Page 12
University Daily Kansan
Friday, April 17, 1953
THANE BAKER
Thane Baker Out for Triple KU Dash Win
Thane Baker, Kansas State's Olympic rocket, can write Kansas Relays history here tomorrow by winning his third consecutive Mt. Oread 100-yard dash.
No spinner in the annals of the Jayhawk games ever has scored a triple. And past fields have included the likes of Nebraska's NCAA champion, Roland Locke; Jack Elder, the former North Carolina coach; Ellerbe, Tuskegee's two-time NCAA king; and Texas' blazing pair of Charlie Parker and Allen Lawler.
Parker missed the first leg of a triple when Lawer beat him by an eyelash in the mud and rain of the west straightaway in 1947. Charlie won in '48 and again in '59. Locke, Elder, Duward Crooms of Emmoria Teachers, and Lester Erwin, old K-State ace who won the first two Re-lays' centuries in 1923 and 1924, each won two gold medals.
Baker snared the first log toward his triple here in 51 when he whipped Hayden Fields, Howard Payne's Texas Relays' champion, in a :10-flat effort. He was just beginning to ascend to prominence at that time, having placed no better than fourth in the Big Seven indoor 60 and second in the 440 that winter.
Last year he beat a glistening field that included those Texas Tornadoes, Dean Smith and Charlie Thomas, plus Larry McBride of Houston, and Drake's Jim Ford, the NCAA 200-meter champion, who pulled up with a lame leg. His time was 909.5, his best on record and he had run the same figure in one of his preliminary heats.
Thomas and McBride are returning this year. So is the latter's teammate, Harry Jett and Paul Wells, little Oklahoma A&M flyer. There were three well known former joins by TCUs Roland Clinkscale, who was kept out of the recent Texas Relays by an injury. He has done :99.6 this year.
Baker already has clipped all this group but Clinkscale this year, winning at Austin in :10.0, in a crosswind.
The blazing Wildcat hasn't lost an open race since last summer when he finished second in the Olympic 200 meters, then ran in post-game meets in a European tour. He won both the conference 60 and quarter titles indoors in February and added his second National Championship Colorado Invitational 60 and 440 before opening the outdoor season at Austin.
Only other individual in sight of a triple-crown completion is Darrow Hooper, Texas A&M's mighty weight-pegger. He is shooting for a double in the discus and shot put.
That also would be a new high in Relays history since no other implement ace has managed a triangular victory in those two events. In fact only three, Honk Irwin of Texas A&M; Sam Francis, Nebraska, and Minnesota's Fortune Gordien, have annexed both these titles in a single meet.
Hooper won here as a sophomore with respective throws of 51-73 and 145-51. Last year he upped those marks to 53-9 and 152-81. He already has wrought a triple at Texas, establishing a shot put record of 56-2) as an added jewel in that event.
Kansas Relays triple crown winners;
Jee Sentmen, Illinois,
120 HI
120 HH...'29-30-31
Sam Allen, Okla. Baptist
120 HH...'34-35-36
Tom Poor, Kansas.
High jump ... '23-24-25
Farle McKoup, Emm. Techs
Earle McKown, Emp. Tehs.
Pole vault,
"24-24-25"
Pole vault ... 23-24-25
Beefus Brvan, Texas.
Custum, Pole vault...'38-40-41
Harbur Rhineharnter
Mile run ... '32-33-34-36-39
Hugh Rhea, Nebraska,
Shot Put ... '30-31-32
Elmer Hackney, K-State,
Shot put ... '38-39-40
Glenn Cunningham, Kansas,
Mile run ... '32-33-24-36-39
CAR TUNES
GET THE "PEEL" OF THE ROAD =
BETWEEN YOUR CAR AND NO OTHER CARS AND NEAR-
SLLOWLY AND NO OTHER CARS AND NEAR-
SLLOWLY.
By DON TICE
How many times have you seen a high jumper or pole vaulter clear the bar by several inches, and then only get credit for the height of the bar?
We have seen this happen many times. The vaulter paces down the path towards the standards, gaining speed with every step, and then顺利地 cross-bar, as someone says "see," he cleared it at least six inches!
Electric Eye Urged to Record Jumps
barrier. It looks like a shame not to be able to credit the athlete with his margin of safety.
Very occasionally a jumper or valuer just barely clears the bar, but most of the time you can see plenty of light between man and
Is there any way the actual height of a leap could be measured? We think so. The wonders of modern science have been applied to other events in track, as in the use of the electronic timer in races, so why not "go modern" in the jumping events?
We think it would work to use electric circuit breakers, "electric eyes," to record the jumps. These are the same little gimmicks that flash the red light and ring a bell every time you slide a little too far when you are bowling.
If a series of these little lights could be set in each of the standards that hold the cross-bar, ranging several inches above where the bar rests, a much more accurate measurement could be made.
When the jumper clears the bar, the lowest part of his body will break the invisible beam, recording the actual height of the jump. And another thing, an electronic beam doesn't sag in the middle like a cross-bar.
We haven't found a panacea for the 4 minute mile as yet, but give us time (or Wes Santee vitamin pills) and that one might be taken care of.