Section B·Page 8
The University Daily Kansan
Kansas Relays Pink and Blue Tradition
Friday, April 21. 2000
Memorial Stadium: Then & Now
Above: Memorial Stadium 1952. The current press box in the photo below and the MegaVision video board in the foreground were added last fall. The second tier of the stadium was added in 1968, bolstering capacity to 52,000. The largest crowd in attendance at the Relays (32,000) was established shortly thereafter in 1972. Above photo and program contributed by University Archives. Bottom photo by Brad Dreier/KANSAN
Greener pastures ahead for Relays
Continued from page 7A
Timmons said. "But when she got to that part of the song, the skies opened up to give us the biggest downpour I'd ever seen. She kept on singing, though."
Ryun can account for this firsthand
And as the rain made the Relays unique, they also were unique in the opportunity they gave high school athletes.
"My first high school Relays was in the spring of 1963, Ryan said. "It was a breakthrough meet for me, coming to the Kansas Relays and competing against all the other classes."
Of course, Ryun later would pack the stadium as Kansas' boy wonder, but soon after his record-breaking crowd
draw in 1972, the Relays began to suffer a decline in prestige.
"As time went by — because of lower budgets — a lot of schools, instead of going to the tri-circuit, they gave up a meet." Timmons said. "Usually the middle meet — the Kansas Relays."
Ryun, in fact, concedes that track and field as a whole started losing popularity in the last third of the century.
"In general, there's been somewhat of a decline of track and field all over the country," Ryan said. "It, as a sport, is still in the recovery process."
And the Relays themselves are in a recovery process after a two-year hiatus because of renovations to Memorial Stadium. But the Relays now are
set to pick up where they left off in 1997.
"We plan to use the new video board to our advantage," said Relays coordinator Tim Weaver. "It's going to actually blow people away. We're going to have instant replays on the screen, Track and field is like a circus, and now you're not going to miss anything."
In addition to the stadium upgrades and the video board, the Relays are offering a chance to see the "World's Fastest Man" Maurice Greene, a Kansas City, Kan., native, live and in color. He, along with Ato Bolden, a former Goodwill Games Champion, Jon Drummond and Tim Hardin, American
sprinters who have competed at the international level for more than five years, will run a special 400-meter relay Saturday.
"Having Maurice Greene here may be a door opener for people who just know his name," Ryu said. "But maybe he'll bring in people that will make the Relays a part of their lives."
Just as the many of the spectators who have attended the 72 other Kansas Relays have.
"I hope people will once again put the Relays back on the calendar," Ryun said. "Maybe newcomers will be here in hopes of capturing a piece of the future and spark life-long interest."
"We plan to use the new video board to our advantage. It's going to actually blow people away. We're going to have instant replays on the screen. Track and field is like a circus, and now you're not going to miss anything."
The Relays are free with a KUID.
Tim Weaver
Kansas Relays coordinator
Pink and blue tradition may go by the wayside
Members of the Kansas track and field team stand out in their pink and blue uniforms. The bright ensemble has been part of the Kansas track tradition since 1951. However, the colors of future uniforms are in question. Kansas file photo
By Shawn Hutchinson
sports@kansan.com
Kansas sportswriter
It's a sure bet that the Jayhawk tradition of wearing pink and blue uniforms will be on display this weekend when competition heats up during the Kansas Relays.
The uniforms, which consist or blue jerseys and fluorescent pink shorts, have been part of the team since 1951. The Jayhawks only wear the uniforms for larger competitions, such as Big 12 Conference meets, NCAA Championship meets and the Kansas Relays, which return to Memorial Stadium this year after a two-year absence.
The tradition can be traced back nearly 50 years, when Kansas' Jack Greenwood was competing in a 60-yard high hurdles race during a Big Seven Conference Indoor meet at Municipal Auditorium in Kansas City, Mo.
The 2000 Kansas track and field media guide outlines the story of how Greenwood began the race in the farleft lane of the track, cleared every hurdle and sprinted to the finish line for what he thought was going to be a victory celebration. He swore that he won the race.
Because there were no such things as photo finishes in 1951, the judges oftentimes made split-second decisions by relying on their own eyes. What the judges saw that day was a
The judges, however, saw things differently.
So when the track team traveled to California later that year, the Jayhawks were put in touch with Galbrith Sporting Goods. The company's owner, an avid Kansas fan, showed Easton some fluorescent pink material that he had.
Greenwood was awarded third place that day. But Bill Easton, who then was the Jayhawks' coach, thought that his team had been cheated. Easton swore that none of his runners would ever get lost in the pack again.
Easton decided that the bright color was just what the team needed to stand out from the crowd and integrated it into the team's uniforms. It has been a Kansas tradition ever since.
But during the past half century, the fluorescent color of pink that has become a trademark for Kansas in track and field has become harder and harder to come by. Kansas coach Gary Schwartz said that the Jayhawks still got their uniforms from the same company they did back in 1951, but he admitted that he was not sure how much longer the pink and the blue tradition would last.
group of runners all bunched together at the finish line. Greenwood, wearing Kansas' standard dark blue jersey with red trim and white shorts, blended into the pack.
The company in California has since changed names,changed owners,and does not make the women's speed suits that are so popular these days. Schwartz said if the company ever went out of business,Kansas' tradition of the pink and the blue was in trouble.
Kansas athletics have been sponsored by Nike for the past several years, and the company provides the Jayhawks with all their athletic wear, including footwear, apparel and other products.
He said he had tried to find other companies that made the fluorescent shorts without luck. Nike was one of the avenues he searched.
For most of their meets, the Jayhawks wear crimson and blue uniforms with the Nike insignia. But Schwartz, viewing it as an opportunity to set a standard in track and field uniforms, went to Nike and inquired about the possibility of the company making uniforms that incorporated the pink and the blue. Schwartz said, however, that Nike thought it was more trouble than it was worth.
"I was disappointed they weren't interested in keeping the pink," he said. "They didn't look at it as a big deal."
Tim Weaver, Kansas' events and alumni coordinator, said that Nike did not make a color that came close to the fluorescent pink worn by the Jayhawks. He said that because Kansas was the only school to wear that color, Nike found the process of producing the color just for one school to be too expensive.
"There's something about that electric pink that is quite costly," Weaver said.
Schwartz wants to make sure the pink and the blue tradition continues.
"I've hung in with it because I'm a KU grad and I wore them," he said.
"The point is that it is the most distinctive uniform in track and field. It was when it was designed, and it still is. I think we do honor to the KU track and field tradition when we wear them."
despite costs. He witnessed the tradition first-hand as a member of the Kansas track team from 1962-66. When he was hired as Kansas coach 12 years ago, he made sure that the team continued to wear the pink and the blue.
But Schwartz will not have a say in what the team wears much longer. His contract was not renewed for next season. He admitted that the fate of the pink and the blue was up to Kansas' not coach.
Weaver agreed.
"With the new coach coming in next year, it's up in the air," said Weaver, who publishes Kansas's track and field alumni magazine, the Pink and Blue Review. "But if I were a member of the track team, I know I would want to wear the same colors that Jim Ryun wore."
Ryun, who was a three-time Olympian and is a member of the Kansas Track and Field Hall of Fame, said that he also would like to see the pink and the blue live on.
"It's a part of the rich tradition of the Kansas track and field athletes," he said. "I think the pink and the blue gave our athletes great tradition when it was worn around the country. Why destroy a tradition that is great and deep and has been around for years?"
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