Viltz  masters runner

The SC hopes are realized. Cerullia and Viltz lead early with Washington and Kerry close. At the sixth hurdle Kerry comes alive. He catches Cerullia at the ninth hurdle and wins as they both clock 13.9. Washington hits the ninth hurdle and finishes sixth. This is all the opportunity Viltz needs. He takes third in 14.0. Suddenly the sun is shining on SC. They have 16 points in one event. In a meet where the points will be divided among multiple contenders, it won't take many to take home the trophy.

The 440 intermediates have little effect upon the team race. Tony Lynch of Harvard and Tom Wyatt of Oregon State are pre-meet favorites and indeed win the the semifinals. The final is a different matter, however. Lynch set the stadium record of 51.1 in his semi and leads the final until the ninth hurdle where Occidental's Vance Peterson goes by. Peterson has been known to hit the tenth hurdle but this time he clears, only to have San Diego State's Larry Godfrey pass him on the run in. Godfrey 51.5, Peterson 51.6, Lynch 51.8 and Wyatt 52.0.

Oregon's opportunity to score big points rests on the shoulders of steeplechaser Bruce Mortensen (more about him later). At the end of five laps he is in a tightly packed group of eight including Tracy Smith of Oregon State, Jack Batchelor of Miami of Ohio, Eamon O'Reilly of Georgetown, Ray Barrus of BYU and Earl Clibborn of UCLA. Mortensen makes his move on the next lap and the pack loosens. At the gun he has a four yard lead over Barrus and Clibburn. The Oregon star pulls away for a decisive win in a personal best of 9:00.8 and ten oh so important points. Clibborn appears ready to pass Barrus on the last hurdle when he falls. Barrus gets second in 9:03.0 and Clibborn recovers quickly to nab third in 9:05.8. His determination is underscored by the fact that he broke his leg in the fall.

And now to the part of the meet where big guys throw heavy stuff. The hammer throw has always had an East Coast tinge and today is no different. In a field of only seven competitors, Boston College's John Fiore is the only one over 200 feet and only by 10 inches. He is followed by Bowdoin's Alex Schulten, Northeastern's Bill Corsetti and Art Croasdale of Harvard.

John Fiore, Boston College

Alex Schulten , Bowdoin College

You can almost hear coaches thinking ,”Seven guys and six score? We gotta get us a hammer thrower.”

Randy Matson's absence is a boon to Oregon. The Duck's Neil Steinhauer tops the field in dramatic fashion. His 62-9 ¼ is a meet record and each of his five legal throws is better than any one of his competitors. In what may seem insignificant at the time, USC's Jeff Smith misses the sixth and final scoring spot by 5 ¼ inches, a very important margin as you will see.

Matson would have been a prohibitive favorite in the discus as well. In his absence Stanford's Bob Stoecker takes the gold medal with a throw of 183-7 ½ . Gary Carlson of USC who had thrown over 190 feet earlier in the season can manage only 173-ll today for fifth place, providing two more points for the Trojans.

The javelin goes to Arizona's John Tushaus whose 250-2 ½ is enough to edge Penn State's Swedish sophomore, Lennart Hedmark, by a foot and a half.

Neither Oregon nor USC score in the high jump but the event has an effect on the team outcome. SC has to be counting on big points in this event as defending champ Lou Hoyt is entered. This is not to be by the slimmest of margins. Maryland's Frank Costello clears 6-ll to win. Second, third and fourth go to Bob Keppel of Washington State, Ted Winfield of BYU and Mike Bowers of Michigan State all at 6-10. The next five jumpers all clear 6-8 and are separated by misses and attempts. Bill Carter of Cal and Randy Geyers of LSU get fifth and sixth. Hoyt is relegated to a tie for seventh by having cleared 6-4 instead of passing until the bar was at 6-6 thus giving him one more attempt. The Trojans get an unexpected goose egg in the scoring column.

Oregon and USC go head to head in the pole vault. With the bar at 15-8 ½, five vaulters remain: Canadian Gerry Moro of Oregon, Mike Graves of Occidental, Ed Martensen of Arizona, Bill Fosdick of SC and former world record holder John Uelses of La Salle. Uelses and Martensen miss all three attempts and are out. Fosdick clears on his first try, Graves on his second and Morro on his third. No one can get over 16-1, so the finish is Fosdick, Graves and Morro. Ten points for USC, six for Oregon.

Gerry Moro

With only the mile relay remaining, SC leads Oregon 32-28 but the Ducks are in this race and the Trojans are not. A third and Oregon wins. A fourth produces a tie. A fifth and the trophy goes home with the Trojans.

Defending champion California is the favorite and they should be based upon a streak of 24 consecutive wins. Yet they are running with a substitute and three guys tired from heats and finals, so maybe they are vulnerable. They won their heat yesterday in 3:09.9. Oregon had taken the other in 3:11.1.

Bowling Green was a non-qualifying fifth in the semis but Iowa was disqualified so the Falcons are in. BG is given no chance in the final but apparently no has told lead off man Tom Wright. He runs 47.9 to open up four yards on the field. Then the cream rises to the top. Cal's Dave Fishback splits 46.8 and the Bears have the lead. Forrest Beaty's 45.7 puts an end to any doubt and Dave Archibald's 46.6 brings the local boys home a winner in 3:07.5.

This is the 1964 Mile Relay Champion Team almost same as 1965 winners. Forrest Beaty, Al Courchesne, Dave Fishback, Dave Archibald

The team championship depends on the anchor leg. Drake is off four yards ahead of Oregon which is a yard up on Abilene Christian. Lynn Sanders runs 46.9 to pass both and give ACC second. When the anchor men hit the straight it is apparent that Drake will hold off Oregon. The best the Ducks can do now is fourth and a tie for the team title. But wait a minute, here comes Morgan State's Nick Lee running the fastest split of the race, 45.6. Now all the USC team has become Morgan State cheerleaders. With every stride Lee is gaining on the Ducks' Gordon Payne, but he falls three yards short at the tape. Oregon has four points and shares the title with USC.

And now, a personal note. The entire Once Upon A Time in the Vest staff was privileged to attend a function honoring Steve Prefontaine at the tavern where Pre used to tend bar. Those in attendance included the cream of the crop of Oregon distance running, many of whom had run with Pre. Your reporter chatted with a amiable guy in his 60's who looked like he could go out the door and run ten miles without a labored breath. Very self effacing, he identified himself as “just an average runner, not like these guys” (Paul Geis, Kenny Moore and Mike Manley were there). His name was Bruce Mortensen. No, Bruce, you were not an average runner. You were an NCAA champion. If you hadn't won the steeplechase, the University of Oregon would have one less championship trophy on display.

For a good interview with Bruce Mortenson  on the blog Run Minnesota  click on
      Bruce Mortenson

Bruce Mortenson (1) in a 1971 Minnesota road race,    Bob Fitts (36) and Ron Daws (32)

Former NCAA Hurdles Champion Kerry Passes Away

Trojan won the 1965 NCAA title in the 120-yard hurdles

Paul Kerry won the 1965 NCAA title in the 120-yard hurdles.

Oct. 16, 2012

LOS ANGELES - Former Trojan hurdling great Paul Kerry, the 1965 NCAA Champion in the 120-yard hurdles, passed away on Oct.6 after an extended illness.

The two-time All-American Kerry lettered at USC from 1964-67 and won the 1965 NCAA high hurdles title with a time of 13.7 and took sixth place in the event at the NCAAs in 1967. His efforts in the hurdles at both the 1965 and 1967 championships helped USC capture the NCAA team track and field titles. Kerry's 120-yard hurdles time of 13.7 ranked sixth all-time by a Trojan, with the event now being a 110-meter race. He also ranked tied for seventh all-time by a Trojan in the 440-yard intermediate hurldes (52.1), which is now the 400-meter hurldes.

Kerry was born in Ardmore, Oklahoma and began high school there before moving to Los Angeles and attending Dorsey High and then Washington High. At Washington he began competing in track and field and setting records. Kerry then attended USC on a four-year track and field scholarship.

At USC, he earned a Bachelor's Degree in Physical Education and History, and a general secondary teaching credential. He later took graduate courses at several universities, including Pepperdine. During his college career, he was involved in many campus organizations and served as an officer on many occasions.

He ran track meets for the LA Unified School District Youth Services Program. Kerry taught at John Muir Junior High School before moving on to Santa Monica High in 1969 to teach social studies and to coach track and field. He worked at Santa Monica High until retiring in 1996. Over the years, he traveled to Sweden, Finland, Papua New Guinea, Brisbane, and Norway to help educate athletes and coaches. Among his honors was an NFL nomination as Teacher of the Year.

From 1975-1985 Kerry also had a simultaneous career in modeling in the summers. He worked for Nina Blanchard, Mary Davis Webb and the Ford Agency. In retirement from teaching, Kerry was active in working with AIDS groups and enjoying his passion for skiing.

Bruin Great Bob Day Has Passed Away

Courtesy: UCLA Athletics
Release: Friday 03/16/2012

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March 16, 2012

Bob Day, who was a standout distance runner for the Bruin track and field program during the 1960s, has passed away after a battle with bladder cancer. Day passed away at the age of 67 on Thursday morning in Irvine, surrounded by his wife Jenny and their family.

Day was a beloved figure in the track and field world, especially at UCLA and in Irvine where he coached at Beckman High School since 2005. He was the first track and field/cross country coach for Beckman HS and built the program from the ground up.

During his career as a Bruin, Day won the 1965 NCAA title in the mile and placed sixth in the event at the 1964 Championship. He set the school record in the event in 1965 (3.56.4), a mark that would stand for 40 years in the Bruin record books before it was broken in 2005 by Jon Rankin. Day still ranks second all-time in the two-mile (8:33.0 indoor), fourth in the 5000m (13:44.2) and eighth in the 1500m (3:42.1) at UCLA. His indoor 2-mile mark (8:33.0) is still the school record.

Day also still holds the sophomore class record in the 1500m (3:41.04), and the freshman/sophomore (3:58.9) and junior (3:56.5) class records in the mile. Day also set a collegiate record in the two-mile (8:35.4) and indoor 2-mile (8:33.0).

In 1966, Day served as team captain, but an injury to his heel kept him out of the NCAA Championship.

He went on to win the 1968 USATF Senior National crown in the 5000m and represented the U.S. in the 1968 Mexico City Olympics in the event.

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V5 N. 63 David Bailey, Canada's First Sub 4 Minute Miler

July 8, 2015, 1:55 pm

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This blog has an underpinning of written synopses of Track and Field News issues that  is now up to July, 1965.   But we often find a lot of other things to write about or stories we have found on the internet which intrigue us and we hope do they do same for you.   A few weeks ago we posted a copy of the 1966 San Diego Invitational Track and Field Meet program.   Mike Solomon had sent that to us after he in turn had received it from a former Kansas Jayhawk teammate , Thorn Bigley.  Well, little did we know that the mile run in that track meet produced the first ever sub four minute mile by a Canadian, David Bailey.    A few days later Dr. Bailey contacted us to let us know that was 'his race' and that he had never seen that program.   It didn't take long for us to decide that the program should belong to David, and Mike got the okay from Thorn to send it to David.   David graciously asked if there was anything he could do in return.  Well,  opportunists that we are, we asked David if he could write some thoughts about that race, maybe some things that hadn't been mentioned before, ie. what led up to his being there, who he hung out with, etc.   What we got back was this very 'inside' piece about that event.  We hope you enjoy it as much as we have enjoyed putting it out there.    We have also added a link to a story about what Dr. Bailey has done since his running days , which I'm sure may have affected many of our readers without their knowing the connection.  Check out the link after reading David's racing story.

First Sub-4 Mile by a Canadian

By David Bailey
The United States had its first sub-4 minute miler in Don Bowden in 1957. Canada had to wait for several more years. Yet, the desire was strong. The spark that kindled the flame occurred when Rich Ferguson ran 4:04.5 to finish third to Roger Bannister and John Landy in the Miracle Mile at the British Empire Games in Vancouver in 1954. A major step forward was taken by Bruce Kidd, the 18 year old team mate of mine at the East York Track Club, when he ran a stunning 4:01.4 as part of a remarkable season of successes at the longer distances in 1962. There were other very good attempts by the likes of Jim Irons, Ergas Leps and Bill Crothers in the following years. Yet, the newspaper headlines always read “No Canuck Sub-4 miler - Yet”. I demonstrated an early affinity for running the mile. When I joined the East York Track as a 16 year old in 1961, I ran 4:07.5 after just one year of training and competitions and finished third at the senior national championship. This time was a fraction of a second faster than the previous world best time for a 17 year old (4:07.6) established by the late Ron Clarke of Australia. However, my record did not last long as it was obliterated (3:59.0) by the amazing Jim Ryun of the United States in 1964. Progress after 1962 was halted for several years because of my injuries. Those were frustrating times but I persisted. Things finally started to come right for me with several progressively faster times that culminated in a 4:02.9 mile in 1965. It was then that I began to feel that I could be a legitimate contender for the Canadian Sub-4 title, likely in the following year. The build up training for the 1966 summer season when well. A 3:00 minute paced 3 quarters mile time trial in May was achieved with only moderate effort. As East York Track Club team mate Bill Crothers had a #1 world ranking in the 800m/880 yd in 1965, Coach Fred Foot had some leverage to get me an invitation to the Compton Invitational Mile in the Los Angeles Coliseum on June 4. On race day, a chance encounter with the meet promoter in the athletes’ reception room proved to be difficult. The realization that this was my first highly competitive race of the year made him question the validity of my presence. Well, Jim Ryun ran 3:53.7 (0.1 second off Michel Jazy’s world record), Jim Grelle ran 3:56.0, Neill Duggan of England ran 3:59.0 and I ran a personal best of 4:01.5. During a car ride back to our hotel with the Adidas representative, I was questioned as to my reason for wearing Puma spikes. I truthfully said that they were a gift and that I could not afford to purchase the preferred Adidas which fit me better. A phone call from Adidas Canada in Toronto on the Monday after returning home was a much appreciated offer of new running shoes and sweat suit! Coach Fred Foot was now totally convinced that a sub-4 minute mile was within my reach. Bill Crothers and he were scheduled for a trip to the San Diego Invitational Track and Field Meet on June 11. A request for expenses to include me in the meet was rejected. Ultimately, I was included in the meet because I went in place of Coach Foot. Bill and I left Toronto on Friday afternoon, connected through Chicago and arrived late in the evening in San Diego. This race was the opportunity for which I had waited for years. Everything seemed to be falling into place. The track would likely be fast, the weather looked fine and the competitors were of high calibre. If the pace could be right, would I be able to rise to the challenge? I don’t think I was ever this anxious before. Waiting for the race was torture. I could not tolerate being inside the stadium and found solace sitting in the dark under a tree outside listening to the muffled voice of the P.A. announcer until it was time to warm-up. Just before the race, Bill came over to me and said I’d better run better that his third place finish. I was placed in lane one and introduced as “our Canadian friend”. The others were record holders of some significance (Jim Grelle, Neill Duggan, high school student Tim Danielson) and received big cheers. I got a good start and briefly led. During the second quarter, both Grelle and Duggan passed me and I stayed with them. Bill kept yelling splits and I kept thinking that we were right on pace. Duggan led with one quarter to go and just as the gun fired Grelle and I started to accelerate. I accidentally clipped his heal and got a dirty look. Typically Canadian, I said “Sorry”. With about 300 yards to go, I was right with them. Then, Grelle changed gears and sailed past Duggan. Duggan hesitated and it was too late for him. When Duggan kicked, I was left behind. The announcer said that Danielson was coming on fast. I am blind in my right eye and knew that I shouldn’t look, but I did. Once I saw him, I knew I couldn’t let up. As I crossed the finish line, my first reaction was “Crap, I missed it again!” However, Bill was there with his watch showing a time of 3:58.8 (official time: 3:59.1)! The confusion after the race was amazing. It lasted for about 20 minutes, partly because Grelle and Duggan seemed to have disappeared and partially because the first four finishers had run sub-4. However, I think it was mainly because home town hero Tim Danielson had just become the second high school sub-4 miler in United States history. I can only imagine the elation that he must have felt. Extraordinary! Then the fatigue set in. I had done a lot of my training on the grass of nearby golf courses to reduce the risk of injury (back in the day golfers were more tolerant). After running on the hard all-weather track at Balboa Stadium, my legs “felt like rubber”. Bill and I had to jog back to our hotel about 2 miles away. It was a struggle but I had with a big smile on my face. The next day Bill and I got our return flight to Chicago. As I walked through the airport to the gate for our connection to Toronto, I saw my widowed mother coming towards me. “What are you doing here?”, I asked. Apparently, the airport in Toronto had many reporters waiting for my arrival for interviews. However, the Toronto Star had taken the initiative and flown a reporter and my mother to Chicago, so that we could celebrate over dinner while they could get an exclusive interview.

