University Daily Kansan, April 16, 1981
Page 9
Advent of Kansas Relays added to Roaring '20s
CYNTHIA CURRIE Sports Writer
Historians call the decade between World War I and the Great Depression the Roaring 20s. It was the decade of the Teapot Done scandal that rooked Warren G. Harding's administration, of jazz and of the talks. Lindbergh flew to New York in 1927. Squirt of St. Louis and Carry Nation nationed in the aufk for Prohibition.
And in Kansas, at the university, a former KU track and baseball star wanted to put MI. Oread on the map as the home of a track meet unequalled in the sport.
THAT STAR WAS John Outland. In 1923, he fashioned the Kansas Relays with the idea of providing a great sport centrally located part of the country.
The Relays were designed after the great track meets of the University of Pennsylvania. More than 100 universities and colleges were represented at the Pennsylvania meets and Outland envisioned the Kansas Relays soon would have the same appeal as the Eastern meet.
"I'd rather attend the Kansai Rangel than see a Harvard-Yale football game," Outland told a KU audience, "and have the great things to come in Kansas track."
More than 35 colleges, universities and military academies from 15 states participated in the first Kansas Relays. A University Daily Kansan banner headline proclaimed: "700 Athletes to Compete in Relays." More than 5,000 people attended and the trains into campus were their fares by 25 percent for spectators.
THE JAHAWKES scored well at their home meet, scoring highest in special events and in the overall meet. Kansas high jumper Tom Poor and long jumper Meriwan Graham swept their events and helped Relays successful for the home team.
Graham and Poor continued to beat the best of the trackmen from Yale, Illinois and Dartmouth, both qualifying for the Olympic team that went to Rio.
During the Olympic competition,
Poor placed fourth with a high jump of
6-2, 2 inches below the leap that won
him the event in the Kansas Relays of
that same year. 1924 also brought Poor
the vote for best intercollegiate high
jumper. Unequalled, Poor was defeated
only three times in his college career.
BUT POOR WAS not the only Jayhawk trackman that brought the
Kansas team to fame in the early years of the Kansas Relays. Graham, the captain of the 1922 track team and also one of the players, competed with the American qualifiers at the Olympics in the hop, skip and jump, from the triple jump. Bested only by Poor at KU Graham was an overall trackman—a double hurler, weight man and spiker.
In 1924, the Kansas Relays were in their second year; 95 institutions, universities and colleges participated. All of Lawrence was asked to participate in the day-long events, and each participant was invited to compete. The Relays committee thought the competition was gaining credibility.
Pep rally where "Flight, fight, light for the Jayhawks," rang across the air and a harborman to gaudy ticket sales in New York. The newborn-born Relays. Kansas Athletic
Direct Forrest C. "Phog" Allen insured the Relays for $5,000 against rain.
Tickets to the events cost KU students $1.50 and came with a choice of seats. But despite the campaign to support the Relays, officials were worried. The Relays had been scheduled for Easter break.
The University Daily Kansan pleaded with its readers to stay and support the KU tracknans:
"ALTHOUGH IT IS SUPP and many students are so home sick that they feel life is not worth living if they do not get out of Lawrence for a few hours, they should not forget that they owe their University a certain duty, and that duty is to stay in Lawrence until after April 19 for the Kansas Relays.
"... Indeed it is unfortunate that upon this particular year these Relays are scheduled to a vacation; but as that was the only date open for them, it is up to the students to do everything in their power to ensure that which in years to come will place the University of Kansas on the map even more decidedly than it is at present."
And the crowds showed up. On April 21, Poor won the high jump and Graham took first in the broad jump.
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The KU team placed first again, holding onto the host team victory.
Perfect weather conditions met the third Kansas Kaisers; they were a Relays for record breaking. Three world records fell, and two American collegiate records and 15 Relays records were swept away. There were more than 1,000 athletes and 100 schools and 7,000 spectators. It was a meet filled with breathtaking dashes, close calls and thrilling finishes.
Tom Poor, KU high jumper and Olympian, was KU's brightest star of the 1920s. Poor cleared 6-2 in the 1924 Olympics to take fourth place.
"Kansas Rooters go wild with freenzy. Come on, Watson, don't weaken now. Fisher is waiting eagerly ahead to batton. But the plea is of no avail."
But it was the last reign for the jumpers, who in the late 20s yielded their crown to the runners, the distance men who pounded around the cinder track as the Greeks had in their sporting contests.
Again, Poor won the high jump, this time with a leap of 6½% and Graham won the broad jump with a leap of 23-6%.
The first decade of the Ralys had been a success. Phog Allen was happy with the increase in participating in football, and Outland's dream was on its way to reality—the Kansas Ralies were becoming the meet of the Midwest.
One certain group of runners particularly caught the eyes of the fans. Plog Alien had seen a group of Indians, the Tarahumara, run a long distance race over the course, "one of the most colorful events" of the season. He invited them to the RELays.
The rain kept the runners off the track, but it did not threaten the special events. The decaition title went to Tom Cunningham and his own record to capture another title.
THE TARAHUMA Indians secured U.S. and Mexican permission to run the 51.2 mile distance between Kansas City and Lawrence. The Indians couldn't speak English, but they could run, and Jose Torres did the distance in 6 hours, 49 minutes, 2 seconds, averaging 8 miles an hour and beating a 17-year-old Haskell Indian student who had also entered the race.
Bernard "Poco" Frazier ran distance
But the 1929 team did not get a chance to perform well, for the Relays were deluged by rain that buried the track in 2 inches of water. KU had attracted Panahow Academy of Honolulu, Hawaii, to the Relays and their team of five runners was purported to be "one of the speediest teams in the country."
events for KU, and as the captain of the 1929 track and cross-country teams, posed a strong threat in the mile run as well as the two-mile.
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