PAGE 16 University Daily Kansan Friday. April 20, 1956
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—(Daily Kansan photo)
KANSAS' LONE SPRINT HOPE—The KU Jayhawks will be leaning heavily on speedster Dick Blair, not only in Saturday's Kansas Relays but in the rest of the season's meets, and particularly in their quest to capture the NCAA track meet, to be held June 15-16 in Berkley, Calif.
Dick Blair Best All-Purpose Sprinter In Kansas History
KU's lone varsity sprinter, senior Dick Blair, is rated as being the best all-purpose sprinter in the school's history. How far up the ladder Blair will place in the 100-yard dash at the KU Relays may depend entirely on how much good weather is available.
Earlier this season at the Texas Relays Blair placed third in a fast 100-meter dash. It was his first outdoor meet of the season and he didn't appear to be in as good shape as the two men finishing ahead of him, who had participated in four other meets before the Texas event.
Blair should be in better condition today and Saturday, and if the weatherman obliges with good weather, he may be tough to beat in the 100-yard dash.
Holds 60-vard Mark
The Jayhawker team captain holds the school record in the 60-yard dash at :60.2 which he used to win the 1955 Big Seven Conference title. This mark also ties the Big Seven record for the distance. Blair won the 60 again this year at Kansas City with a :60.3 clocking. He is co-holder of the school and Big Seven Conference 220 record of :20.8.
Blair has won the outdoor conference 220-yard title two years in a row and last year added the 100-yard dash crown. His all-time low in the 100 is :99.5 in last year's preliminaries at the KU Relays. Until then, his best time had been :99.6 in a dual meet with Oklahoma A&M.
Last summer Blair won nine out of ten races while touring Europe. His lone loss came in in his last race in London, when
Although Blair doesn't train for the 440-yard dash, he undoubtedly could be the fastest quarter-miler in the conference, and possibly capable of placing second or third in the NCAA finals in that event. However, it is doubtful that he will run the 440, since he is so badly needed in the shorter dashes.
he placed third after pulling a leg muscle. In four of his 100-meter races he was clocked in :01.4 and also ran two :21.0 200-meter races.
Used frequently as a lead-off or anchorman on KU's mile relay team. Blair ran his all-time best of :47.0 to start Kansas' winning distance medley team at this year's Texas Relays. Last summer he set a new school record of :47.8 in the 400-meter dash at Copenhagen, Denmark.
He anchored the Jayhawkers to an indoor mile relay school record of 3:21.6 last year with a :49.2 clocking. Blair also ran the second leg of the 1954 sprint medley relay which set a new American indoor record at the Michigan State Relays. The same team later established the sprint medley outdoor world's record of 3:20.2 at the Texas Relays.
47-Second Quarter
Blair finished fourth in the 220-yard dash at the NCAA championships in California last summer with a :21.6 time. Two weeks later he placed second in the event at the National AAU meet in :21.1, tying the old meet record.
Blair is not outstanding in track alone. The pre-med senior from Osborne maintains about a 2.4 grade average and is president of Sachem, senior's men honorary society.
High Jump Open Event This Year
The change of the high jump into an open event could make it one of the brightest attractions in the 31st running of the Kansas Relays here April 21.
Meet director Bill Easton announced the change. The high jump always has been strictly a collegiate event in this meet. This year it will be open to any competitor. This move has AAU sanction, thereby allying the high jump closely with the hop-step-jump, Glenn Cunningham mile, 400-meter hurdles, and 3000-meter steeplechase, the four open events which are annual affairs.
Easton made this move at the requests of many coaches, and because this is an Olympic year. The collegians will not be disturbed. Awards will go to the top three men in each class and separate summaries will be filled even though collegians and non-collegians will compete together.
2 Stars Set
America's two greatest high-jumpers, Ernie Shelton, formerly of USC, now competing with the Los Angeles A.C. and Charlie Dumas, national prep record holder, now of Compton Junior College, have been invited to compete, among others. Shelton recorded the world's highest jump of 1955, $6-11\frac{1}{4}$, just a quarter of an inch below Buddy Davis' three-year-old world mark. The lean Trojan has been near 7 feet the past two years. Dumas set his mark last May at 6-9$\frac{3}{2}$ for Compton's Centennial high school. Soon after graduation, he went even higher, tying Shelton for the NAAU title at 6-10 and recording an all-time high of 6-10$\frac{1}{4}$ a week previous to the Boulder meet.
Notre Dame's Bernie Allard is expected to defend his title in the standard University-college division. His leap of 6-7-3 last year has been bettered only four times in Relays history, Bobby Walters, Texas record holder, cleared 6-8-2 in 1949. Davis and Drake's Arnie Bettion tied in '52 at 6-7-4. Colorado's Gil Cruter reached 6-7-9/16 in 1938 to set a record which survived until Walters' leap 11 years later
Champions Back
The latter race will be run over the Olympic distance of 1500 meters, following such meet routine every four years. Last man to win at that distance is Iowa's Ted Wheeler, who is enjoying his best season after two years in service. He scored a Mile-880 double in the Big Ten Indoor earlier this month. He ran 3:54.4 years ago, one and a tenth seconds off Cunningham's long-standing Relays record erected in 1933.
At least three defending champions in the remaining open events are returning. Gene O'Conner, Kansas State, in the intermediate barriers; KU's Bobbv Nicholson in the steeplechase and his teammate, Kent Floerke, in the hop-step-jump. All were freshmen last year, competing unattached. Nicholson cut Rich Ferguson's bid for a triple as the blond Iowa dropped to third after winning in 1952 and 1954. Floerke set a meet record of $49-\frac{1}{2}$, then went on to finish third for the second time in the NAAU.
the fourth 1955 winner, Wes Santee, is, at present, ineligible to compete because of an AAU lifetime ban from amateur track. He set a record of 4:03.1 two years ago as a Kansas senior and repeated last year in 4:11.4.
Baseball Schedule
April 23-24 Kansas State at Law-
April 27-28-Oklahoma at Lawrence
April 30—Open
April 30—Open
May 1—Nebraska at Lincoln
May 4-5— Iowa State at Lawrence
Mya 11-12—Missouri at Columbia
May 15—Central Missouri at War-
rensburg
May 18-19—Colorado at Boulder
May 21-22—Missouri at Lawrence
PCC Dominated All-America
Following the 1955 NCAA Track Championships at Los Angeles in June, the rules committee selected 42 men for the all-American squad, using the basis of three men for each of the 14 events. Fifteen of these athletes were from schools representing the Pacific Coast Conference.
GOPHER CHAMPION-Byrl Thompson, Minnesota shot and discus champion, will be trying for both these titles in the Kansas Relays. At 28, Thompson is one of the oldest competitors in the Relays. He faces stiff competition in the shot from Bill Nieder and Parry O'Brien.
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