Later that week, I got a letter that is now framed and hangs in my trophy room. It is from the Prime Minister of Canada, Lester B. Pearson. One paragraph in this letter is especially meaningful for me. It states, “May I congratulate you, both personally and as Prime Minister, on your achievement and on the recognition that you have brought to yourself and your country.” Lester B. Pearson was a great Canadian. There is good reason why the airport in Toronto now carries his name. If I might quote author Steven Pinker “He gave Canada many of things it’s most proudest of: universal healthcare, bilingualism, abolition of capital punishment, and a national identity symbolized by a new flag that was distinct for the Mother Country. Most important, he won a Nobel Peace Prize for conceiving and implementing one of humanity’s greatest inventions: the armed peacekeeping force.” Last year on June 11 as I walked through a local shopping centre, I saw on monitor the historical reminder, “On this day in 1966, Dave Bailey of Toronto became the first Canadian to run a sub-4 minute mile.” It felt good.


Want to know more about David Bailey?  Click on the link below.

David Bailey's Post Athletics Contribution to the World

 The track at Balboa Stadium was asphalt. Bob Schul ran well there but it takes a  toll on the  legs.

Phil Scott.  

V 5 N. 64 Lon Spurrier 880 WR has passed away

July 9, 2015, 8:08 pm

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Lon Spurrier Photos   (includes a great pic of him setting his WR

Something about the name 'Lon Spurrier' just connotes to me the words, 'fast, flowing, swift, speed, track'  I never saw him run.  I had to look up his record to even be aware of a few facts about him.  But that name was one of the few that ever said to me ,  'pure , raw, running ability'.  

Lon Spurrier passed away on June 23, 2015.   A Celebration of his life will be held in the Bay Area July 12, 2015, see link above.   We just heard about it tonight and went google searching for some background.   Lon graduated from Delano HS in California in the early 1950's.  He was a child of Dust Bowl migrants to the state of California.  He went on to U. of California at Berkeley with a limited background in track.  He had  finished sixth in the state meet in his third try at 440 yards.  Lon just got better and better and in 1955 had his best year  setting a WR in the 880 in 1:47.5 and running on two WR relay teams .  He got second in the Pan Am Games 800 in Chicago that year and ran on the winning 4x400 team with J.W. Mashburn, Jim Lea, and Lou Jones.   In the Melbourne Olympics he finished 6th in the 800 in 1:49.3.   He went on to get an M.B.A at Harvard and worked on Wall Street before returning to the Bay Area in California.  Below is an article from the San Francisco Chronicle.   Our sympathies to his family.

Lon Spurrier with Bill Dellinger, Jim Bailey, Deborah Kerr, and Ron Delany (from Mr. Dellinger's collection)

From the San Francisco Chronicle, July 10, 2015

Lonnie V. Spurrier

May 27, 1932 - Jun 23, 2015

Lonnie V. Spurrier (Lon), a proud Cal graduate who set the world's record in the 880 yard run in 1955, passed away peacefully on June 23rd at the age of 83. A world class athlete, he represented the United States in the 800 meters, during the 1956 Olympics in Melbourne Australia, coming in 6th.

Lon was born on May 27, 1932 in the rural farming community of Douglas County, Missouri. He was one of six children of John and Golda Spurrier, who migrated to the Central Valley of California during the Dust Bowl, eventually settling in the agricultural town of Delano, about a half-hour north of Bakersfield. He grew up playing sports like his two older brothers, and when he graduated from Delano High in 1950, he had established himself as an all-around athlete playing Varsity Football as halfback, Basketball (named outstanding defensive player of the year), and both Baseball and Track. Lon was also active socially in high school where he was Student Council President and voted by classmates as best all-around senior boy. In his senior year, he was encouraged by his high school coach to switch from Baseball to Track, where he participated in a wide variety of events. Track proved a natural fit, and by the end of the season he'd set the school record in the low hurdles, and finished 6th place in the California State meet in the 440, the third time he'd ever ran that distance.

It was at the University of California at Berkeley, under the tutelage of legendary Cal track coach Brutus Hamilton, that Spurrier's newfound interest in track flourished. He won the Pacific Coast Conference 800 title in 1952 and tied for third in the NCAA that year. He was named an All-American.

In 1955, on the clay and cinder track at Cal's Edwards Stadium, Spurrier set the world's record in the half-mile with a time of 1:47.5. Later in 1955 he won a silver medal in the 800 at the Pan American Games, and ran on the gold medal winning 4Ã-400 relay team. In 1956, he ran on two world's record setting relay teams: the 4 x 440 yard (mile relay), and he anchored the 4 x 880 yard (two-mile relay) record setting team. And, in the 1956 Olympics, Spurrier finished 6th in the 800 meters while also one of six members of the US 1,600 meter relay team that won the gold medal. He was inducted into the Cal Athletic Hall of Fame in 1998.

After graduating from Cal, he joined the US Air Force where he earned his wings as a jet pilot and the rank of Lieutenant. He attended Harvard Business School, and moved to Manhattan where he began his career in financial management on Wall Street, before returning to the Bay Area and making his home in Orinda.

Friends, family, and teammates remember Lon as a great friend, a mentor, and a very upbeat person. He remained physically active throughout his adult life, playing tennis and continuing to run until he suffered a serious back injury in his late 60's. He was an avid fan of UC Berkeley athletics and regularly attended Cal football games and track meets throughout his life. He went on to become the President of the Big C Society.

Lon is survived by his loving wife, Ida Lee Spurrier, and their two children: Randy Spurrier and Dana Spurrier. Lon also leaves behind two grandchildren, Jack Spurrier and Amelia Spurrier. In addition, Lon leaves behind many treasured life-long friends, neighbors, business colleagues, and teammates.

A celebration of Lon Spurrier's life and memory will be held at 1pm, Sunday July 12th at the UC Berkeley Alumni house. More information can be found at: http://www.LonSpurrier.com

Published in San Francisco Chronicle, July 10, 2015

V 5 N. 65 Clifford Severn, First Adidas shoe rep in US, Hollywood Actor, International Cricketeer

July 10, 2015, 9:17 am

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Clifford Severn (1925-2014)

  For years my co-blogger Roy Mason has  ended his reports with  a sign off that "Cliff Severn is still advertising this month touting Adidas track shoes on the back cover of TF&N".    In the 50s and early 60s Cliff was probably the only person west of the Mississippi who handled those shoes.  I'm not sure how he distributed the much sought after footwear either from the back of his car, from a store front , or mail order.  Several of our readers including Ernie Cunliffe have mentioned seeing Cliff at meets and getting shoes from him either with hard earned cash or hard earned track performances.  The stories vary.  When I started doing a google search last year for more about Cliff, and about Vandervoort's Hardware store in Lansing Michigan (one of the few other Adidas distributors in the US), I found an obituary about a Cliff Severn,  child actor and international crickteer who lived in the Hollywood area.  But alas there was no mention in the obituaries about his connection to Adidas.   However  name and the location were just too big of a coincidence not to be Cliff.   Finally another obituary popped up this week confirming that the man was indeed all three personages.    If any of you have had any face to face encounters with Cliff that you would like to describe, please feel free to contact us, but be careful what you write, as it will most probably end up attached to this article.   Pictures of Mr. Severn would make one think that he was indeed a man of some eccentricity.    He was born in England of South African parentage.  He came to America with family in the late 1920s and before long was appearing as a child actor in several films along with his brothers.

Cliff Severn in Hollywood Film Days

 While in Hollywood he learned the game of cricket probably from his Pa or  the British colony in film land, and played regularly with David Niven, Errol Flynn,  Boris Karloff.  Karloff, that's precious, because I can only imagine Frankenstein stumbling around with a cricket bat as the villagers are chasing him up into the hills with their burning torches.  Cliff founded several cricket clubs in the L.A. area and even  represented the US in a match with Canada, thus making him an 'international' in the cricket world.  He also started importing Adidas shoes in the early 1950's.   He is credited with encouraging the company  to develop tennis shoes out of which came  Stan Smith tennis shoes and soon after some  basketball shoes.  He  also represented the company during the World Cup of Soccer when it was held in Chile.   By   the late 60's  he owned   C & C Sports and the Sweat Shop. I imagine Cliff was by passed when Adidas started expanding rapidly and needed an organization that could manage things on a huge national and international scale. But to any of you who were a regular reader of Track and Field News in the 50's and 60's,  Clifford Severn was a household word.

The Thousand Oaks Acorn covered all the bases, or should I say wickets, in this obituary.

Clifford Severn

"Man I did not know Cliff passed . I had long talks with him about Adidas stuff. He told me Adidas screwed him later on when they went to a big  distribution system after he set the ground work. " Phil Scott

wow.....clifford severn.

in high school we had to call Cliff's business in North Hollywood to order Adidas.

Someone had a brochure and we'd call, make the order and pay COD when UPS delivered...usually the next day.

Sometimes we would drive all the way up to his store to get running shoes.

Mike Solomon

Mike Larabee became the adidas rep too.  Phil Scott

Who was the  400 meters Gold Medal winner in 60 Olympics?   Larabee?  He  also had a track shoe distributeship in Santa Barbara--LA  Ricardo Romo

George: I just spoke to Percy Severn, Clifford's widow. She is working on a book of her late husbands life. I sent the blog site and the article about him. She is going to correspond with me about the book and stuff.  Phil

Hello Roy and George-what a flashback this posting gave me. After wearing "Chuck Taylor" gum soled shoes with a black canvas upper in the 9th and 10th grades (1956-1957) my dad drove me up to North Hollywood to Cliff's place of business and bought me my first pair of Adidas shoes. Other members on that Excelsior High School team wore some other brands but after reading the Track & Field News ads that touted how many Olympic Champions and World Records were achieved in those Adidas spikes what choice could a budding 880 runner have but to wear those shoes with the three stripes.

If the ads in Track & Field News were not enough, check out the foot ware laced up on the starting line of the 1957 Millrose Games Mile run: Burr Grim-Adidas   Ron Delany-Adidas  George King-Adidas   Jim Beatty-Adidas   Bob Seamon-Adidas and Laszlo Tabori-Adidas!

Included on the front page of this February 1957 T&FN edition is an early headline about the "Wonder Boy Herb Elliot".

 

Here is the ad that my Dad and I responded to in 1957 that made me feel like I was a real track man with a pair of the red with white striped spikes:

 

Competing companies at the time included Ruddell and Brooks:

 

But the icing on the cake came when the man Herb Elliot made Adidas his shoe of choice. Even the boys from Abilene Christian got on board!  It was ADIDAS all the way!

Feel free to use any/all/none of this reply. I just enjoy the chance to go back and recall these exciting times in my running career.

Thanks again for the ongoing history lesson.

Darryl Taylor

George,

  That  "Human Sky Writer" pole vaulter picture I sent you a while back had me wearing red and white stripe Adidas shoes --- 1956 version. I don't remember where I got them ---it was probably mail order so probably from Cliff.

Rest of the story --- 1984 to 1986 I lived in Santa Maria, CA ---Mike Larabbe's home town.  Mike and I ended up being tennis doubles partners and were a pretty successful team ---good athletes playing tennis rather than classic tennis players would be a good way to classify us.  Mike did not like my cheap tennis outfit so he gave me a fancy Adidas sweat outfit so we would "look right".

 When Mike died about 10 years ago, his wife sent me a pair of Adidas spikes from his inventory ---still have, brand new.

   Bill Flint

George-

I missed the Cliff Severn article-there’s a Bowerman connection that I hope I can do justice:

By 1954, Bowerman had established a long distance relationship with Adi Dassler, knowing that he made the best product in the world. He imported some Adidas product through an Austrian  friend from the war (referenced in Kenny Moore’s “Men of Oregon”), but when that dried up, he complained to Adi that purchasing Adidas product in the U.S. was too expensive for most track teams. He particular called out Severn for marking up the shoes too high, and asked Adi for the distributorship, because he claimed he could take a lower margin and make them more accessible.

Adi said he had to honor his current commitment to Severn, but once the current contract expired, he would like Bill to have the distributorship. Obviously that never happened. But, Bill continued to purchase and dissect Adidas spikes, learning how they were constructed and using the spike plates as a base for his athlete’s handmade calfskin shoes, which were considerably lighter than say, a Adidas’ Melbourne.

Rick Lower

V 5 N. 66 Ricardo Romo UTSA President

July 14, 2015, 11:43 am

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The following article appeared July 11, 2015 in the San Antonio Express      by Jerry Biggs.  I'm sure many
of you remember Ricardo Romo as an outstanding middle distance runner at the University of
Texas in the mid 1960's and the first sub 4 minute miler from that state.   He only recently ceded
the school record to Leo Manzano.

Ex-Fox Tech running star hasn’t slowed pace as president at UTSA

Former track star knows to not lessen the pace as he helps direct growing university to higher tier

 By Jerry Briggs

Former San Antonio high school running star Ricardo Romo celebrated his 72nd birthday last month, but he doesn’t act like a man who wants to slow his pace any time soon.

The president at UTSA will work a dozen hours or more in a day if that’s what it takes to improve the school.

“The other day I had a really long day,” says Romo, a 1962 Fox Tech graduate. “Every moment was booked. I had a dinner from 6:30 to 10:30 (p.m.), and I walked out just in time to see the last shot taken (in an NBA Finals game).

“I wanted to see that game, but it was an important individual donor, and I said, ‘You know what? This is when he wants to do it. Let’s just do it and not worry about it.’”

Just do it. Such a proclamation from Romo doesn’t come as a surprise to anyone who has followed his remarkable life.

Raised by parents who met while picking cotton in South Texas, Romo started sweeping floors at his family’s West Side store about the same time he entered primary school.

He’s been multitasking ever since, balancing as a young man the rigors of academics, athletics and a family grocery store business.

“What he does (at UTSA) is a tough job,” said former San Antonio Independent School District superintendent Victor Rodriguez. “It’s very demanding. But I think Richard still has the endurance that he gained by training as a runner.

“When he was running, while most of the others were getting tired on the third lap, Richard was still going strong.”

In a sense, it’s always been that way for Romo, who followed the lead of his parents, teachers and mentors to a prolific athletic career.

He emerged in 1966 as the first Texan and the 19th man in history to run a sub-4-minute mile.

