FRIDAY, APRIL 20. 1951
UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN, LAWRENCE, KANSAS
SEC—B. PAGE ELEVEN
Easton Guides KU Teams To National Prominence
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By RAY SOLDAN
Daily Kansan Sports Writer
When track enthusiasts begin talking distance running, the name of Bill Easton soon bobs into the conversation. The Jayhawker track coach wove a spectacular success pattern at Drake university and is continuing it at K.U.
In his four years since taking over the Crimson and Blue reins, his Jayhawker cross-country teams have swept four Big Seven championships. And Kansas has soared into the national picture under Easton—finishing seventh in the national cross-country event in 1948, sixth in 1949, and fourth in 1950.
In his under-graduate days at the University of Indiana, Easton was a quarter-miler of better-than-average ability. At Indiana he learned the how's and why's of distance coaching from the late Ellly Jayes, one of the best in the business.
Easton coached high school track in Indiana for several years, then moved to Drake. However he apparently couldn't bear to tear completely away from the Hoosier state, so he took a little memento with him—Mrs. Bill Easton, a Hobart, Ind., girl.
He left quite a record behind him when he shifted to Drake—but quite a record was still in front of him too. As coach at Hammond, Ind., high school, Easton's cross-country teams won 64 of 72 duals, five state championships, and was runnerup three times. Hammond also bagged three indoor state prep titles and two out-of-doors.
At Drake, he really hit the big time. He turned out three consecutive N.C.A.A. cross-country team champions in 1944, 1945, and 1946, an unprecedented feat. As track fans know, the N.C.A.A. championship is the national championship.
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His 1945 Drake club won the Central Collegiate conference indoor track title, while his 1947 Bulldog four-mile relay unit scored a grand slam with victories at the Texas, Kansas, and Drake relays (a feat that his 1950 Kansas team duplicated).
The jovial track tactician packed up his sweat shirts, stop watches, and strict training rules and moved to Kansas in the fall of 1947. If he was looking for new worlds to conquer, he had certainly come to the right place. K.U. wasn't a complete nobody in the track world, but it didn't miss it far. An outdoor championship in 1946 was the only conference track crown that the Jayhawkers had won in 14 years.
Easton was quick to produce results. His 1947 Jayhawk runners caught the Big Seven by surprise to finish one-two-three and win the cross country championship in snow at Ames, Iowa. In doing it, Kansas scored a record low of 22 points. Missouri copied the opening dual meet that season, but the Jayhawkers haven't been beaten in a dual since—their streak presently stands at 16 straight.
The next season, the Kansans lowered their own record to 19 points in easily winning, and in 1949 won their third-successive crown with 22 points. Bob Karnes, Kansas's greatest distance man since Glenn Cunningham, won the individual championship all three years
This fall Kansas won its fourthstraight two-mile title, and for the fourth-straight year produced the individual champion. Herb Semper, a fast-striding junior, stepped off the two miles in the second lowest time in meet history.
In three of these four seasons.
the Jayhawker freshmen won the conference telegraphic two-mile meet. This fall's frrost team is undoubtedly the best in school history.
Before he finishes his college career, Semper, a Forrest Park, III, product, may become the greatest distance runner ever coached by Easton. And Easton has coached some truly great ones. Semper, with a year of competition remaining, already has won two national titles and holds the conference records for both the indoor and outdoor two mile. Herb's national titles are the National Junior A.A.U. 5,000-meter run which he won last summer at College Park, Md., and the N.C.A.A. cross-country run which he won this past fall at East Lansing, Mich.
Other Easton-coached aces include Fred Freiler, who was twice N.C.A.A. cross-country king at Drake; Bill Mack, who ran on four N.C.A.A. cross-country championship teams—two at Drake under Easton and two at Michigan State; and Karnes of Kansas, who would have won the 1947 N.C.A.A. cross-country crown had he not taken a wrong turn just 200 yards from the finish line.
Easton's distance aces have run off with 11-straight conference two-mile titles. This includes fall cross-country and the indoor and outdoor
meets. Karnes also won both the indoor and outdoor crowns the year before Easton came to Lawrence, so a KU, runner has finished first in the two-mile run at 13 consecutive conference meets—Karnes nine (three each, fall, indoor, and outdoor) and now Semper four.
Add to this, five mile and four half-mile championships in seven meets, then throw in seven other assorted league championships, and you have a heap of hardware in the possession of Jayhawk tracksters—all in three and a half years. In fact, only Missouri can claim even half as many individual champions over these years as Kansas. The powerful Tigers have produced 23 individual champs. Kansas 27.
Capitalizing on its strong distance power, the Jayhawkers pulled a big upset to win the 1950 Big Seven indoor track title—K.U.'s first since 1934. Easton's distance power is as strong as ever, and he is currently building up his sprint and field event power. And when he gets the job done, look out!
Easton hasn't limited his cinder success to coaching. He is recognized as one of the shrewdest relay promoters in the land. He headed the Drake Relays for eight years and built it into one of the nations' finest, and has proved in just three
Watch How A Champ Does It, Boys
If you can't beat 'em, recruit 'em.
