Friday, April 16, 1976
Relays traditional for longtime fan
Bv ALLEN QUAKENBUSH
Sports Editor
When Joseph Rapp went to his first Kansas Wesley way back in 1923, things were different.
Memorial Stadium was only two years old, the track was made of cinders, the pits were filled with sand and the country was supposed to be dry.
"I WENT TO THE first one when I was just a 14-year-old boy," the 67-year-old Lawrence resident said. "I was in junior high and my father took me."
Oh, how things have changed! But through it all, one thing has remained constant—Joseph Rapp is still going to the Kenesha Relays.
Now, 53 years later. Rap still hasn't missed a R Retails. And it up to him,
"I want to keep my record perfect," he said last month. "As long as I am able to go, I'm going to be there. There's no way they can ignore it." His tickets ordered for Friday and Saturday."
IN RAPP'S RELAYS collection are programs from all 50 previous meets except for the first one, when Rapp said of the missing programs, "no one had any money, and they didn't print very many. You got them on a first come, first serve basis, and I just got them too late."
Flipping through the pages of his old
programs is like taking a walk through the past for Rapp. Old memories, hidden in the deep recesses of his mind, spring to life as Rapp thinks of past Relays.
"In 1935, I remember, Emporia State had a very good distance medley relay team," Rapp said. "They had a guy named Archie San Romani, maybe you've heard of him, who beat Cunningham (KU Olympian) several times in the mile and 1,300 meters.
"WELL THEIR TEAM was so good that they moved out of the college division and let them run in the university class with all the big schools. And they won! They were so good they could have beaten anybody.
"Back in the 1920s, the Haskell Indians used to have great teams. They had a two-mile relay team that was strong and a mile relay team that was outstanding. They won here and then they went up at Drake. Boy, they were good."
"There were also some very good hurriers in the early years—Harrison Dillard from Baldwin-Wallace, Lee Sentman from Illinois and George Sealing from Iowa. They were running the hurries in 13.3 way back in the 1980s.
"IN THE 440, I remember Charles Brookins from Iowa. I saw him in my second Relays (1924), and he made the Olympic team that year.
"I guess I've seen thousands of very fine
clogged. The track was supposed to drain through the holes in the curves.
From page one
Relays weather . . .
"We had to continually dig those things out. If the track would have drained perfectly the conditions wouldn't have been so bad. But the way it was, in time, ruts would occur and the lines on the track would be obliterated."
"We used to drag the track and the runways," he said. "We used to roll them, do everything possible to get them ready. Many times we were supposed to start the meet at, say, 8:30 and we had to start a couple hours before the weather."
WHEN IT DID RAH, the Reliefs officials
had to work extra hard to get the track in
recovering.
Many of the Relays' problems with coping with the weather were solved in 1969 when Jim Hersbberger, Wichita oilman and former KU track athlete, contributed $125,000 toward the installation of a Tartan all-water track in Memorial Stadium.
"THE ALL-WEATHER Tartan track is one of a track's biggest successes," Elbel said. "We are really grateful to Jim Hersherborg for the track. A few years ago we never would have been able to run some of the tracks in our country with this track. Now we can go ahead and splash along and still have a credible race on this track."
Elon Torrence of the Associated Press even made the suggestion after the rain, "I will be outstanding and athletic of the meet award go to Herbert." "not because of his third place in the Masters mile, but because of his gift of the game that made an impossible meet possible."
THE RELAYS WEATHER has always injected a little humor into the meet. In the same 1970 meet, one Relays official reported the winner of the high school basketball game, saying, "A speckled trout, followed by a carp and a bluegill, dnawerehings."
"YOU CAN WORK on the meet the whole year," said Bob Timmons, KU track coach and meet director, "and have it wiped out by one rainstorm. Bad rain on Friday and the threat of rain on Saturday will cause us to lose a fortune."
But to those who plan the Relays, wet weather hurts the financial success of the team. But it doesn't.
"KU ALWAYS HAD good milers," he said, "and it seemed that most of them came from small towns. It doesn't seem to make any difference where they come from if they have the talent. Look at that Cornwell kid playing quarterback for the Rams. How is it from a very small town, and you can't make them much better than him."
athletes through the years. I don't know why I can remember all those guys. Some of the things today I seem to forget right away. I've been taught that if you stay with them and you never forget it."
Rapp's fondest memories seem to be of the earlier athletes, those lacking all the equipment and training procedures the modern athlete is blessed with.
Rapp has plenty of KU favorites as well. It seems he has a weakness for milers, listing Cummingham, Wes Santee and Jim Bray, the KU athletes who especially thrilled him.
"SOME OF THE YEAR people might not realize this, but some of those old-time athletes were very good," he said. "In the early 1980s, for instance, the Illinois and Iowa—dominated. Then the Texas teams took over, and later the Big Seven schools were good. Then they brought some teams in from the west coast. I think that we had to have some very fine relay teams."
But not if you're a Kansas farmer.
Even from the beginning, Rapp seemed to have a special feeling for the Relaxs.
"I kind of had an idea then that it was a pretty important thing," Rapp said of the inaugural 1923 meet. "Of course, I was just a kid, and I didn't really know what was going on. Track and field was a very popular sport in those days.
"Track is still holding its own. Any time a semanticail comes out and complements the existing one, it's an achievement."
Even the famed Relays weather can't damp Ramp's enthusiasm. In fact, it seems he's hardly noticed the wind and the heat that have come to characterize the Relay.
"NINETY PER CENT of the time the
weather has been good," Rapp insisted. "I can remember a lot of times when the sun was shining and a cool wind was blowing. It was perfect! In the last seven years, it's started to rain a little more, but it hasn't been bad."
And he's seen a lot. When he first started coming, a sub-four minute mile was simply insensitive. An 18-foot pole vault? A seven-foot pole vault? You've got to be kidding! And on, and on,
Rapp, though, can remember several times he'd had to run for cover in the midst of a downpour. But he's never missed an event he really wanted to see.
"Better equipment, that's why they are better now," Rapp said without a hint of question in his voice. "They also have to train. They can work out in the field team in the early days the Big Eight and Big Ten schools were always fighting the weather."
BUT THEY VE COME, and soon they too will be gone, replaced by marks now untouched.
"The track is better now, too. It used to be that they'd throw mud and cinders all over that they'd throw with those old time spikes, they used to cut up with those. Those things were nothing but heavy nuts."
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"I WEEEN GUYS whose legs were up so bad they had to drop out. Some still stayed on and finished the race if they weren't bleeding too bad. I've seen guys come across the finish line with their legs completely smeared with blood."
Today, the Relays are in a life and death race against inflation. The rain has taken its toll on attendance. And the rising costs have made it more difficult to break even.
Look out for yourself. Look into the Air Force ROTC programs on campus.
But as long as there are men like Joseph Rapp around, the meet will always be worth waiting for.
Put it all together in Air Force ROTC.
University Daily Kansan
Herm Wilson, head track and cross country coach at Wichita State University, will serve as referee of the University Division of the KU Relays.
WSU's Wilson to be referee
Now in his ninth year at WSU, Wilson's track teams have won one Missouri Valley Conference crown and have been runner-up on three occasions. His cross-country squads have won five straight Missouri Valley titles. He also has coached three All-
Americans, including Olympic long jumper Preston Carrington and his athletes have been called the best in the country.
Wilson also served as a high altitude coach at the 1988 Olympic training camp in Lake Taboo, Nev. In 1972, Wilson coached an American ice team that traveled to Mexico and then to New York State, he was head track coach and athletic director at Wichita Heights High School.
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