But even when his Olympic dreams faded because of a back injury, he found another gear altogether, taking a new career path as an educator, a published scholar, a university administrator and, finally, the fifth president of UTSA.

For 16 of 40 years in UTSA’s classroom history, Romo has engineered a stunning spike both in enrollment and in students earning degrees. UTSA has produced more than 100,000 graduates, with more than half of that total earning degrees since Romo became president, a school spokesman said.

In addition, his appointment also has served to make many in the city’s disadvantaged communities feel included.

“I really can’t put into words how we feel about him and what he’s done,” a small business owner at Commerce and Rosillo streets told the Express-News in 2001. “We hold him in high esteem. I mean, he is the president of UTSA. A Chicano is president of UTSA.”

The roots of Romo’s family run deeply into Mexico. Three of his grandparents immigrated to Texas in the wake of upheaval from the 1913 Mexican Revolution.

While neither of Romo’s San Antonio-born parents attended college, their diligence to build a better life served as a blueprint for their son’s success.

Romo’s mother had to drop out of school in the 1930s after sixth grade to work, shelling pecans. His father started high school at Fox Tech but didn’t secure his diploma until age 23, in 1940.

Out of school but not out of options, Henry Romo Sr., shined shoes downtown and worked in an East Side poultry business, eventually buying the business for $200.

After returning from World War II, the decorated Army Air Corps veteran sold out his interest in the poultry business and bought the grocery to support his family.

“He was a pretty driven guy,” Romo said.

As a boy, the UTSA president worked at Romo’s Quality Food Store on Guadalupe Street, sweeping and stocking shelves and later graduating to cash-register duty at age 12

.

A few years later, he also discovered a unique talent. He was the strongest and fastest runner in his junior high school P.E. class.

One day on the playground at Horace Mann, Romo finished a one-mile fitness test well ahead of the rest of his classmates. Watching the display of speed and stamina, coach Bill Davis told him later that he was the most natural runner he had ever seen.

Davis, a retired military man, proved to be a beacon in Romo’s life in the mid- to late-1950s. Not only did he encourage the young man to start training seriously, he also looked out for all the Hispanic students at predominantly Anglo Horace Mann.

On one occasion, Davis witnessed some high school kids taunting a group of Hispanics from Horace Mann, including Romo and an older brother. Witnessing a potentially dangerous situation, Davis took the matter seriously, striding across the school yard with a baseball bat, demanding that the older students disperse.

They did.

“His actions were an act of courage and compassion, an act that my family would never forget,” Romo wrote in an essay for “Latino College Presidents: In Their Own Words,” a book by David J. Leon and Ruben O. Martinez.

At Fox Tech High School, he blossomed into the best runner in Texas, winning the state titles in the mile in both 1961 and 1962. At the University of Texas, Romo won several conference titles and placed third in the mile nationally as a senior.

By 1966, he ranked among the top milers in the United States, setting the UT record with a time of 3 minutes and 58.8 seconds. Subsequently, Romo suffered a back injury that would end his career only a year shy of the 1968 Olympic Trials.

Initially, the injury was a shock, but by the time the trials began, he was deeply involved in a new phase of his life, married, living in California and working on a master’s degree.

For the next dozen years, he worked to complete his master’s, his doctorate and his most expansive published work, “East Los Angeles: History of a Barrio.” In 1980, with the six-year book project completed, he returned to Austin to join the faculty in the history department at UT.

“They really loved him at Texas,” recalled James Blackwood, a former track coach at UT and at UTSA. “By the time he left there, he was vice provost.”

After working seven years as UT’s vice provost of undergraduate education, Romo in 1999 accepted the president’s job at UTSA.

The son of San Antonio’s West Side had returned home.

Talking over lunch recently, Rodriguez says he remembers the image of a young Romo running along a creek near downtown in the early morning hours.

“I remember saying, ‘You know, that’s a smart kid,’” said Rodriguez, then an aspiring Cooper Junior High teacher and coach. “‘I wonder what he’s going to be running in track?’”

Little did Rodriguez know that the path along the creek would lead Romo all the way to the president’s office at UTSA.

Romo, talking about his life’s journey in the ornate president’s conference room, looks and sounds like a man who still hasn’t finished the race.

He is in a demanding job, but he loves it.

“To me, age is not a factor,” Romo said. “I’ve been in administration for 20-something years and president 16 years. I feel like I’ll do it as long as I have a fastball. I’ll do it as long as I’m making a contribution to the university.”

V 5 N. 66 A Few Bits and Pieces

July 19, 2015, 8:42 am

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On vacation back in Ohio, fortunately some things came to us from various sources to keep the blog going.

First this ad from Pete Brown:  from the 1953 NCAA Track and Field Guide

 Carrying on with women in track back in those days.   Most relays and big meets had a queen, even a court.  Here is the write up on the queen at the San Diego Invitational back in 1966. "Sports are exciting and stimulating.  If I were a man, I'd want to be a pro athlete." Probably wouldn't pass the PC acid test these days.

A San Diego MacDonald's Ad Circa 1966 from the same program.

Full disclosure of their ingredients,  Wonder Bread and meat from Swift Packing.

Now those things are a mystery.  And three locations in San Diego, Wow!

Wonder if these guys diversified and went into Port A Johns? Wouldn't have had to change much in the ad copy.

What a wonderful concept.  Now was the product served on the sidelines to the athletes?

V 5 N. 67 A Two Week Hiatus

July 31, 2015, 8:02 pm

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Wow,  two whole weeks without a single posting.   Been on 'vacation' in Southwest Ohio, seeing family and some old track buddies.  With all that free time not working on this blog, I managed to stay out of trouble and find some nice old journals and magazines at Steve Price's house in Piqua, Ohio.  Steve's 'stuff ' goes back to the 1960s and included his 1965 Boston Marathon program and  race number.   He finished in the top hundred that year after hitchhiking from Miami University of Ohio to Boston to run the race.

Steve and George

Below, the 444 listed entries for Boston in 1965.

Were you there?  To see the listings more clearly, place cursor over picture and click on it.

The new picture that appears can then be clearly enlarged by pressing down on 'control button' and

scrolling to enlarge it.  To return to article click on picture and then reopen the article when the website reappears.

Add caption

                                Below: Top Ten Runners for the Ten Previous Years  1955-64.
                     Note: One of our regular readers, Canadian, Orville Atkins place 5th in 1962.
                   After going to Tokyo to see the Olympics in 1964, Orville emigrated to L.A.
                    and trained and ran for the L.A. Track Club under Coach Igloi.

Steve went into coaching shortly after graduation while he was teaching in Kettering, OH public schools.  He started the Kettering Striders club for girls in age group track.  Boys shortly after became part of the club which travelled around the country competing in AAU junior meets.   In that period, Steve would serve as coach on three US National teams.  One was at the US Russia dual meet in Moscow where Mary Decker threw the baton at a Russian who had bumped her off the track in a relay.  The Russian press queried Steve after the meet about what he would do to Mary for her misdeed.  His reply was classic.  "We're due to leave Moscow tomorrow, and she'll be on the plane." Steve also coached the US women in the 1977 World Cross Country championships in Dusseldorf, West Germany and coached the women's race walking team in the World Championships held in Syracuse, NY.

   

USA Women's Team  Members Julie Brown, Eryn Forbes, Doris Heritage, Sue Kinsey, Kathy Mills, Peg Neppel, Reserves Mikki Gorman, Carol Cook,  Coach Stephen Price

Course Map

As girls track became part of the regular high school programs, the club system faded.  At that point, Steve became the first men's cross country coach at the University of Dayton about 1980.  That team was started so that Dayton could meet NCAA Div. 1 requirements of providing multiple sports so that the university could continue to  field its nationally ranked men's basketball program.  The cross country team was one step above a club with an $800 budget.  Steve, coached,  drove the bus, washed the jockstraps,  and kept the beer in a cooler for the trip home.   From there he went to Bahrain in the Persian Gulf to coach their men's distance runners through the US Sports Academy.  After that two year gig he went back to Kettering Schools, before taking on the women's cross country and track programs at Bowling Green State University and after retiring from that position began coaching hurdlers  part time with Findlay University twenty miles down the pike from Bowling Green.  He is still active on that job.

This is enough for one posting but there will be more things from the old mags and programs I found and photographed at Steve's place.  Oh yes, and one other picture I found of Steve.

V. 5 N. 68 PED's, Getting on the Soapbox

August 4, 2015, 9:50 am

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I'm sitting here this morning working on a new posting for the 1965 AAU meet which Roy has sent my way.   Our methodology for these entries is as follows:   Roy, in Ukiah, CA,  writes the synopsis of the event as culled from the pages of the July, or is it August, 1965  issue of Track and Field News.  Only Roy has the skills to do this.  I would be befuddled to even attempt such a writing task.   Roy sends it on to Steve Price in Piqua, Ohio to proofread.   The product is then sent to me in Courtenay, BC to add pictures and maybe some comments.  When you look for a picture of a given athlete, often a good story is part of where that picture came from, so that provides me material to add in to the story.   I have the Google Blog account,  which allows me to put all the copy and pictures online to send out to you and to make available to readers around the world.  Truly this is read in over sixty countries each month.  If we make a reference to a runner or jumper from the Ukraine,  we notice that readership goes up in that country.  Same for New Zealand, France, Germany and the like.  However there seems to be a strong daily readership in China and a few other unexpected places.  Maybe just the sheer number of people in China inflates our readership from that country.

Now to get to our headline today on Performance Enhancing Drugs (PED's),  one may wonder why most of the time we dwell on the past in this blog.  Hey we're old guys, and most of our readers are over 60, so that's what we know more about.   The sport has become very inflated with large numbers of fast, strong  athletes than it was 50 years ago.  The depth in every event today is mind boggling.  Putting the money out there to be won, has obviously encouraged a greater number of elite participants and of course has encouraged cheating.  Since the first guy went to the line to race against his neighbor, people have  been looking for an edge.  It's just that now there are so many peripheral individuals trying to make a living off athletes that cheating has become such a prominent part of the sport.   We used to complain in the 60s that the rich old fogies like Avery Brundage, Dan Ferris, and many others at the helm of the AAU were abusing athletes by imposing a draconian amateurism philosophy on the sport, and a subsequent revolt took place to allow athletes at first to get reasonable expense money to go to meets.   But there still was not much out there to let them make a living from the sport.  The guys that stayed with the sport into their late twenties, early thirties were also making a living in another field.  I'm sure this made for a more well balanced individual than is the case these days.  I cannot imagine only training and racing, and texting all day.  I do know of a few young people who are working in their professions and competing, but they are few and far between and they are not among the elite.

So as we moved into the 80s and the sport became more commercially marketable, we began to see a lot more doping beyond the occasional distance runner rumour and the not so clandestine doping by weightmen.    In the 80s I heard stories that the USOC was looking the other way when US athletes tested positive for drugs that would mask the use of illegal drugs.  It was game on.  Of course the East Germans and Soviets had institutionalized doping by then, but there was no supposed overseer to boot them out of the sport.  Once the wall fell in 1989 it became openly documented how the East Germans had been playing the game.  The East Germans had kept records just like the Nazis, so the evidence was there.  In the West, since the doping was not encouraged and controlled by the State, the evidence was easier to cover up.  In 1988 the Ben Johnson affair made it quite evident that the western athletes were as guilty as the eastern bloc, but they did it on an individual basis rather than a state controlled basis.   It's been said that the risk of getting caught was less than the opportunity to make some money.   Of course only a few actually made some money.  Johnson had a million dollar contract with a clothing manufacturer  Diadora , which was rescinded because of his getting caught.  He was led down this path by a leech of a coach who also stood to cash in on Johnson's success.

Next the influx of African talent displaced many of the great European and American runners.  The Kenyans were most likely clean and benefited from some genetic and lifestyle advantages over the western athletes, not to mention the incentive of making a few dollars which went a much longer way in their economies compared to what translated to income in the West.  Now the Kenyans' honesty is being called into question.   The need to get chemical help is there, because still only a few can actually make a good living from track and field, so to assure one has a chance, he or she must go to the pharmacy cabinet.  Some of the Middle Eastern countries with no history of athletic tradition are buying athletes from Kenya because of that nation's surplus.   Also the refugee movement in some African countries has ended up in Nordic countries with citizen athletes whose origin is Africa.  Same can be said for the US who also bought and sold Africans two hundred years ago in a more diabolical way.

The public and the media can also be accused in this modern charade of athletics when   the sport is manipulated by media conglomerates, Olympic programming, glamour and sales of sports shoes, clothing, and accessories.  Hundreds of thousands of joggers buy millions of dollars of equipment and spend enormous amounts of dollars for event entry fees to feel like they are champion athletes.  And the monster grows.

So we old diehards sit in our easy chairs , too old, creaky and cranky to get out there anymore to give those boys and girls their comeuppance.

Now that the IAAF and WADA and some other 'supervisory bodies' have begun an introspective look at their own shortcomings, maybe a slightly new course will be taken.  However old institutions and board directors and well paid minions do not give up power easily. So it is fairly unlikely there will be a major overhaul of those well entrenched institutions.   Even a change of leadership at the top coming from an election of a new IAAF president is no guarantee of a major change in the institution.  Obama couldn't do it, so how could Bubka or Coe?  They are too much a part of the system.  I can't think of any world bodies that could ever carry out a sophisticated revamping of a world wide problem.  The IAAF is much like the UN, a worldwide membership run by a bunch of elite individuals  who enjoy being there rubbing elbows with their social equivalents.   However the power is in a few countries with the money to push their agendas.   The UN couldn't stop a genocide in a small, concentrated area like Rwanda.   The IAAF will not be able to stop or slow down an epidemic of drug abuse in track and field.   My sympathies are with the honest people in the sport, but I can never be sure who they are.

So how to go forward?    I've mentioned this to several people with mixed responses, but it's the only thing I can think of that might work.     I'm sure however that plenty of people thinking up ways of dealing with the problem will find some better way of solving it.  If you have an idea, we'll publish it, just send it to the commentaries at the end of this page.

My Solution:
All events will have two groups of athletes,  Group A (No testing)  and Group B (Heavy Testing).  

Group A athletes will go to the line with whatever they want to put into their bodies.  They sign a waiver that they don't care what harm may come to them by using PED's.  They will never be banned from the sport and their resultant medical  and/or funeral expenses will be covered by the IAAF

Group B athletes will be tested regularly.   If they test positive, they will be banned for life from competing with other Group B athletes.   They will be moved to group A.  However since they chose to lie about what they were doing, they will be required to pay back up to 80% of what they earned as Group B athletes before they can compete in Group A.   Some of their winnings will have to be held in escrow in case they get caught in the lie.

For the Americans:
All university athletes will be in Group B.  If they test positive, they will be banned from competing in University but be allowed to go to Group A.   They will not lose their scholarships and be allowed to attend university for four years at their athletic department's expense.  That will put a lot of pressure on the universities to run clean programs.

So, please feel free to blast away.
GB


I'm still chewing on your latest well written soapbox blip. I am not sure your proposal would work but have heard nothing better. The fallout of all this might be something to ponder as other sports may or may not follow track's example. The NCAA will pretty much do as they please. In other countries, our sport is run by a federation so they have more "control" over the individual athlete. 

Steve Price

Roy adds some interesting perspectives to my thesis.   I can see that the committee will be analyzing and debating these issues for some time to come.

"Creaky and cranky", great line, George.  

