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University Daily Kansan. April 16. 1981
Page 5
Famous athletes, record times headline KU Relays of '50s
By DALE WETZEL Sports Writer
Al Otert. Bill Neider. Les Bitner. Wes Santee.
Those names, four of many KU run and field stars to grace the Kansas Relays in the 1950s, were once national champions from any casual track fan 30 years ago.
TODAY, SADLY, the memories are fading, kept alive by a few lines in the KU track media guide and the portraits of quiet corridors of Allen Field House.
Yet, during the 1960s, the RELAys soldiered on, drawing large crowds and seeing numerous records—NCAA, U.S. and world—set.
The Relays witnessed many historic events during the decade of Truman and Eisenhower, Korea and the Suez Canal. Not the least among these was the feat of Don Cooper, a Nebraska pole vaunter.
Track records are made to be broken, but with the advent of the fiberglass vaulting pole in the late 60s, pole vaulters during the era of the bamboo pole particularly suffered. Cooper's feat—becoming during the 1951 season—was clearer when he clear 15 feet—locks up today, when 17 and 18-foot vaults are commonplace.
THE FOLLOWING YEAR, 1952, the Relays were somewhat overshadowed by the accomplishments of the basketball squad. That year, KU students sampled some of the thrill a school can receive when its team goes far in the NCAA playoffs, but it was in 1923 that the 'Hawks won all the war.
Led by the massive 6-foot-9 Cyclole Lovetle, who scored 148 points during the NCAA tournament, the Jayhawks of Coach Foster C. "O'Pall" Allen
defeated St. John's, 80-63, to win the NCAA crown.
Despite the publicity for KU that the basketball team kicked up, the number of teams attending the Relays that year did not increase significantly. In fact, if dropped by 30. Seven colleges and universities attended the Relays that year, compared to 16 universities, 31 colleges and 11 junior colleges in 1951.
Weather, a problem during past Relays and always a concern in windy Kansas, was especially bad in '52
However, a rain-soaked cinder track did not appear to bother the 4-mile relay team of Lloyd Koby, Art Dallaztey Wes Sante and Herb Semper. They scorched the track for an NCAA-run 17:21.2 m-relay, with Semper turning a 4:17 anchor leg on the soggy track.
SANTEE, A SOPHOMORE, was named the outstanding performer of the meet on the strength of his Relays performance. Later that year, Santee appeared in the Olympic Games at Helsinki, Finland, along with seven members of the NCAA-champion Jayhawk basketball team.
If 1952 had been the year of the runner, 1956 was the year of the weightlifter. KU feature outstanding performers in each of three major field events - Blied Nicole in the shot, Aoler in the disc and Les Bitner in
the javelin—and the swept all three events by considerable margins. At a dual meet against Oklahoma A [M the week before, the burly Nieder had given a sneak preview of his Relays performance by throwing through the hole on the horizontal loomning on the horizon to valence Nieder for meet supremacy was world-record holder Paddy O'Brien, who had a 61-5 put to his credit.
IN CHILLY TEMPERATURES,
15,000 spectators turned out to watch
the duel between Nieder, the first
collegian to break the 60-foot barrier,
and O'Brien, the eventual Olympic gold
medalist. O'Brien, who had matriculated at Southern Cal, was competing on an exhibition basis.
As it turned out, the Nieder-O'Brien duel was a meek preview of the 1966 Olympic shot-put competition in Germany. With best efforts, he was unable to defeat the 6-foot-2, 325 pound O'Brien, whose 60-2% loss just nipped the 59-7-7 effort. Later that year, O'Brien took the ball from the Nieder the silver at Melbourne.
It was in 1959, however, that one of the Relays' most moving moments occurred—and it was caused by a young man that even won his win.
Wayne Harper, of Vermilion, Kan., placed four in his mile heat, to be exact. it wasn't the Glen Cunningham mile, either; it was a Class B heat. Yet he determined around the track, won the hearts of some 10,000 spectators.
The reason? Harper was running without his right arm, which he lost to a thrashing hay baler the year before.
"It was hard keeping my balance," he later related. "I had to lean to the right to compensate."
1970s
From page 3
failed to repeat in the decathlon but finished fourth.
The Relays had come and gone without Rynn, only the second time in 10 years the Kansas miler had been turned professional with the ill-fated International Track Association. Bob Timmons, KU's and Rynn's long-time coach, tried to bring Ryton to the NCAA Right Conference said no permission allowed.
RYUN, NATURALLY, wasn't there
again in 1974, and neither were the spectators. But the rain was.
Few more than 8,000 came to see a new collection of Relays faces. Most of the Munch Olympians were gone, and their greatest gifts from KU's teams in the 1960s.
As President Nixon was ordered to surrender the Watergate tapes, Jenner entered track prominence with 8,240 points in the decayation—only four of them were hit during the game better. Jenner also had beaten Bennett, a former Olympian.
THERE WAS A familiar face and name at the 1975 Relays but he had a new identity. The name was Ivory by the snapper man sprinter who bled in many Bedford Hills.
Now he had become the world's fastest human, leaving the wasland of 2.9 spinters with a 9.0 the previous year. But usual, he failed at the Kansas Relays.
The entire Relays had problems that year. There were few stars, few stellar performances.
See 1970s page 7
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