10
Friday, April 16, 1976
University Daily Kansan
Hershberger track prevents Relays downfall
Photo courtesy of UNIVERSITY OF KANSAS ARCHIVES
Texas sweeps muddy finish on a gooey track in 1949
81 schools at inaugural Relays
The Kansas Relays began way back in 1923. Competing at the first Relays were 23 universities, 19 colleges, four military academies and 35 high schools.
Eighty-five seven-eleven Elgin watches were given for first place at the first meet. Ten eighty-seven Elgin watches were fit for fern design on each one. They were put on display in a downtown jewelry store window. Silver medals were given for second place, and bronze medals were given for third place.
Daily Kansas日报 dated Jan. 18, 1923. According to the article, "a big track event to be held here April 20 and 21 made it necessary for Kansas State University and the athletic department back it."
The first mention of the Relays was in the
The article went on to say that the high school meet would be April 20 and the Kansas Relyals April 21. Coach Schladman教导manager should supervise the work of two junior managers, three sophomore managers and six freshman managers.
Pepin in 4th year at KU
Gary Pepin, beginning his fourth year as a full-time assistant track coach, joined the Kansas team in 1971 as a graduate assistant.
By KEN STONE
Associate Sports Editor
repin, 32, was a former track standout at Kansas State College of Pittsburg. A graduate of Pittsburg (Kan.) High School, he also attended Fort Scott Junior College and John Brown University before return to Kansas State for a degree in physical education. He was a four-year letterman in track and received a basketball letter while at John Brown.
He began his coaching career in 1966 as an assistant in all sports at Northwest High School outside of Sedalia, Mo. The next year he moved to California, Mo., where he was head track and cross country coach. In 1969, he moved to Sedalia for a two-year stint as back track and field coach at Smith-Cotton University, producing two nationally ranked athletes.
At KU, Pepin's main responsibilities are to train athletes, the women's team and the men's team.
If a poll had been taken of the participants in the 1970 Kansas Relays on the meet's most valuable athlete, the winner, going away, would have been James W. Hersberger, a 5-6, bowled runner from Wichita.
Hershberger, then 37, had placed third in the Masters mile with a time of 4:54. More significant, the rain-drenched track he ran on was an all-wearless 'Tartan' man.
Confused?
Don't be. The fact is the 1970 Kansas Relays—and possibly many future relays—might have been canceled had it not been for the generosity of Hershberger.
He paid for the track.
FOR YEARS THE Relays had existed on a financial sheostring. The April monsosaes (whose raavages are chronicated elsewhere in this special edition) had discouraged both fans and athletes from attending the Mount Oread Olympics.
The track, an ancient, six-lane dirt embarrassment, which Relays director Bob Timmons once described as "the worst track I have seen in my last four years of travels with the team," turned in a muddy quamire at the drop of a bucket.
Wade Stinson, then KU athletic director, had estimated the price of installation and construction of a new all-wather Tartan surface to be $200,000.
In 1969, Stinson was quoted as saying,
The KU Kelays are in trouble as one of our
fans.
So why didn't the University just go out and buy a new track?
THE UNIVERSITY of Kansas Athletic Corporation was already $1 million dollars in debt from borrowing. The Kansas University Athletic Corporation (KUAC) had $170,000 surk into expansion of the west stands of Memorial Stadium.
A half a million dollars had been borrowed to build more bleachers in the student section, and $400,000 had been committed to the construction of athletic offices beside Allen Field House. Money for a track simply wasn't available.
Timmons, Stinson and other persons involved with promoting the Relays were well known.
On the eve of the 1969 Kansas Relays, Timmons said, "Unless we get the track facilities we need here, the Relays will be in deep trouble in the next few years. We won't be able to draw the outstanding athlete, and the track program will suffer along with it."
Timmons wasn't bluffing.
IN THE THREE years preceding the 1960 Relays, the number of university teams entered in the meet fell from 28 to 14. Meets in Louisiana and Tennessee—the Pelican and Dogwog Relays—were scheduled for the same weekend.
And teams who might have considered competing in the Relays might just
It took the most heroic efforts of Timmons and the Buildings and Grounds staff, in fact, to keep the Relays from drowning in a sea of mud.
remember the muddy mess of previous years and prefer to fly south.
Regardless of the weather, getting the track ready for competition was tedious law.
It had to be surveyed, graded, dragged,
watered, brushed, rolled and raked-
pampered like a baby before every single
step. Then the lane markings had to be laid.
IN CASE OF RAIN, which was almost a certainty for most Relays, the entire process had to be repeated, except for the surveying.
And even after the time-consuming headache of track preparation had been accomplished, the track still was substandard.
"that crumbled mess," as Timmons called it, had no permanent markings for the doorway.
The track didn't have adequate drainage; every time rain fell, it stayed on the track instead of seeping off to the inside of the track or down under it.
It took a special shipment of cinders from Mexico to keep up its appearance.
CONSEQUENTLY, A SAVIOR was needed.
Fortunately, on May 5, 1989, he arrived. After calling a press conference in his Wichita office, Hershberger, a rich man because of his oil holdings and exploration company, made his announcement: He would join the construction of an all-weather track in Memorial Stadium at the University of Kansas.
Joy broke out like rays of sunshine behind a mass of clouds.
Timmons said, "I still can't believe it, and the fellows probably won't believe it when we get back home. It's just tremendous."
AFTER KU'S COMMENCEMENT in 1969, work on the track began. It was finished in time for the 1970 season and the timing couldn't have been better.
Hersherbberger's tax deduction paid off the first time it was used.
One and one-half inches of rain fell during the 1700 Reels, enough rain, in fact, to have caused water damage despite the rains, a 5,900 hardy fans rejected warnings of spring tornados and weathered the gusty winds to watch John Carlos, then run down "human," run 9.3 in the 100-vard dash.
His time probably would have been 10.3 had he run on the slippery wet track of 1969. But thanks to Jim Hershberger, a native of Chicago, he survived in 1969%, Carlos ran a second faster—and insured the survival of one of Kansas' most treasured institutions.
Phog Allen could be known for his promotional ability as well as his success in basketball coaching.
Indians entertain Relays crowd
At the Texas Relays in 1927, a special exhibition race was held involving the frowned runners of Mexico's Tarahumara natives famed for their incredible endurance.
Not to be outdone by the younger Texas
Relays and aware of the tremendous
drawing potential of such an event, Allen
invited the Tarahumavos to run a series of
special, long distance races at the Kansas
Relays.
The plan was to have the men run from kansas City to Memorial Stadium, a stadium, where he would be killed.
had run 90 miles in an exhibition at the Texas Relays.
Jose Tarras was the first to reach the finish line, averaging eight miles an hour. Tarras ran from the Kansas City Athletic Club to Memorial Stadium, a distance of 51.2 miles in six hours, 49 minutes and nine seconds.
The Indians didn't return in 1928, however. But it wasn't because they were dissatisfied with the Relays. They simply didn't get to run far enough.
Believe it or not, the Tarahumara didn't return (although an international inviolated for Indian marathon runners was held) because they said the distance was too long. They said they would come only if they could run a distance between 80 and 200 miles.
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