    Obviously there is no easy answer to this.  I like your A and B system, but here is the problem I see as a spectator.  The "A" guys aren't cheats.  They are what they are and we have created a system whereby the only competitive advantage they might have is a superior pharmacist.  No aspersions will be cast.  Whether they will  run in separate meets or concurrently as in the B mile at 2:05 pm  and the A mile at 2:15 pm, is but a minor detail to be worked out.  The question is, as a fan, what division do I want to watch?  Do I want to see a 3:41 mile or a 3:50 mile?,  a 18.98 200 or a 19.87 200?  Compare that to men's and women's races now.  As much as I love the women's competition, if I have the choice of watching a men's or women's 800. PV or steeplechase, I'll pick the men every time.  I think this holds true in nearly all sports,  NBA or WNBA?  Let's check the TV ratings.   The same would be true of the A's and B's.  Do I want to watch the varsity or the JV's?

    The financial situation is another aspect.  Where do Nike, Adidas, New Balance, etc. invest their dollars?  Do they sponsor A runners or B runners?  Both maybe, but my thinking is that they will go with whichever draws the larger crowd and the highest TV ratings.  If that is the A division, the B's would be like the minor leagues in baseball, fun to watch but not the cachet of the major leagues.

    And then we get to the Olympics.  If we keep them "clean", well and good, but would they have the status they have now?  The winner of the shot put throws 74' but his feat is diminished by the 15 guys regularly over 80' in the A division.  Would we have an A Olympics and a B Olympics?  Obviously with any of this, problems outnumber solutions.

  

    An afterthought: The A league could save T&F with a huge infusion of money.   Nike and Adidas couldn't pay athletes the kind of money Pfizer, Lilly or Novartis would shell out.  Johnson and Johnson could pay athletes like NBA players.  The  A athletes would be living proof that whatever the pharmaceutical they were using, was effective.   "That dude just ran 41.5.  I'm getting that stuff tomorrow."  A Nike athlete wins but can you really say it was because he wore Nike?  With drugs, there would be empirical  evidence.  The guy hitting the tape first has Bristol-Myers Squibb on his shirt.

From George

My kickback on this is as soon as Big Pharma gets involved and supporting teams of dopers, they'll want to start making rules about how much an 'athlete' can ingest before a meet etc. and it will cut out Bernie down at the trailer park who has discovered how to produce the best boost known to man.  Then we'll be calling the cheats cheats.   The problem here is that the American public truly wants to be deceived.  We want to believe in fairies and avatars and 3:32 milers.

As to which race the public will  want to watch, pay TV will figure that one out for us and the market will prevail.  I guess there's no sane solution.  We  at Once Upon a Time in the Vest will continue to dwell on the past.

---

V5 N. 69 Larry Stuart Javelin Immortal R.I.P.

August 5, 2015, 10:26 am

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Larry Stuart, Russian Interpreter, and Blaine Lindgren ,  Moscow, 1963

Mike Solomon sent us this notice of the passing of Larry Stuart.   Larry was a lifelong world class competitor.  Twice came up short to make an Olympic team due to injuries and illness.  The link to his life story on Masters Track is well worth reading to know about a guy who loved the sport, could throw almost his entire life at world level, and who was not afraid to take umbrage with the administrators of the sport when they failed to do their jobs.   Wish I had known him, but his friends certainly make their feelings known in this tribute.  This picture we have of him came from US teammate Jim Allen from their European tour in 1963.


http://masterstrack.com/2015/06/36349/comment-page-1/#comment-469281

V. 5 N.70 Old Guys Are You Considering a Grand Canyon Run?

August 5, 2015, 1:35 pm

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Is a rim to rim run through the Grand Canyon on your agenda.  Read a few words from an old pro on his recent effort.    Jay Birmingham has been around several blocks in his running career.  He graduated from Wilmington College, a Quaker school in Southwest Ohio back in the 60s.  He's run Death Valley and also a run covering all 48 lower mainland states unassisted.  I joined him for about three miles of that run one day outside St. Marys, OH.   His 'help' was a credit card.

Anyway here is a recent correspondence between Jay and Steve Price concerning Jay's recent run on the Grand Canyon.

1980 Jay on steps of NYC  city hall upon completing his run across America

Jay is an old friend who was the second man to run across Death Valley. He was a student at Wilmington College and one of the early members of the Ohio River Roadrunners Club.......a great guy !

Steve Price

Sent from my iPad

Begin forwarded message:

From: Jay Birmingham
Subject: Grand Canyon

Corbitt was a beast!  I met him several times and he was instrumental in my 1980 Tran-America run as well as hosting me on my East Coast Run in 1982. He helped get me in touch with young Johnny Kelley in 1988 when I ran through CT before coming to Ohio that summer when you ran with me.

Grand Canyon kicked my butt but I got out of there with only leg cramps.  I doubt I will ever go across again unless I have someone carrying my gear/drinks.  The 7-mile descent from the south rim beat up my quads and the steps, hollowed out by mules, were gravelly and steep.  The middle 7 miles were gently uphill and I pushed hard (1500 feet elevation gain); but I was dead over the final 7 miles (4000 feet of climbing).  It was hot and the final altitude is around 8200 feet but I had trained all summer at 8800 so I think the leg cramps (biceps femoris and sartorius) were simple overuse.

I crossed in 1975, 1985, 1995, 2005, and now 2015 on my 70th birthday. 

Four days later, we were in Nebraska for a reunion of my 1994-2003 cross country teams at Dana College.  About 30 runners, their spouses, kids, and a few fans of our program made it a wonderful event for me.

Just got home to Florida to prepare for the start of the 2015 CC season at St. Johns Country Day, my 12th.  I teach anatomy and physiology and also am head track coach.  CC and track are the two largest teams at the small college preparatory school, graduating around 50-60 kids per year.  I have about 40 CC runners and 60 on the track team. 

 I hope to swing through there in June 2016 en route to a New England vacation.

Jay

More on Jay    http://www.badwater.com/blog/jay-birmingham-living-legend-of-badwater/


From Bob Roncker, Cincinnati, OH

"In August of 1978 Jay and I reunited in the mountains of Colorado and we both ran Pike’s Peak (I the ascent and Jay the full trip). He shared his tent space with me the evening prior to the race.  He had a running store in Jacksonville at the time.  Talking with him then re-triggered my desire to open a run specialty shop.  The ‘Rest of the Story’ is that Jay had some influence in the start of the Running Spot."

For those who don't know what 'the rest is history' refers to,  Bob went on to start and maintain one of the best independently owned running stores (several stores) in the country located in the Cincinnati metropolitain area.  He recently retired and sold the stores to a new owner.

V.5 N. 71 Bob Timmons R.I.P.

August 5, 2015, 3:56 pm

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This from the US Track and Field Coaches Association website

Courtesy: Kansas Athletics

August 5, 2015   

FROM KANSAS ATHLETICS:

LAWRENCE, Kan. – Legendary Kansas track & field and cross country coach Bob Timmons, who led his Jayhawk teams to four NCAA titles and 31 conference championships, passed away Tuesday evening at the age of 91. He is survived by his wife, Pat; children, Tammie, Beckie, Perkie and Dan, as well as two grandchildren.

Timmons served as the head coach of the Kansas track & field and cross country squad for 22 seasons from 1966-88. “Timmie’s” teams captured 13 Big Eight indoor titles, 14 outdoor titles and four cross country league titles. He led the Jayhawks to three NCAA indoor championships in 1966, 1969 and 1970. Timmons’ 1970 outdoor team tied for the national championship with Oregon, Brigham Young and Drake to give him four titles in five years. To this day, Timmons’ four NCAA Championships are the most among any head coach in Kansas Athletics’ history.

“The Kansas Track & Field family has lost a legendary figure in our history,” said current KU track & field head coach Stanley Redwine. “Coach Timmons led KU to unprecedented success during his time here and should be remembered, not only as a great coach, but as a great mentor as well. He continuously strived to set a standard of excellence that we fully recognize to this day. His contributions of our home cross country course of Rim Rock Farm also shows what a truly dedicated Jayhawk he was. Our thoughts are with Pat, their children and the rest of the Timmons family during this difficult time.”

“KU has lost a true treasure,” said Kansas Athletics Director Sheahon Zenger. “Coach Timmons was one of the all-time greats.  His legacy, though, does not end with championships and medals.  His real legacy is how much he cared about his student-athletes and the University of Kansas.”

Born in Joplin, Missouri, Timmons grew up in Pittsburg, Kansas, where he attended Pittsburg High School. He joined the Marines in 1943 and spent a year deployed in the South Pacific during WWII. Upon returning to the states Timmons turned his attention to coaching.

He began his career in track & field with the Jayhawks as a student manager and assistant coach starting in 1946 until he graduated in 1950. He worked and learned under another Kansas track & field coaching legend, Bill Easton, during his time as an undergrad, which ignited his love for coaching and mentoring young athletes. 

He spent eight years as a high school track, swimming and football coach, beginning his career at Caldwell High School in 1950 and also spending time at Emporia High School, Wichita West High School and Wichita East High School before returning to his alma mater in 1965. Timmons helped the Wichita East swimming program to prominence, enjoying eight-straight undefeated years in all competitions and boasting 52 individual state champions and seven state swimming titles. His high school teams also ran to four cross country crowns and six state track championships.

Timmons took over the Kansas program for the future Hall of Famer, Easton, in 1966 and continued to take the Jayhawk program to new heights over the next 22 years. In addition to all the team’s success, he oversaw the coaching and development of seven Olympians, 16 world record holders, 77 NCAA All-Americans and 24 NCAA Champions. Included on his highly impressive résumé, was being named the U.S. Track & Field Coach Association (USTFA) Coach of the Year in 1975 as well as being tabbed as the District V Coach of the Year in 11 of his 22 seasons at KU.

Timmons’ coaching career also included teaching one of the world’s best track athletes in Jim Ryun. Recruited to Kansas by Timmons, his former high school coach, Ryun emerged as one of the most iconic track athletes in American history. In 1964, at the age of 17, Ryun became the first high schooler to run a sub-four-minute mile. In fact, his high school mile mark of 3:55.3 stood for 31 years. With Timmons leading the way in Lawrence, Ryun put together a spectacular stint at KU from 1965 to 1969, he owned world records in the 880 yards, 1,500 meters and mile run and added an additional four American records during his time under Timmons. Ryun was a five-time NCAA champion and, to this day, still holds 13 Jayhawk school records.

He was also the main force behind the creation of one of the top cross country courses in the nation, the home of Kansas Cross Country, Rim Rock Farm. Timmons acquired the land to the north of Lawrence in the early 1970s and quickly turned it into the main home for his cross country squads by 1974. Even after his time at KU came to an end, Timmons remained the caretaker at Rim Rock Farm until he gifted it to the University in 2004. Rim Rock has been the host site for some of the top meets in the nation and the region as it hosted the 1998 NCAA DI and DII Cross Country Championships, 2006 and 2014 Big Championships, numerous Kansas State High School Championships, as well as the upcoming NCAA Midwest Regional Championships in November.

Timmons handed off the reins of the KU track program in 1988, but continued to maintain his close ties to the team. He remained a loyal supporter at Jayhawk home meets and continued to make appearances at the Kansas Relays for many years after his retirement.

In 2011, Timmons became the 11th Jayhawk to be inducted into the National Track & Field Hall of Fame. Along with the National Track & Field Hall of Fame, Timmons is also a member of the Kansas Athletics Hall of Fame, the Kansas Relays Hall of Fame, the Drake Relays Hall of Fame, the Kansas Sports Hall of Fame, the Kansas High School Activities Association Hall of Fame and the U.S. Track & Field and Cross Country Coaches of America (USTFCCCA) Hall of Fame.

Services for Bob Timmons are pending.

Bob Timmons and his wife Pat

From Bill Stone

"I am deeply saddened by the news of Coach Timmons' passing.  He was a great man and a dear friend. I owe him much.  He took a skinny little kid and made him a runner. In the 1957-58 school year, under the Timmons regimen, Wichita East won both the state championship in cross country and in track. That was my senior year and my only year to run on the track team and second year to run cross country.  I won the 880 in record time but was disappointed that I had missed his pointed time for me which was one second faster. He knew how to get the most out of his athletes as many can testify. He taught me the benefits of discipline, hard work, setting goals, and humility that were of great value to me during my lifetime. I remember well how after winning the state track championship we urged him to accept the trophy. He would have none of it. He said it was our trophy and we alone earned it.  We finally relented but each of us knew that we would not be celebrating had he not been our coach.

When it came to choosing a college I narrowed it down to KU and OSU.  I sought coach Timmons counsel knowing that he was a KU alum.  He was impartial in helping me through the process and I ended up choosing Oklahoma State. There is no doubt that had he gone to KU at that time I would have chosen KU.  In the summers during my college years we spent several evenings together at his home and would talk running, coaching, academics, and life in general.  To say that he had a huge impact on my life would be an understatement.

My wife Toni and I offer our sincere condolences to Pat and the family.  We will all miss him but remember him well."

Bill(y) Stone

From New York Times,  August 5, 2015

Bob Timmons, 91, a Demanding Coach Who Developed a Star Runner, Is Dead

By FRANK LITSKYAUG. 5, 2015

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Bob Timmons, a former wartime Marine whose rugged brand of coaching helped Jim Ryun become America’s most celebrated mile runner of the 1960s, died on Tuesday in Lawrence, Kan. He was 91.

The University of Kansas announced his death on its website.

Timmons was the university’s track and cross-country head coach from 1965 to 1988, winning four N.C.A.A. titles and 15 Big Eight titles and nurturing a stellar roster of athletes who broke 16 world records and won seven Olympic berths.

None of his charges were as celebrated as Ryun, a tall, gangly Kansan who loomed over his 5-foot-4 coach. Ryun ran in three Olympics and became a world-record holder in the 880-yard and 1,500-meter events.

Timmons had earlier coached him at Wichita East High School in Kansas, where, in 1963, Ryun made the team as a 16-year-old sophomore after failing to make his junior high school track squad.

In his first meet, Ryun ran the mile in 4 minutes 32 seconds. By his fourth, his time was down to 4:21, and Timmons told him he had the potential to become the first high school runner to better the magic goal of four minutes.

Photo

A year later Ryun did just that, running the mile in 3:59.0. A year after that, he won the Amateur Athletic Union national championship in 3:55.3. The fastest time of his career was 3:51.1, in 1967, a world record that lasted almost nine years.

Timmons practiced a kind of tough but exuberant discipline that harked back to his three years in the Marines, when he fought in the South Pacific during World War II.

“Bob Timmons was probably the most demanding track coach of all time, pushing his runners to the brink — propelling some to greatness and others to the scrap heap,” the magazine Runner’s World wrote in 2009. The article went on to say, “To succeed in his program, you had to trust that the upbeat drill sergeant knew your body better than you did.”

Timmons once dropped an athlete from his college team for drinking beer in the off-season. He once sent a team captain home from a national championship meet because he had not shaved.

But in midcareer Timmons relaxed the reins, concluding that he had been using outdated standards.

“I used a sport to sell a way of life,” he told Track & Field News in 1973. “I’m feeling I can’t make a contribution to the life of the athlete anymore, that I can’t change them; they’re too old and mature. So we’re winning, but I feel like a failure. I can’t cope with what I see.

“But when you come down to it, the problem was me. I had to get out of coaching or change.”

He told his athletes of his problem, and he changed.

Robert Leroy Timmons was born on June 20, 1924, in Joplin, Mo., and raised in Pittsburg, Kan. He earned bachelor’s and master’s degrees in physical education from Kansas.

He coached Kansas high school teams in track, cross-country and swimming for 14 years. One high school swimmer, Jeff Farrell, went on to win two gold medals in the 1960 Olympics.