That was the philosophy that brought Jim McConnell to University of Kansas as assistant track coach last summer.
The former University of Nebraska decathlon star won the Mt. Oread decathlon grind in 1949 and 1950 besides being a four-year powerhouse on the Cornhusker track team that has long been a thorn in the side of the Jayhawkar thinclads.
At Kansas, McConnell's job has been to build up field strength—a weakness in Kansas track teams that has often enabled opponents to sneak through the meet—deciding points and nullify the efforts of the distance runners.
At Central City, Neb., High school McConnell lettered three years in football, was state champion in the shot and discus and Class B high and 10w hurdle titlist. As a sophomore he finished sixth in the Kansas Relays decathlon with 6.242 points
but returned the next year and walked off with the championship and 6,698 points. Last year his 7,120 points enabled him to become the second man since 1935 to break the 7,000 point mark.
Brayton Norton, Santa Ana Junior college sophomore finished close behind McConnell with 7.083 points.
Following is McConnell's summary in the 1950 Kansas Relays complete with the number of points earned and how he finished.
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| Event | Place | Effort | Pts. |
| :--- | :--- | :--- | :--- |
| 100-yard dash | 4 | 11.2 | 787 |
| Broad jump | 1 | 21", 9½" | 711 |
| Shot put | 1 | 47", 3¾" | 860 |
| High jump | tie-3 | 5", 8¼" | 710 |
| 400-meter run | 4 | 51", 8¼" | 796 |
| 110-meter hurdil's | 2 | 15.6 | 833 |
All Eyes On Texas Aggie Record Buster
By FORREST MILLER
Daily Kansan Assistant Sports Editor
The man who has broken every previous shot put record in the Southwest Conference, Texas A. and M's Darrow Hooper, will be one of the most closely-watched stars in the Kansas Relays Saturday. Hooper, holder of the national high
Hooper, holder of the national high school shot put record of 59 feet, 101/8 inches, recently threw the 16-pound metal ball 53 feet, 1 inch, to cop the Texas Relays championship. The feat, plus a 148 feet, 9/4 inches discus heave, earned him the honor of the "most outstanding participant" in the Texas Relays.
Hooper will have to have his best day in history Saturday if he expects his name to be engraved on the Kansas Relays record books. Charles Fonville, Michigan's great weightman, holds the Kansas Relays shot put mark of 58 feet, % inches set in 1948.
The Texan's best discus heave so far this year, 157 feet, $2\frac{3}{4}$ inches, also is considerably short of the Relays mark of 171 feet, $6\frac{3}{4}$ inches set by Indiana's Archie Harris back in 1941.
One of the best athletes ever to come from North Side high school in Fort Worth, Hooper was a three sports letterman in both junior and senior high school. However, his activities are not confined to the spring sport. Last fall he handled kick-off and extra point duties for Texas A. & M's football team and booted 38 of 51 conversions for the Aggies. He lettered as a combination quarterback-end.
Married to a North Side high school schoolmate since he entered
college, Hooper is one of Col. Frank Anderson's most 'conscientious squadden. Andy, as everyone calls the Texas A. and M. track coach who
DARROW HOOPER
Texas A. and M. Weight Man
The 6 foot, 3 inch handsome lad's record began in junior high school when he was 11 years old. He threw the eight-pound shot 49 feet, $4 \frac{1}{2}$ inches, a city record which stood until 1949. Softball and basketball were his other sports.
was formerly one of the best high school pole vaulters in the country, says "Darrow is a good, all-around athlete and a fine student."
During his first year in high school, Hooper placed second in the state meet with a 51 feet, 6 inch throw in the shot and 148 feet in the discus. The following year he won the city conference in both these events with his national record throw using the 12-pound shot.
He won the city conference again his senior year with a shot throw of 57 feet, 8 inches and a discuss effort of 170 feet, 10 inches. At the state meet he hurled the metal for 59 feet, $5^{\frac{1}{2}}$ inches and the discs a fabulous 176 feet, 7 inches—a national record which stood for three weeks.
1 132,"31₂" 721
1 11,"914" 729
2 174,"814" 648
3 51.67 325
4 51.67 325
The young star could have gone to any Southwestern Conference college, but his brother, Wallace, a junior at Texas A. and M., induced him to come to the College Station school.
As a freshman last year, Hooper threw 50 feet, $3\frac{1}{2}$ inches to exceed the existing S.W.C. record of 50 feet, $2\frac{1}{4}$ inches, but it didn't count because he was a freshman. This year, he'll probably better the mark which has stood since 1834.
Discus
Pole Vault
Javelin throw
1500-meter run
years that he hasn't lost his touch since coming to Mt. Oread. He is currently secretary-treasurer of the National Track Coaches association.
Bill Easton, whose given name is Millard, not William, is a strict disciplinarian. He prescribes plenty of plain ol' run-run-run for his disciples, and chides them with a booming "come on now, let's get out and get the job done," when they begin to lag. And "booming" is just the word for Wild Bill's voice. It has been suggested that the public address system be done away with at the Kansas Relays, and let Easton announce the results, sans microphone, megaphone, or what-not.
And he could probably do it.
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