Timmons became the University of Kansas’ freshman track coach in 1964, and a year later, after a brief stint as Oregon State’s coach, he returned to Kansas as head coach. In addition to Ryun, he coached such outstanding athletes as the sprinters Cliff Wiley and Mark Lutz, the Olympic javelin thrower Sam Colson, the Olympic pole-vaulters Jan Johnson and Terry Porter, and the high jumper Tyke Peacock. Seventy-seven of his athletes were N.C.A.A. all-Americans.

After retiring from Kansas, Timmons became an artist, a sculptor and a high school track and volleyball coach. He gave the University of Kansas his 96-acre farm outside Lawrence, Rim Rock Farm, as its cross-country course. (Ryun went on to serve in Congress, from 1996 to 2007, as a Republican representing a Kansas district.)

Timmons is survived by his wife, Pat; a son, Dan; three daughters, Rebecca, Priscilla and Susan, known as Tammie; and two grandchildren, the university said.

Timmons felt he might be remembered as a hard-line coach. But Candace Dunback, who oversees the University of Kansas Hall of Fame, once said: “He’s expressed regret to me about being too hard. He felt Jim Ryun could handle it, but not everyone was Jim.”

Ryun had no regrets. “There were those who didn’t make it under the Timmons program,” he said, “but the larger number of us did and became not just better athletes but, more importantly, better human beings.”

V. 5 N. 72 1965 AAU Championships

August 7, 2015, 3:13 pm

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1965 AAU Championships

     The war between the AAU and the NCAA has diluted the quality of competition in the AAU championships in San Diego. The NCAA has threatened to take scholarships from college athletes who compete in this meet and so, with the notable exception of Gerry Lindgren, those with remaining eligibility are staying away. For the US this is cutting off one's nose to spite one's face as this is the meet which will decide the team to compete against the Russians in another month.

In a case of sticking the knife in and twisting it, after the meet NCAA president Everett Barnes says that the NCAA rules do not permit this sanction. Just kidding guys. But the damage has been done. This is not to say that US team is mortally wounded. Indeed the winning marks in every event exceed those in last week's NCAA championship. Two world records and three national records are tossed into the dust bin tonight.

Ed Burke

     Ed Burke is improving rapidly in the hammer throw. He has been closing in on Hal Connolly's world record and today throws 224-5, good, excellent in fact, but not enough to top the unretired Connolly who beats his own listed WR of 231-10 by three inches, but doesn't match the yet to be ratified 233-9 he threw last week.

Hal Connolly

Ed Burke profile   Click Here  He threw for many years as a Master.

     The other world record excites the crowd more, as it may be the greatest distance race ever run. Billy Mills is the Olympic 10,000 meter champion, a hero of the highest order. His competition tonight is the squeaky voiced 19 year old whom Cordner Nelson calls “probably the most popular track athlete in the United States”, Gerry Lindgren. The fact that he is defying the NCAA to run in this meet and qualify for the meet with the Soviet Union only adds to his popularity.

     Mills is confident that he can break Ron Clarke's six miles record of 27:17.6. Indeed he would like to run a bit longer and break Clarke's 10,000 meter record of 28:14.0 while he is at it. Would that be possible? No, there isn't enough time to measure the additional 376 yards. When Mill's made his request  is unclear, but if it were any time other than when the runners are at the starting line, this is just one of the many egregious errors and omissions made by the officials this weekend.

     

     The race is simple. Mills leads, Lindgren hangs on and everyone else gets lapped. Through the miles they go: 4:29, 9:04 (4:35), 13:40 (4:36). Occasionally Lindgren tries to lead but Mills is on a mission and quickly takes over again. His primary goal is the record, not the win. He has to take the chance of a fast pace taking its toll. The track is a hard all weather substance and Mill's feet are blistering.

     Another 4:36 mile puts them at 18:16. To break Clarke's record they will have to run 9:00 for the last two miles. On the backstretch Lindgren once again moves to the front only to have Mills take the lead back on the next straight. The next two laps go off in 2:15.5, near the necessary pace to get the record.

     Now the crowd is sensing that the record is within grasp. But who do you root for? If you want Mills to win, that means you want Lindgren to lose. If you pull for Lindgren, then you want Mills to lose. The crowd doesn't want either of them to lose.

After the race Mills says, “I thought Gerry was going to drop out after four and a half miles. I hadn't run against him for a long time and I had forgotten that his wheezy breathing is his natural way. “

     Indeed, wheezing and all, Lindgren does not drop out. The following two laps go off in 69, leaving them at 22:50. Now a 4:27 mile is needed. The pace doesn't quicken on the next two go arounds. Are they gathering for the final drive or is this nature taking its course? Now the last half mile will have to go off in 2:10. Mills is the Olympic champion. The force of will he exhibited in Tokyo is still in his repertoire. The pace increases to 66 on the penultimate lap but the kid is still there. Cordner Nelson writes, “The crowd is near hysteria”.

     On the backstretch Lindgren tries to go around but Mills holds him off and they race, shoulder to shoulder around the final curve and into the straight. Inch by inch Mills pulls ahead. With 40 yards to go he leads by a foot and there he stays. They hit the tape virtually joined at the hip. The last lap has been run in 58.0 for Mills, 57.9 for Lindgren.

     On the Bulova timer Mills has won by .06 of a second, but the official time is recorded in tenths so both are credited with 27:11.6. Clarke's record has been broken by six seconds and both Mills and Lindgren are in the new record holders. Mills' margin of victory is less than that of the winner of any other race in this meet. From the photo, it almost looks that if Lindgren had a sprinter's lean in his bag of tricks, he might have won. The crowd has its wish. There is no loser. The 15,320 in attendance this evening have seen one of the great moments in the history of track and field.

     We alluded to inefficient officiating. The 440 provides a couple of good examples. In their heats Don Owens and Lynn Saunders both finish in lanes inside those in which they started. Apparently officials were too busy doing something else to notice. This act also begs the question, how do you get confused as to which lane you are in?

     To compound things, the officials screw up the starting time of the final as well. The race is scheduled for 6:45 but for some unexplained reason has been moved up to 6:00 causing Theron Lewis, the favorite off his 45.8 in the semis, to miss his usual rub down and rush his warm up. Even so, Lewis is off fast and leading into the final curve before the bear jumps on his back. Don Owens sweeps by and appears on his way to victory before being collared by Ollan Cassell who beats him to the tape by a tenth in 46.1. Saunders and Lewis finish third and fourth in 46.4. This is Cassell's second AAU championship. He won the 220 eight years ago.

     The official gaffes mentioned so far are only the warm ups for the big one in the steeplechase. Apparently the official calling out lap times is using a watch with a 30 second face because the times he gives are 30 seconds off. This is but a bump in the road compared to the error that follows. As the leader, George Young, nears the finish line with a lap to go, the official holding the lap cards holds up “2”. Then, after Young is 20 yards past, the gun signaling the start of the last lap is fired. Young, already confused by the nonsensical lap times, suffers a 'what the hell?' moment. What lap am I on? He crosses the finish line in 8:50.6 but keeps going. The rest of the field, seeing the best steeplechaser in the country continuing to run, follows along. No one, officials, spectators nor the announcer, knows what is happening. Fred Best, who places third in 8:52.4, says, ”That final lap was the most grueling thing I have had to do in track”. For those keeping track, Young runs 66.4 on his last lap to establish a world record of 9:59.0 for the newly established approximately 3400 meter steeplechase.

     To explain the mile race this evening we have to go back nearly two weeks to June 15 when, in Vancouver, Peter Snell is on the first stop of his retirement tour. The crowd is expecting big things. They get them, but not from the three time Olympic champion. Snell has been sick with gastritis, an inflammation of the intestinal tract. The crowd doesn't know this so it is shocked when Snell finishes last in 4:15.4. Forgetting this 'aside from that, Mrs. Lincoln, how did you enjoy the play?' feeling, the 13,891 spectators are treated to an American record. Jim Grelle goes through the 1320 in 3:00.2 and lights up the last lap to finish in 3:55.4, breaking Jim Beatty's US standard by a tenth. After the race Grelle says, “I honestly believe that I could have run 3:53 if the east turn hadn't been so soggy. It was like running through a mud flat”. Less upbeat is Snell who says, “It will take a long time for me to get over the shame of running last. Believe me, I was doing my best.”

     Both Snell and Grelle are here tonight. So are the precocious high school record holder, Jim Ryun, and Czechoslovakia's Olympic 1500 silver medalist, Josef Odlozil. Cary Weisiger and Harry McCalla set the pace for 2½ laps but then the veteran Odlozil makes a break and opens up five yards. But when the gun sounds at 3:00.2, the field has closed. Traditionally in Snell's races, the field respects the king and waits until he kicks before doing so themselves. This has never been an effective strategy. Tonight the group's  least experienced member throws down the gauntlet early. Jim Ryun breaks past Grelle and Odlozil at the start of the backstretch. He is not flat out but he is in position to respond when the challenge comes.  It comes soon enough. New national record holder Grelle comes up on the impertinent youngster's shoulder at the end of the straight and around the turn they come, shoulder to shoulder, with Snell in close contact. Grelle can't get by as the extra distance caused by running outside takes its toll and he drops back ever so slightly. Ryun enters the straight with a two yard lead but he has to be looking for Snell out of the corner of his eye. Sure enough, the Olympic champion is on the move. He is on Grelle's shoulder and slowly the two gain on the tiring Ryun. Thirty yards from the tape Grelle loses momentum. Not Snell, he keeps gaining but not fast enough. The 18 year old Ryun wins his first national championship and takes Grelle's 12 day old record by a tenth in 3:55.3. Snell finishes in 3:55.4, a tenth ahead of Grelle. Odlozil is a well beaten fourth in 3:57.7. Last laps: Ryun 53.9, Snell 54.2, Grelle 54.8.

See the race start to finish   Click here

     As soon as they finish Snell puts his arm around Ryun's shoulders, maybe a passing of the crown gesture. He says, “Ryun's got it – the quality that goes to make a champion. He ran a perfect tactical race. I gambled on the sprint. I was not able to explode like I used to.” Ryun, never very talkative, says, “I wasn't surprised at the time. I thought 3:55 was within my capabilities.”

     It would be unreasonable to expect another race this evening to provide the excitement and historic significance of the mile and six mile. But in the words of Cordner Nelson, the three mile qualifies. He says, “This was one of the three or four best distance races ever run in this country.”

     Ron Larrieu leads a pack of five though the mile in 4:23.0. He is followed closely by 5000 Olympic champion Bob Schul, lanky Neville Scott of New Zealand, four minute miler Bill Dotson and unheralded Lloyd Burson of Western New Mexico. On the next lap Burson has to let go. Dotson drops off the pace a lap later. Larrieu continues to force the tempo. Two miles is reached in 8:50.6. The next two laps slow to 68 and 69. With a half mile left Scott takes over and runs 64.8.

     In this situation a year ago Schul's devastating kick would give him the advantage but he has been fighting injuries and is admittedly not in top shape. No one, not even Schul himself, knows what he has left. Larrieu isn't waiting to find out. A long drive is his best shot. Around Scott he goes. Down the backstretch he is pulling away. At the start of the curve he has a four yard lead and appears to be on his way to victory. It is time for Schul to find out what kind of kick he has, definitely a “feets don't fail me now” moment. He tries to go by Scott on the inside, a move which requires some shoving, but he is successful. With Larrieu in his sights, he goes to the afterburners. The Olympic champ still has the lethal kick. He moves easily past the courageous Larrieu and wins in 13:10.4, taking Larrieu's American record in the process. Scott also nips Larrieu, taking second in 13:10.8, a personal best by 5.6 seconds. Larrieu equals his former AR in third in 13:11.4.

Larrieu, Schul, and Bolotnikov later in the summer

     Only Ron Clarke, Michel Jazy and Murray Halberg have run faster than tonight's trio who are now 4-5-6 on the all time list. Even though Larrieu equals his previous best, he falls from fourth to sixth on the list. Schul says, “I am pleased with my time, but not surprised. I am beginning to get in shape.”

     George Anderson edges Darel Newman in the 100, 9.3 to 9.4, as both make the US team. Recently unretired Adolph Plummer demonstrates his old man strength to young Jim Hines, coming from a yard down at the top of the straight to win the 220, 20.6 to 20.7

     On Friday Ralph Boston and Darrell Horn go 1-2 in the long jump, 26-3 ½ and 25-5 ½, to make the team against the Russians. Horn is back the next day and appears on his way to victory in the triple jump when Art Walker puts it together on his fifth jump, bounding 53-1 to win by nearly two feet. Horn holds on for second and has the distinction of being the only member of the US team to qualify for the Russian dual in two events.  
art walker   
Click here for some silent video of Walker and his "all over the runway" technique along with some other more stylish jumpers.

     With no Al Oerter in the discus competition, Czech world record holder, Ludvik Danek dukes it out with the rapidly improving Jay Silvester, throwing 205-7 to win by three feet. Dave Weill is third at 191-0 but, as the second American, he is on the team.

Ludvig Danek

     Morgan Groth opted for the mile in the NCAA meet, but today he is back in his specialty, the half mile. He wins his heat. So do Seton Hall's George Germann and San Diego area JC frosh, Bob Hose. More likely his competition will come from NCAA champion and Olympian Tom Farrell plus veterans Ted Nelson, Darnell Mitchell, Dave Perry and Frank Tomeo.

     Tomeo leads through the quarter with Hose and Groth close. Groth pulls alongside on the backstretch. On the curve Tomeo falls back. Now Groth is in control. Farrell is ready to make his move. He pulls up on Groth's shoulder, ready to unleash his trademark kick. Groth turns and looks Farrell in the eye then demonstrates that he has one more gear left, pulling away for a clear win in 1:47.7. Farrell can't answer and indeed runs out of gas ten yards from the tape where his friend, Germann edges by to take second and a place on the team in 1:48.0. Though Germann had finished fourth in the NCAA meet in 1:49.2, his best two weeks ago had been 1:51.2. Germann is torn. He is delighted with his performance, but he is disappointed that his buddy hasn't made the team.

Tom Farrell back then

Tom Farrell toay working with St. Johns runners.  Note the runner with cell phone paying close attention.

     High jump veterans Otis Burrell and Ed Carruthers take the two spots on the American team with 7-0 clearances. Bill McClellon also clears seven feet but is third on misses. He can't be too disappointed. This is his first 7-0 jump and he is 17 years old. Time is on his side.

     Willie Davenport and Blaine Lindgren hurdle 13.6 and 13.7 each adding another US uniform to his collection. Olympic champ Rex Cawley holds off rapidly improving Jeff Vanderstock in the intermediates 50.3 to 50.7. Both will be on the plane to Russia.

     John Pennel joins Hal Connolly and Adoph Plummer in a successful return from retirement. After seven months of “doing nothing”, he dominates the pole vault with a clearance of 17-0 in just the seventh time he as vaulted since returning to the event.

John McGrath

Dave Maggard

     John McGrath wins the shot put at 63-0. Dave Maggard is second at 62-3 but it is unlikely he will be on the US team. That spot will go to Randy Matson who only has to prove he is healthy to make the team. There is no reason given for his absence, but since he also missed the NCAA meet, we are guessing he has been injured.

Next up: the doings of Jazy, Keino and Clarke in Europe. Stay tuned.

V5 N. 73 A Few More R.I.P.s to Report

August 9, 2015, 11:11 am

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Ernie Cunliffe sent this information along to us, a few of whom we've already recognized.  New to us are Benjamin Garcia,  Sharon Marie Callahan (McKinff), Evelyn Furtsch (Ojeda), and Dave Rodda.

Benjamin B. “Benny” Garcia (1933 - 2015)

Obituary Guest  View Sign Benny Garcia was born in La Luz, New Mexico on July 31, 1933. He died peacefully at home from complications of Parkinson's Disease on Feb. 13, 2015, with his loving wife of 58 years, JoAnn, at his side. Benny excelled at sports at Alamogordo High School. He was a member of the 1950 AHS State Championship football team. The team was coached by Rolla Buck, and some of his teammates included Byron Caton, Gus Najera, Bobby Lee, Sato Lee, Ignacio Cedillos and Bobby Fritz. Benny also excelled at track and field, where he set the New Mexico state record for javelin in 1951. Benny received a track scholarship to Arizona State University, where he continued to throw the javelin for four years. Thereafter, he became a member of the 1956 United States Olympic Team. He competed in Melbourne, Australia, where he placed eighth in javelin. Benny served honorably in the U.S. Navy. He was an avid handball player and golfer.

Benjamin Benny Garcia 1956 team.  Died Feb 15th 2015, age 81. Listed at 8th in Javelin, but my Olympic
book does not show him in the top 8 and in fact it appears he had no mark on his 3 qualifying throws.

Sharon Marie Callahan ( McKniff ) 1968 team
Died April 30th 2015 age 63.  High Jump.  Made team at a 16  year old. Did not place.


Evelyn Furtsch (Ojeda) 1932 team.(this is correct as she was 101 when she died. Gold medal in
4 x 100 relay with a World Record of 46.9 . Died March 5th, 2015.

Dave Rodda .  Assistant Coach 1980 and 1988.  

Lots more info in the magazine but I figure you would do research in Google or Olympian List of Athletes

to keep the post short since there are so many.  (Ernie,  I did find this additional one on Roy Griak, gb)

Roy GRIAK

Obituary |  Condolences |  Gallery

Age 91, of Plymouth Passed away peacefully at home on July 9 surrounded by his adoring family. Roy is survived by his love, Kay Richardson; sons Seth (Monica) and Jason (Nikki White); grandchildren Matt, Leah and Vincent; sister Dolly; nieces and nephews; and many, many athletes and friends. Preceded in death by beloved mother Mildred, father Milan, brother Steve and sister Kay. Roy graduated from Morgan Park High School in Duluth (1942). Always a patriot, Roy proudly served his country in the U.S. Army Infantry duringWorld War II (1944-1946) in the South Pacific. When he returned home, he said he was returning to paradise. Roy earned a bachelor's degree in education (1949) and master's degree (1950) from the University of Minnesota, where he earned letters in both cross country and track & field. He started his teaching and coaching career in 1950 at Nicollet High School, followed by Mankato Public Schools and St. Louis Park High School. At St. Louis Park (1952-1963), his cross country team won two State titles (1955, 1961) and his track & field team won three State titles (1958, 1962, 1963). Roy became the men's cross country and track & field coach at the University of Minnesota in 1963, where he led the Golden Gophers for 33 years (1963-1996) and worked as an administrative assistant from 1996 until the time of his death, totaling 52 years of service to the U of M. He led the Gophers to Big Ten cross country titles in 1964 and 1969. His 1968 cross country team finished second at the Big Ten meet and placed fourth at the NCAA Championships. He led the 1968 track & field team to a Big Ten championship. He coached a total of 49 cross country and track & field All-Americans, including three NCAA champions, and his athletes earned 61 Big Ten Conference individual titles. Roy served on coaching staffs for more than 10 U.S. international teams, including the 1972 Olympic games in Munich and head manager of the 1980 and 1984 U.S. Olympic track & field teams. He was inducted into the Drake Relays Coaches Hall of Fame in 1993, the University of Minnesota `M' Club Hall of Fame in 1996 and the U.S. Track & Field and Cross Country Coaches Association Hall of Fame in 2001. In 1996, Minnesota honored Roy by naming the nation's largest annual cross country meet after him. More important than the championships and accolades is the impact Roy had on everyone in his life. Roy had an amazing ability to make everyone feel important. His smile was contagious and genuine. The ripple effect of his influence will be felt for generations. Roy's spirit lives on in the hearts of those who knew him. Visitation 5pm-8pm on Tuesday, July 21 at Washburn-McReavy, 50th Street & Hwy. 100, Edina and service at 12 noon on Wednesday, July 22, with visitation one hour prior at Mount Olivet Lutheran Church, 5025 Knox Ave. S., Minneapolis. Private family interment at Oneota Cemetery in Duluth. Memorials preferred to the Roy Griak Endowed Scholarship Fund for Track & Field at the U of M.

Published in Pioneer Press on July 12, 2015

V. 5 N. 74 Extreme and Dumb Workouts or Extremely Dumb Workouts

August 10, 2015, 9:46 am

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In private emails some of our readers have been sharing  the stupid stuff we did for workouts back in the day.   Certainly a lot less was known about training, and we operated on the whims of coaches not trained in our specific events, or we tried to out do each other when we heard about workouts some other kid did.   I'm encouraging you to share some of those foolish episodes in your careers.  We all did it.   You can post on the comments section below, or you can send me your experiences directly to irathermediate@gmail.com.   Just label your email as 'dumb workouts' so I'll know they are not spam.     Here is the correspondence that gave me the idea for this post.   This weekend I backed out of a 6Km mountain run which is the last leg of the Gutbuster series here on Vancouver Island.

I

On Sat, Aug 8, 2015 at 11:24 PM, George Brose <irathermediate@gmail.com> wrote:

Hope you're not waiting with 'baited breath' to learn of the results of the 6km mountain trail run I did today,

 cause I didn't do it.   Daughter Dominique talked me out of it reminding me what a hard time I had on a 10km
 mountain race last fall.  This one is a lot steeper and it's the downhill that had her concerned.  Lots of softball
 and football sized rocks and a test of strength for old knees and quads.  Plus it was pissing here this morning.
   Instead she convinced me to do a 'hike' on another mountain,  This was only 10 miles round trip, but enough
 of a challenge that I took two Aleve's this evening and glad I didn't do the race.   Friday I had a nice bike ride
 almost twenty miles averaging a little over 20 mph plus a stop at the track for a warmup and 3 x200 meters to
 see what kind of a pace I could hold,  48 sec. is the answer to that, so I think I'm coming around with the 
speed again.  But definitely not the mountain stuff.  

Take care,

George

 I  saw the video on that mountain, so good call to avoid it.

3 x 200 (48) at 72 years of age.  Not bad.  That reminds me of when I ran 10 x 200 (26) with Mike Ryan, my 

best-ever 200 workout.  1 x 200 (48) would be acceptable today.

pdscott@woh.rr.com	2:16 PM (19 hours ago)

One night when I did not feel like dancing in bars on Vine St. in Cincinnati my roomate bet me a Larosa pizza

 I could not run 100x100m with a 100m jog. I did it ! But next day I looked like a ruptured duck that had a 

failed hemorrhoid surgery walking to class.

Bruce Kritzler	2:26 PM (19 hours ago)

Phil,

Reminds me of a pole vaulter telling me about taking part in a Masters' Thesis experiment.
The thesis was testing out the new Puma Brush Spikes (1969) compared to regular spikes.
They only had to run 50x50 in each of the shoes, a week apart. But he said it took the full
week before his legs felt anywhere near normal.

Bruce

George Brose	3:25 PM (18 hours ago)

Once back in 1963 or 64 we were running poorly in XC and Jack Daniels' team at Okla City U.  kicked our tea sipping 

asses.   Daniels told our coach, Bill Carroll that  he had his guys train up to being able to run twenty miles before the 

season even started.   Bill decided to play catch up and on a Tuesday he drove our team out on the Interstate in a Jeep

 and an old ammunition trailer  20 miles from the campus.  Left us out on the median and said, 'Head on home boys'.  

No water, old thin soled canvas shoes, most of us no socks.  Eight miles was my longest run prior to that.  Seemed like

 a good idea at the time.  It was late Sept. probably still in the mid 80's.  Cars zipping by above the 80mph speed limit.

  We could see the high rises on the campus from the moment we started.  After about 10 miles it no longer seemed 

like a good idea, but we all made it home.  We weren't right the rest of the season.   I think I slept through my 8:00 am

 class next morning and had to run 50 times up the stadium steps at 5:00 AM the next day as punishment meted out by

 the academic advisor, Porter G. Robertson, cousin or brother to the actor Dale Robertson. His favorite line when talking to

a new freshman was,  "Know what I like about you, boy?   Nothin'.  

  Them were the days.

Wilfred Schnier	5:14 PM (16 hours ago)

Phil,

   Not so smart but still quite a workout.  Hats off to you and your effort and your pizza.

   In my second year of T&F, I was trying to peak at the end of the season and understood I needed speed work.  I was 

at Franklin Park in Columbus with a shot putter and planned to run 10 x 100 (not 100 x 100).  I gave him a 50 yd. lead 

and tried to catch him.  Well, that was not possible.  Little by little I whittled his lead down to where it would be just 

about a tie, but each of the 100s was all out.  That was on Sunday and our big race with rival Otterbein was on 

Tuesday.  On Monday I could hardly walk and on Tuesday during the day it was better but not much better.  By race

time I had never been more confident but never more rigid.  I was as flexible as the presidents on Mt. Rushmore.   

 Nevertheless, it workout out pretty well inasmuch as I won the race and set a track record.  Fortunately, I never made 

that mistake again.    Bill

Bruce Kritzler	9:58 PM (11 hours ago)

Phil,

100x100 = 50 laps if done on the track, about 12.5 miles. Is that your longest workout ever? I hope you didn't wear 

spikes.

training techniques for beer mile

Whether this qualifies for idiocy or stupidity, I'm not sure.  No one has died running a beer mile.
Maybe the distance should be upped or should I say urped?   One 'p' or two in 'urped' 'urpped'?

I will add this workout without naming names.
A friend in Ohio will do a 12 hours shift as an ER doctor and then she will finish it off with a twenty miler.  I think that she has done some crazier ones than that, but I'll let her tell us.  She also got trampled by a horse and ended up with a crushed sternum and walked back several miles to a road to get help.  But I think that is survival not stupidity.


Back to Back 220's

Back in the mid 60s at Oklahoma U.  Billy Calhoun of Dayton, OH was a two time indoor 440 yard champ.  He may have shared the title once with Theron Lewis.   Billy was the first guy to break 50 sec. on OU's notoriously cold indoor track "Pneumonia Downs" with a 48.6.    Talk about stud.

Billy never ran in the NCAA outdoors, because he returned home to work at the GM plant in Dayton to support his family.  

He was not shy about hard workouts on the track.   One day we timed him at 9.9 seconds for  100 yards on our slow soft cinders.  This was from a stand up position without the benefit of blocks.  He then went on to do a set of 'back to back' 220s.  This was done by running a 220 flat out in the neighborhood of 22 sec. or better.  As soon as the runner stopped he went straight back to the line and did another.  We're talking less than 15 seconds rest.  Usually that ended the workout.
GB

V5. N. 75 Three Articles Worth Your Time

August 11, 2015, 10:33 am

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Today  trackandfieldnews.com   has listed three articles from other agencies covering major track and field issues that are worth your time to read.  I'm listing the three  below and hope you have time to look at them.  They are written as far as I can tell by full time journalists who have the time and resources to go out and get info and put it on paper in a timely and succinct manner.

The articles are as follows:

1.
Calvin Coolige's Ghost: Nick Symmonds' Spirit Animal

This comes from Wire Sports written by Alan Abrahamson and looks at the Symmonds story of being left off the US team for Beijing WC from a different point of view.  It disagrees with the current reporting on CBS and Symmonds' own story,that USATF is only sharing 8% of their revenue with athletes.  It also disagrees with some of Nick's statements about the current situation.

2.IAAF have to understand why the public doesn't trust them and it's up to the new president to restore trust  by Nick Butler on Inside the Games published Aug. 10, 2015.   In this article, Butler provides a rather pessimistic view on the world body and its future.  Presidential election next week to decide on Coe or Bubka as the new leader.  Good luck.



3. Conte Says Coverup Protected Big Stars at Seoul Games  by Ed Odeven staff writer for The Japan Times.   This article is by far the most interesting although the title would make you think it is not timely.   However it is an interview with Victor Conte , ex-con (4 months) and former director of BALCO the testosterone provider to a number of well known athletes.  Apparently he has been asked to be a consultant to help weed out the cheaters (It takes one to know one?) by none other than Dick Pound the Canadian who was a co-founder of the World Anti Doping Agency (WADA).  When Pound took Conte's ideas to the present director of WADA, the idea was rejected.   Odeven quotes Conte indicating that WADA is as corrupt as the cheaters and was only created to protect sponsor investment in the sport.  It would not benefit the sport for a mass scandal to erupt.  It in fact would be a death knell.     Anyway, take a read and draw your own conclusions.  It also explains in layman's terms some of the testing procedures and use of data from past tests to nail cheaters.

4.Nick Symmonds, Another View by Sports Illustrated by Tim Laydon

A number of readers have expressed concern that the article by Alan Abrahamson was biased against Nick Symmonds, so we have added this article by Tim Laydon writing for Sports Illustrated.


The following comment appeared on 3 Wire Sports  website in response to Alan Abrahamson's piece.

New comment on 3 Wire Sports

susie b commented on Calvin Coolidge's ghost: Nick Symmonds' spirit animal?. in response to Alan Abrahamson: The business of America, Calvin Coolidge once said memorably, is business. Who knew that the ghost of Calvin Coolidge might be Nick Symmonds’ spirit animal? It’s all well and good that Symmonds, the middle-distance runner and provocateur CEO of Nick Symmonds LLC, wants to make money for Nick Symmonds. No quarrel there of any sort. […] I have long enjoyed reading your Olympic writings & especially this site. You have entertained & informed; to what all journalists should aspire. I especially loved the recent posts at the Swimming World Championships (Go Katie!). However, if I had never read your writing before & not know that you truly are very knowledgeable about Olympic sports, the IOC & the politics that pervade it, & the various sport organizations, I would think (based on this one piece) you are either a USATF official or paid spokesman for Nike. Very disappointing. I just read Tim Layden’s piece on SI.com & it is more informative & unbiased. You are better than this article. It’s so one-sided that I’m tempted to believe you wrote this ala ‘First Take’ – merely to get eyeballs & cause a ruckus. At the very least, I would like to see an article from you about the increasingly precarious financial structure of “professional” Track & Field, at least partly because of the increasing monopoly of Nike. And while I’m asking – I would also love an in-depth piece on WHY 99% of the “doping” stories in the mainstream media focus on athletes in the “poor” sports of cycling & Track & Field & almost NONE on the truly lucrative pro sports (the ‘Big 3’ in America, European soccer, boxing). Is it remotely feasible that athletes who could be paid tens & hundreds of MILLIONS of dollars to excel in their profession NOT be doping as much as those struggling for thousands? Why is it that the pro sports with the worst financial structures & the least amount of athlete power (i.e. no unions) be constantly thrust into the “DOPER/CHEATER/LIAR!” morality play that’s been “running” nonstop “off-Broadway” going on 3 decades while the highest paid pro athletes are barely tested & when they do actually get caught, are given slaps on the wrist & not a whimper of “cheater/liar!” is heard by their team’s fans? Don’t get me wrong – I would love to know that all sports I watch are competed by athletes on truly level playing grounds. What I cannot abide is the vastly different dope-testing procedures & penalties among all professional sports. AND the hypocrisy of the fans who denigrate some but discount or ignore completely the same transgressions by others.

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V 5 N. 76 Nick Symmonds Affair Goes on Change.org

August 12, 2015, 9:05 pm

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Nick Symmonds on Change.org

Yesterday and today we posted stories on the Nick Symmonds affair vis a vis his being left of the US team for the World Track and Field Championships by USATF due to his refusal to sign an agreement to wear only the official team clothing at non-competition functions during the period of the World Championships in Beijing.   Whether an athlete representing the US in international competition can wear clothing of his personally contracted sponsor in non-track venues is under question here.  Athletes' independence to contract and represent companies other than the 'official team sponsor' is at stake here, and I am sure many of you have already formed an opinion.   

Nick has posted a petition asking for your  support of his views on the website Change.org.   If you wish to support Nick you can click directly on the caption above and sign the petition.   You can also chose to ignore the petition.  We are putting this out to you, because of some of the strong opinions that have been expressed to us in the past 24 hours.  

Please be aware that after voting,  Change.org may/will  try to hit you up for a donation, but that is not necessary to do to get your vote out.  There is also a block to make a comment on the subject.

That comment will not appear on our blog, but may be accessible to the public through Change.org's site.  Also once you vote for a cause on that site, you will more than likely receive future petitions for other causes.  To avoid these you will have to look at the bottom of any email coming from Change.org to where you can 'unsubscribe' from further emails from them.

Not knowing all of the facts in the case, we are not advocating a position at this time, but feel it is of use to make a venue available to our readers to let the parties concerned in this matter know what the track world is thinking.

GB

V 5 N. 77 Jazy, Clarke, and Keino

August 15, 2015, 3:42 pm

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You will be able to find a lot of enrichment points with this one, George. Steve caught some huge mistakes, a real game changer.   

JAZY, CLARKE AND KEINO

Our usual focus is on track in the good old US of A, but what transpired in Europe this summer bears a mention.

Consider this. On January 1, 1965 the world record holder at 5000 meters was Vladimir Kuts of the Soviet Union. He set the record 13:35.0 in 1957. For seven years it remained unbroken.

Just over six months later, July 6 to be exact, Kuts' record stood as the 16^th fastest time ever run. Ron Clarke had broken it seven times, Kip Keino and Michel Jazy had beaten it three times and Mike Wiggs and Gaston Roelants had also bettered it. Has a record held so long ever been obliterated by so many so quickly?

Michel Jazy had planned to end his season early and take the family on vacation. His stunning success earlier in June has prompted him to scrap those plans and meet the touring Clarke and the surprising Keino at the end of the month. That must have been a tough conversation at home. “Kids, you know the two weeks at the beach that Daddy told you we were going to have? Well, something's come up.”

Here is why Michel and family were not sifting sand by the seashore in late June. On June 2 he establishes the European record with a 3:55.5 mile, less than half a second off Peter Snell's world record. Four days later, after a relaxed 1500 the previous day, he adds the European record at 5000 with a 13:34.8. He doesn't wait long before going after Snell's mile record on July 9 when he runs 3:53.6 to drop the record by a second and a half.

Michel is not one to rest on his laurels. Two days later he lowers his European record at 5000 to 13:29.0. He races a couple low key 2000's the next two days then goes six days without competing before running a lackluster, for him, 3:40.9 1500. Two days later we come to the beginning of our story, June 23, when he toes the starting line for a two mile against Clarke.

But first let's catch up with how Clarke has been spending the first few days of his European tour. On June 14, in Turku, Finland, he betters his own 10,000 meter WR by 1.6 seconds in 28:14.0. Two days later he runs 13:40.8 for 5000. After four days without racing, he is now standing next to Jazy at the start of the two mile race in Melun, France.

Jazy held the WR at this distance, 8:29.0, until Bob Schul replaced him last year with an 8:26.4. Now he wants it back. This is not Clarke's best distance, but he has been anxious to race Jazy and if it is at two miles, so be it.

They have agreed to alternate laps and so they do. The laps go off in 61.5, 2:04.0 (62.5), 3:07.8 (63.8), 4:11.4 (63.6), 5:15.5 (64.1 ). On the sixth lap Jazy runs the slowest lap of the race, 64.3 (5:19.8) but Clarke begins to drop back. Now it is Jazy against the clock. The seventh lap goes off in 61.5 (7:21.3) and Schul's record is in the bag. But wait, it is two for one day, for Jazy passes 3000 meters in 7:49.0 to clip two tenths off the world record he already owns. Clarke is a full two seconds back at 7:51.0. Jazy's last lap is 61.3, giving him the new world record of 8:22.6. Clarke's 8;24.8 is the second fastest time ever run. Jazy has lowered his PR by 7.0 seconds, Clarke's has dropped 7.2 seconds.

Both are gracious. Jazy says, “He knew I was faster over this distance, but he went as fast as he could to help me lower the records. Without him to pace me on the fifth and sixth laps, I might not have done it.” Clarke, always the gentleman, says, “Two miles is a little short for me and I expected to be defeated, but I am happy with my time.”

They will meet again over 5000 meters in a week but no one is resting in preparation for that match. Two days later, June 25^th, Jazy runs a 3:39.9 1500 split on the French 4 x 1500 team that clips 9.0 seconds off East Germany's world record. Three world records in as many days looks good on a resume. On the 27^th he runs a relaxed 8:04.2 3000.

Clarke is back in Finland. On the 25^th in Kauhava he runs the third fastest 5000 ever, 13:33.0. The following day in Saarijearvi he clocks 8:00.4 in placing second, five seconds behind his New Zealand buddy, John Davies. Given the great Aussie's penchant for racing, the next three days without competition must have seemed like an eternity.

June 30 finds us in Helsinki for the World Games 5000, a distance more to Clarke's liking. This time there will be more competition than Jazy. Olympic champion Bob Schul, fresh from his American three mile record is warming up. Countryman and fellow Olympic champion Billy Mills who just set the WR for six miles is here also. Olympic finalist at this distance, Kip Keino, is just coming out of the warm up area. The ever tough Bill Baillie of New Zealand is walking slowly towards the starting line. Those guys over there are two of the three fastest 3M-5000 men in British history, Bruce Tulloh and Mike Wiggs. A quick run down gives us world record holders at one mile, 3000 meters, two miles, three miles, 5000 meters, six miles and 10,000 meters and a couple Olympic champions. Clarke's record of 13:25.8 is in danger.

As expected, Clarke takes the lead. The first kilometer goes off in 2:41.0. At 1500 meters surprisingly Schul, still bothered by the hard surface of the Balboa Stadium track last week, lets go. Two thousand meters is reached in 5:21.4. At 3000, reached in 8:05.4, Mills starts to fall back. He is running faster than he ever has at this distance but it is not enough. At 4000 meters a vision of the immediate future is coming into view. Jazy is sitting on Clarke, ready to pounce and there is little Clarke can do about it. At 4500, the Frenchman makes his move but he is not alone. Keino goes with him. Clarke stays near through three miles but now it is obvious that the race is between

the Frenchman and the surprising Kenyan. Jazy holds a four yard margin at the tape to edge Keino 13:27.6 to 13:28.2. Clarke is third in 13:29.4. His only solace is that his record is still intact. Wiggs hangs tough to finish fourth in 13:33.0. He is now fourth on the all time list. Fifth and sixth go to Scandinavians Thor Helland of Norway and Bengt Nadje of Sweden in 13:37.4 and 13:37.8. Seventh is Bill Baillie in 13:41.8, four tenths ahead of Mills who finishes faster than anyone else from the three mile mark to record a personal best by 15.2 seconds. Germany's Jurgen Hasse holds off Schul by two tenths in 13:49.6.

Le 30 juin 1965, aux Jeux Mondiaux à Helsinki en Finlande, Michel Jazy remportait le 5000 m en 13:27.6 (record d'Europe) devant Kipchoge Keino (KEN) 13:28.2 et Ron Clarke (AUS) 13:29.4

Two days later Keino is showing the effects of this race, placing seventh in a 1500 in 3:46.4. No matter, here he is the next day, June 2, in Turku, lining up against Clarke once again at 5000 meters. Given the circumstances – Clarke is tired, Keino is sick and the track is waterlogged – not much is expected. Surprisingly, Clarke lets Keino lead. Sounds like the perfect conditions for a tactical race. Tactical, schmatical, Keino is having none of that. He leads through kilometer splits of 2:38.0, 5:22.4 and 8:06.4 with Clarke playing the unlikely role of predator. The gallant Aussie has seen recent vivid proof that he cannot outkick Keino on the last lap so he makes his move at 3700 meters, but a kilometer later the Kenyan flies by. He covers his last kilometer in 2:35.2 and his last 800 in 1:58.2, speed that Clarke cannot match. Keino hits the tape in 13:26.2, just missing Clarke's record but displacing Jazy as number two on the all time list. Clarke is timed in 13:29.0.

In an unexpected turn of events neither Clarke nor Keino compete in the next three days. Now they are in Stockholm for another 5000 that will be the oddest of their match ups. They have agreed to alternate the lead but Clarke doesn't step up when his turn comes. Keino is flying and Clarke can't muster the umph to get by. With Keino driving the bus, the kilos go by in 2:37.5, 5:19.0 and 8:06.4. Keino's time at 4000 is 10:50 .0, only 1.2 seconds off Clarke's record pace. This time Clarke waits to make his move until 500 remain. His attack is easily repulsed and Keino holds a five meter lead going into the last lap with the record is in sight.

The crowd is with him as he blazes down the backstretch but with 200 to go the “aahs” turn to “ohs”. At the start of the final curve Keino begins to trot as if he has finished the race. By the time he realizes that he has misjudged the finish, Clarke has gone around and there is no hope of catching him. His spirit crushed, his finish is less than vigorous. Clarke comes within six tenths of his own record at 13:26.4 with Keino four seconds back but ahead of Olympic steeplechase champion, Gaston Roelants, who runs 13:34.8.

After the race Clarke says, “This Keino is fantastic. If Jazy had been here he could have changed the lead with Keino. Then, who knows? Could be 13:20.” Keino is disappointed but not discouraged. “I was very strong. I knew all along that I would break the record. At Brazzaville in the African Games, I will break the record.”

Keino returns to Kenya but Clarke still has a couple races left. The next day he wins a 3000 in Oslo in 7:54.6, edging hometown favorite Helland by two tenths. Then he takes two days off before showing up at the British championships in London on July 10 where he will take on the amazing American teenager who broke his six mile world record last month, Gerry Lindgren.

Clarke set the record of 13:00.4 en route to his world record 5000 at Compton last month. He is determined to beat that this day. His first mile is a blistering 4:15.4. Lindgren is right there. The second mile slows a bit to 4:21.0 as he comes through in 8:36.4. Lindgren is right there.

Lindgren is nothing if not courageous for on the tenth lap he tries to go by. The veteran Clarke holds him off and Lindgren is broken. A final 4:16.0 mile brings the three mile record down to a stunning 12:52.4, an eight second improvement. Lindgren finishes gallantly in 13:04.2, and is now third on the all time list behind Clarke and Keino who ran 13:01.8 four days earlier.

Our next half century old update will include results of dual meets with Poland, West Germany and the Soviet Union. Oh, and Ron Clarke is not done with his European tour, in fact he is just getting warmed up. Coming soon to a laptop near you.  

Just looked at the next issue.  It covers the dual meets with Russia, Poland and West Germany but neither Nelson brother was there, so the first hand report is by the Italian guy, RL Quercetani, and his writing is less than inspiring.  Thinking of doing it in a much more informal style, buncha guys sitting around the table at the Dew Drop Inn discussing the results.  We'll see if I'm in love with that idea when I am sober.   Roy

V 5 N. 78 Review of Bill Rodgers Biography

August 19, 2015, 11:55 am

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Going through our local library the other day among the myriad of books on how to run your first marathon, triathlon and God knows what else there is to know about running, I found a noteworthy tome in that pile of rehashed drivel.  I'm staggered by all the books that have been produced about the sport geared for the newcomer.   Glad I'm not starting out now, because I wouldn't know where to begin.  I might have to resort to a personal trainer/guru to inform me on how to get started, buy five pairs  of shoes, learn the proper diet, receive online updates and encouragement, get a therapist, and masseur/masseuse, select several thousand dollars of running clothing, and inspirational tapes to listen to while torquing down the pike and then wonder if I'm running at my lactate threshold often enough, so that I can go with confidence into my first $200 dollar entry fee marathon.   A marathon weekend can go well over $1000 with plane tickets, hotel, food, taxis and double that if you are traveling with  an attendant groupie, kennel fees for your dog and possibility of losing your smart phone while checking on your Garmin wristwatch to know if you are maintaining your $5,000 guru's recommended pace and keeping up with your in race hydration and nutrition plans.

.   Fortunately I did find one book that an oldtimer could get his head around.    It's by Bill Rodgers with the help of Matthew Shepatin titled,  "Marathon Man, My 26.2 mile journey from Unknown Grad Student to the Top of the Running World".    I've found the book to be a most enjoyable read about a guy who was inspired by Frank Shorter's monumental 1972 Olympic gold medal performance in Munich.  In 1972 Bill was a 'former runner' albeit not a bad one having run an 8:58  indoor 2 mile his senior year and then abruptly hanging up his spikes to be a smoker, drinker, motorcycle riding  and somewhat aimless individual who was serving a two year hitch as a conscientious objector to the Viet Nam War working as a hospital attendant and trying to organize a union in that hospital.   Bill describes what changed in him when he saw Shorter's win on TV.  He had grown up an ADHD kid who liked to chase butterflies and struggled with his studies at Wesleyan University in Connecticut.  He had been a state cross country champ in high school but never took running  or himself very seriously.  Ironically his small college team had two pretty decent runners his freshman year,  Jeff Galloway, who would become a 1972 US Olympic team marathoner and Amby Burfoot.   Galloway graduated after that first year that Bill was there, but Bill would go on to room with Burfoot for two years.  Burfoot, a dedicated runner to the extreme, introduced long runs to Bill, but often went without him because Rodgers couldn't get up in the mornings due to  his fondness for partying on the weekends.  In fact Burfoot couldn't convince him to run five miles a day in the summer to get ready for cross country season.   Nevertheless, Rodgers was able to witness what it took to be a champion when Burfoot won the Boston Marathon while still a senior at Wesleyan.

After deciding that he did want to be a born again runner, it took Rodgers three years of dedication and 'learning by doing' to win his first Boston Marathon in an American record 2 hours 9 min. 55 sec, after two failures in his first attempts.   The main part of the book describes his first Boston attempt in 1973 when he dropped out and his win in 1975.  It flips back and forth between those two races detailing what was going on in both races and in his head as each race progressed.  Once I got into the routine of reading the jumps back and forth I began to enjoy the book more and more as we moved toward the finish line in 1975.   Rodgers didn't make it to the finish line in 1973 and instead had to walk off the course to his apartment a few blocks away.

The book also details the years after 1975 as the running boom took off in America and how this unassuming individual dealt with his fame and how it was still a struggle to make ends meet with the amateurism rules that were in place in those days.  Bill also pays hommage to the Fukuoka Marathon that in the 1970s  was the major marathon along with Boston,  and how he wishes today's runners would start going back there.  It was an elite marathon limited to about 80 runners, and  they were all very good runners..no wonks lining up behind the studs.

Bill describes his relationships with Shorter, Burfoot, Tom Fleming, Jock Semple, Billy Squires and his two best friends his older brother Charlie and Jason Kehoe.  Charlie, Jason, and Bill were inseparable as children and as adults running the Bill Rodgers Running Center for 35 years in Boston.  Tales of the Eliot Lounge and Tommy Leonard, the Eliot's bartender and founder of the Falmouth road race are found throughout the book.  Bill also speaks briefly about the break up of his two marriages and about his current prostate cancer situation that he is dealing with.   I can highly recommend the book , published in 2013, to anyone who was  running before and  during the 1970s and 80s.    It also might not hurt the recent converts to the 'new running boom' to drop their I Pads and stick their noses into this book while they sip their chai lattes.   Below are a few quotes that I bookmarked, more to show what was going on in Bill's head during his races and in some other aspects of his life.

About the 1975 Boston Marathon (his first Boston win)

I crossed the train tracks, waving happily to the crowd gathered outside the train station.  Funny thing, I don't remember doing that.  This was the other side of my ADHD, the good side, especially if you happen to be a distance runner.  Most normal people could not run for over two hours without a single break in concentration, but my condition gave me an abnormal talent for immersing myself in a single activity I enjoyed, in this case running (like he did chasing butterflies as a kid ed.).  Once I went into this zone of hyperfocus, I shut out the rest of the world.  I could have been running through an artillery range with live mortars going off around me and it wouldn't have bothered me.  Being able to lock it down for 26.2 miles while disregarding the messages of worry, confusion, and insecurity that can infect the mind and deplete the body gave me a special edge.  Which was kind of funny because, the rest of the time when I wasn't running, my mind was all over the place.  Everything has a flip side, I suppose.

On your opponents' effect on you:

It only takes one man to out run you and you've lost.  Just ask the hundreds of runner-ups in this race.  All of them at some point along the 26.2 miles of road, had the same thought:  I'm going to win the Boston Marathon.  Maybe the thought only lasted a brief , intoxicating moment, but that's all it takes for hope to take hold.  And hope is a dangerous thing to have as a marathon runner because all it takes is one man, at any time, at any mile to wipe you out.  He has ravaged your psyche, obliterated your spirit, crushed your will to win, but that's not the worst of it--because don't forget, your body is still on the course, and you still have the agonizing business of getting to the finish line, which could be several  miles away.  It's not like boxing, where one uppercut is all it takes to put you out of your misery.  In the marathon, you have the chance to watch your dream get pummeled slowly, yard by excruciating yard, knowing there's nothing you can do about it......The rest of the way is pain and heartbreak.  Until it's over.  But it's not really over because you'll be muttering to yourself for years afterward:   I was going to win the Boston Marathon.

In the book, Bill also describes how shortly before his 1975 Boston win, he received a pair of Nike 73 shoes in the mail from Steve Prefontaine who congratulated him on his recent third place showing in the World Cross Country Championships in Morocco.  Rodgers wore the slightly too big shoes in that winning marathon and even had to stop once to re-tie them.  Prefontaine was working then for Blue Ribbon Sports (later Nike).  A month later he was dead in a tragic car wreck.

Bill talks  about the Greater Boston Track Club which he ran for in those days.  It was a group of really good local runners from the Boston area, inluding Randy Thomas, Bob Hodge, Greg Meyer (a Michigan import), Fred Doyle, Mark Duggan, Scott Graham, Kirk Pfrangle, Alberto Salazar, Dick Mahoney, Don Ricciato, Bob Sevene and Walt Murphy, mentored by coach Billy Squires.  They did their long runs and track workouts and traveled together often taking the back roads to races, because they didn't have enough money to pay the toll road fees, and slept 8 to a room in hotels just to get to races.


Here are a few more memorable passages:

The more experienced marathoners will take advantage of a day like this--cool with a tailwind.  It's only the inexperienced runners that don't.  Or the runners who hove no competitive fire.  They're running the same course, but they're not running the same race.  They're solving crossword puzzles in their head or thinking about their grandma or talking to people along the way or visually embracing spectators.  They're in a world of heartwarming delight.....

In my world , I was running beside Jerome Drayton and he was as light and cheery as the Terminator- his eyes hidden behind dark sunglasses, reinforcing the sense that he was a cold-blooded killer.  But Drayton didn't intimidate me.  Not for a moment.  I had to deal with him but at the same time, he had to deal with me.  And I was determined to stand my ground.  You have to be like this.  You can't let anybody throw you off.  You have to be feisty.  Respect your opponent, as I respected Drayton, but never fear them.  This is a duel.  I'm there to beat him.  He's there to beat me.  I can't think of anything more fun.


For runners progress is the root of pleasure.  While progress in life can be hard to see, sometimes impossible, all I had to do was open up my ten-cent running diary and peer inside. My physical evolution was clearly laid out before my eyes.... I felt good.  I felt fit.  Now I was really tapping into my human potential.  No substance on the planet can rival a rush like that.

Progress in the marathon is not a steady upward curve.  It's an uneven , jagged trajectory, where one minute you''re on top of the world and the next you're a heartbroken wreck on the side of the road.  Perhaps this is even more true for someone like me-- a more aggressive runner, a more emotional runner.  Sometimes you get great days in the marathon and everything comes together. Other times, things go very badly in a race, and you don't know what happened to you.  I think partly it's that , in those days, I raced a little too much--three or four times a year in the marathon, whereas today's marathoners run once or twice a year, with more of a focus on more concentrated training for fast times and for a higher  level effort.  Runners like me and Tom Fleming went all over the place, hardly ever turning down an invitation to race.  Shorter didn't race too much.  He was careful and that got him his gold and silver medals.  But I just loved to race.

By the time I broke though in 1975 , race directors were offering me a ticket, a hotel room, and a small per diem fee.  By 1979, I was getting as much as $20,000 for a marathon, and $3,000 to $10,000 to show up for a road race.  I had done what I had set out to do-become the first professional road racer.  

He wore Asics shoes, because they offered him $3,000 to wear their product compared to $500 the young Blue Ribbon Sports Co. could offer as well as the $500 New Balance offered at the time.

Shorter and I know we are lucky to have come of age as marathoners during the running boom of the 1970s.  While I know running is going to be a huge sport for a long time to come, there's never going to be a period quite like the one we lived through.  We were at the birth of something extraordinary, when the first flowers came up through the spring soil.

Below from my collection is a copy of the 1978 Fukuoka Marathon program with signatures of  Bill Rodgers (just under the numbers 1978) as well as Chris Wardlow (Great Britain), Anthony Sandoval (USA), Trevor Wright (Great Britain), Rich Hughson (Canada), Len Johnson (Australia), and Lionel Ortega (USA).  This had been sent to me by Minoru Hirota, a Fukuoka resident who attended grad school at Ball State University when I was there from 1976-79.  We lived in married student housing at the time and our families became good friends.  Minoru knew what a marathon nut I was at the time and must have jumped over a lot of bodies to get these autographs.

Marathon Man, My 26.2 Mile Journey from Unkown Grad Student to the Top of the Running World, by Bill Rodgers and Matthew Shepatin, Copyright 2013, St. Martins Press, NY, NY, 317 pages.

George, Roy,

I remember when Bill came to Dayton to do a promo and John Wilderman asked me to do a training run with him on a Saturday morning, 13 miles.  Bill was a kind person, we talked the whole way, he ran my pace.  John had a foot injury so he rode his bike.  The three of us running/biking the hills of Oakwood and talking like the best of friends; a day I will always remember.

After we were done I asked about when the first issue of Runner magazine was coming out because Bill was a writer.  He said I should have already received a copy.  3 days later I received a Bill Rodgers signed copy of the initial magazine and then a week later my real subscription copy arrived.  Bill did this on his own.  What a gentleman.

Thanks for posting this George.

Ray Olfky

Dayton, Ohio

V 5 N. 79 Looking to Preserve Our History

August 21, 2015, 4:25 pm

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To Our Once Upon a Time in the Vest Followers:

Below we've posted a letter from Gary Corbitt, son of long distance running legend Ted Corbitt.
Gary is starting a project and discussion looking at how to preserve the heritage of our sport of track and field and long distance running for future researchers.  If you would like a copy of the full 29 page document you can contact Gary at  corbittg@comcast.net
  I'm sure a lot of you have wondered what is going to happen to all those programs, pictures, track shoes, vaulting poles, uniforms etc. in that box in your attic.  Maybe you should start going through it and cataloging everything before it's too late.  There are a number of small track museums around the country that might accept those things if your kids don't want them.  But first this project might be able to organize a means of preserving your stuff and your memories.   We'll stay in touch with Gary to let you know how it is progressing.  You can also stay in touch directly with Gary at the suggested email address.

Ted Corbitt picture from Snipview

To: The Track & Field and Long Distance Running Community

I’ve just completed a document called “The State of Track & Field and Long Distance Running History Preservation in the United States.” Eighteen recommendations are listed below and attached. If you would like the full 29 page document, please let me know.

It is my wish to work with a team of people to advance this history preservation agenda. I’m in discussions with Wayne Baker and Mike Fanelli on how we can initiate some on-line discussions about this topic on Facebook.

I hope to hear back from many of you with your thoughts on how we can advance the history preservation of our sport. In the meantime I will continue my work with the Ted Corbitt Archives. I plan to coordinate the following conference calls in the coming months and do a number of one-on-one oral history interviews with the pioneers of our sport.

Upcoming Conference Calls:
*Women Pioneers of Ultramarathons Part 2 & 3
*Participants in the 1964 Yonkers Marathon & 1967 Holyoke Marathon
*Participants in the 1970 Rocklin National 50 Mile Championship

Best Wishes!
Gary Corbitt
Curator: Ted Corbitt Archives
www.tedcorbitt.com
Like – Ted Corbitt – Pioneer on Facebook
Twitter - corbittg


Running History Preservation

Recommendations

1. This project needs to start small and build locally, regionally, by the types of running collections available.

2. Develop a team of 12 – 15 committed individuals working towards building a sustainable running history agenda.

3. Use crowdsourcing as a means of building this team by exchanging ideas and finding leaders online.

4. Develop a website, Facebook, and Twitter presence to build a community of running history leaders.

5. Both track & field and long distance running communities should work together as one team in developing a plan.

6. Once a committed team is established, a non-profit corporation should be started to develop and implement a plan and budget for track & field and long distance running history preservation.

7. Our sport should support all existing running history initiatives with funding and development ideas.

8. Develop a formal and coordinated process of targeting colleges to house collections.

9. Establish endowed funds tied to a specific collection at a universities for long term custodianship.

10. Develop a network of regional repositories among colleges, public libraries, athletic departments, and non-profits.

11. These track-and-field and long distance running libraries around the U.S. could be tiered two ways:

-Archival unique materials for research scholars.

-Materials that would circulate to broader group of interested readers.

12. Develop a systematic approach to working with estates to make it easy on families to donate collections and receive tax benefits.

13. Establish regional clearinghouses where families can send materials for review.

14. Make contact with estates of deceased individuals with private collections and attempt to form an alliance and plan.

15. In many cases there would be a separation between track and long distance running repositories. We’d define distance running as 1500 meters and up on any surface but not multi-sport variants like triathlons.

16. Learn from the successful history preservation models in other sports.

17. People with curator skills need to be found.

18. Encourage the Road Runners Club of America (RRCA) chapter clubs to work on their own history preservation and report back to the national office.

V5 N. 80 Old School v. New School Cross Country

August 22, 2015, 8:48 am

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The following post first appeared in 2012 on the Penn State Track Alumni Blog
penned by David Baskwill.  We are printing it with David's permission.  We've also added some of our own thoughts on the subject.

Cross Country for high school athletes sure has changed from what I remember.

Old School (1970s): Practice right after school.
New School (2012): Practice at 5:30PM, just 1 1/2 hours after they get home from school.

Old School: Practice lasts 1 1/2 hours, team meeting included. Ends on time.
New School: Practice lasts 2 1/2 hours, followed by a team meeting. Never on time.

Old School: Practice at high school, trip home by school bus.
New School:  Practice at numerous variable sites, transportation necessary both to and from.

Old School: Dual Meets twice weekly.
New School: Quad or Quintuple Meets once weekly.

Old School: Tattoos only on a spectating ex-Marine Uncle from out of town.
New School: Neck tattoos on Freshman runners.

Old School: No sunglasses.
New School: Sunglasses on an overcast day as essential running equipment.

Old School: Nike Waffles.
New School: "Barefoot" Shoes.

Old School:  Winner at about 16:00 for boys 18:00 for girls.
New School: Winner at about 16:00 for boys 18:00 for girls.

Old School:  No idea what friends are up to during practice.
New School: Tweets and Facebook updates during practice to know that friends are "chillin".

Old School: Coach is basketball coach and high school math teacher.
New School: Coach is 6-time All-American and stay-at-home-dad.

Old School: 0 assistant coaches.
New School: 6 assistant coaches.

Old School: 1 Newspaper article a year, with many facts wrong.
New School:  Blog with daily updates on minutiae of every runner's life.

Old School: Quarter mile or half mile repeats a staple.
New School: Don't know what a quarter is.

Old School: One runner with a VW van on its last legs takes a few people home.
New School: Each runner over 16 drives their own BMW, Lexus or Mercedes home.

Old School:  Cotton
New School: Lycra

Old School: Stretch
New School: Core

Old School: Fartlek
New School: Lactate-Threshold or Tempo

To the above we have added:

Old School:  Kids arrive start of the season half in shape due to general activity.

New School: Kids arrive completely out of shape due to playing video games all summer.

Old School:  In most of my years at UC I would go around in a van and give people mile splits, just to get a sense of pace. 

New School:  Toward the end they would correct me as to where the mile split actually was based on their GPS.  I began to wonder why I was even out there.  The same was true for bus trips where I formally enjoyed talking with team members on the bus.  Toward the end they were all texting and there was essentially nobody to talk with.  Once again I began to wonder why I was even on the bus.

   Bill

Courtesy of Bill Schnier

Old School:  Running comes first , so drop a class so as not to miss practice.

New School: School comes first, so skip practice so as not to miss class.

Courtesy of Phil Scott

Old School: Start a run down any country road or trail and run for 60-90 minutes, guesstimating the distance and pace.

New School: GPS tells you exactly where you are, how far and how fast your pace. 

Courtesy of Susan Abuasba

Old School:  Cross Country was Blue Collar kids of factory workers, living in the city.

New School: Cross Country is Upper Class kids of college grads, living in the suburbs.

Old School: Cross Country team was mainly basketball players getting in shape before their season, lucky if there were 8 or 9 kids on the team. Many ran in Converse All-Stars high tops.

New School: Cross Country team has 5-10 serious runners and 30-50 kids trying to boost their resumes for getting accepted to college.  George Brose

On a similar note,  I found a recent photo of Tom Farrell, 1964 Tokyo 800 runner 5th place, and bronze medallist in Mexico City, 1968.  Tom spends several months a year away from home in California coaching at his alma mater

St. Johns University in New York.  

Tom Farrell volunteering to coach at St. Johns. Note runner texting on the 

track instead of listening to sage advice.

This is  one of the many reasons I would have trouble coaching these days.

David Baskwill stepped up with this comment:

I must be prescient!  I'll bet the text she is reading says...  "Nuthin, how bout U? Talk 2 U L8er."  

The kind of thing critical to endurance training.

hee hee hee  I will probably use that photo in a follow-up post to show how right I was.


Dave.

Absolutely brilliant.  I think that line could be used in hundreds of situations where some young person, ie. White House intern, surgical assistant, young lieutentant in a combat zone, nanny,  daycare center worker, school bus driver,  hacker etc. is seen texting during a critical situation.