FRIDAY, APRIL 20, 1951
UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN, LAWRENCE, KANSAS
SEC-B PAGE-NINE
26 Years Of Kansas Relays
Twenty-Sixth anniversary and all, the Kansas Relays will be celebrated Saturday with as great an array of track and field talent as has ever been assembled in Memorial stadium. From every part of the nation will come entries ranging from all-Americans to Kansas schoolboys, all of them seeking glory in the Mount Oread Olympics.
On the afternoon of April 23, 1923, when the carnival in Lawrence was inaugurated, the dream of a Kansas alumnus came true. Dr. John Outland had envisioned a huge track and field meet on Mt. Oread while doing graduate work at the University of Pennsylvania, home of the prominent Penn Relays.
From 1923 to 1949, the Kansas Relays has steadily evolved to a tremendous Middle West spectacle that draws 10,000 or more spectators annually. And each year it seems to get better.
Dr. Outland returned to the University and told his ideas to Dr. F. C. "Phog" Allen, then K.U. athletic director. Dr. Allen and his track coach, Karl Schlademan, started forming plans for a Kansas Relays. That was in the spring of 1920.
At the first Relays were a score of colleges and universities. All Missouri Valley schools were there, the Big Ten was represented, several Southwest conference teams entered, and the University of Pennsylvania came all the way westward for the event. Kansas wasn't too polite a host—dominating the meet by winning the 440- and 880-yard relays, finishing second in the mile relay, third in the two-mile relay, and taking two individual titles. Almost every event was run in a steady rain.
A year later the Relays had attained national prominence with 95 schools from coast to coast entered. Little Occidental college came out of California to make one of the most wholesale sweeps in the carnival's history. The Californians slammed all four baton events held in the college class with record-breaking times and invaded the University division for a triumph in the quarter-mile relay.
With the meet insured for $4,000 against rain, the 1925 Relays was one of the most eventful on record as three world records were broken. Famous Knute Rockne of Notre Dame was referee. Another football coaching great, Fielding "Hurry-Up" Yost of Michigan, referered the 1926 meet, also a record-breaking affair.
The meet of 1927 stands out because the Relays had a relapse with only 44 schools entered. But Dr. Allen arose to the occasion and a year later had things thriving by introducing the decathlon and a marathon from Topeka to Lawrence.
Things ran smoothly until 1931 when officials of the still-young Big Six conference met to consider banning the Relays. But the ban was not approved and the meet that year was one of the best of all time. Grid coaches were still favored for the referee's duties. That year it was Alonzo Stagg.
Rain kept all records safe in 1932, a year in which Dr. Garfield Weede —1950 Relays referee—saw his Pittsburgh State Teachers teams run off with most of the honors. In 1933 Dr. Weede's mile relay quartet set a college class record of 3:17.3 which defied all comers until last year when Abilene-Christian covered the distance in 3:16.8.
Featuring the special mile race between the immortal Glenn Cunningham and Gene Venzke, the 1934 carnival drew a crowd of 10,000. Cunningham won in 4:12.7. Kansas State Teachers of Emporia broke what was then the world record in the distance medley with a 10:32.7 performance. But in 1939 North Texas State circled the oval in the fabulous time of 10:06.9.
Eight records went by the board in 1935 to make that year's Relays one of the best. In 1936, star of the meet was Glenn Morris who gave the greatest Relays decathlon performance in history.
Again in 1937 it was the special mile which drew 10,000 fans. Archie San Romani, Emporia State's greatest distance runner ever, defeated Cunningham with a nifty 4:14.1 showing.
Despite sullen skies, the field in 1938 sent eight marks down the drain. A record Relays attendance of 12,000 saw Cunningham come back to win the special mile in 1939.
Cunningham had his last Relays special mile appearance in 1940, and it was not a glorious one. For the Jayhawker all-time great was whipped by Blaine Rideout of North Texas State. But Rideout had set the present record of 4.10.1. Now the special mile is named the Glenn Cunningham mile.
And the war caused cancellation of the meet in 1943, '44, and '45.
In 1941 Indiana dominated the meet. With World War II already beginning to squeeze the sports world, the 20th Relays in 1942 were almost a Big Six affair.
The first post-war Relays in 1946 got off to a steady start which saw respectable performances all along the line although every record survived. The worst rain and cold in the Relays history reduced the 1947 meet to a whisper. Six men tied for first place in the rain-drenched pole vault at 11 feet 6 inches, lowest height in the carnival's history.
Bill Easton engineered the Relays for the first time in 1948 and the records again began to fall. Harrison Dillard, Baldwin-Wallace hurdler, and Michigan's great shot putter, Charles Fonville, established world marks in their specialties.
Don Gehrmann, Wisconsin's famous miler, and Bob Walters, a virtually unknown Texas high jumper, were individual standouts in 1949. Gehrmann equalled the mile record of 4:10.1, and Walters elevated the high jump standard to 6 feet 8 3/16 inches.
Eight new records marked the Silver Jubilee in 1950 as competing squads shot to their highest post-war peak in re-writing the book on a warm, windy day. Voted most outstanding was the feat of Oklahoma's Bill Carroll who sprang 14 feet 5 inches in the pole vault to smash an 11-year old mark held by Beefus Bryan of Texas, at 14 feet 2 inches.
Another Oklahoma entry, the sprint medley team, scored the most sensational relay victory of the day when Bill Jacobs burned an unofficial 1:52.6 anchor leg to lift the Sooners to a 3:24.3 record time.
Thus through the years have been the Kansas Relays. This year many records—superior as they are—can not hope to survive. For the Kansas Relays attract many of the greatest track and field stars in America.
High Schools From All Over Kansas Open 47th Annual Relays Today
By JIM VAN VALKENBURG
One of the nation's oldest and largest high school track meets, the 47th Annual Kansas Interscholastic Relays, will draw approximately 1,400 of the state's best athletes from 155 schools into Memorial stadium today.
Fans have been able since 1923 to see some of the country's best college and high school track talent within two days, since the high school meet is held a day before the Kansas Relays. During the war years, the high school meet took center stage.
The meet has for many years been a preview of the state meet. All three of the K.U. winners last year—Wichita East in Class AA, Kingman in Class A, and Coldwater in Class B—repeated in the state meet, and most of the individual winners ran 1-2.
All three defending champs have been hurt by graduation. Of the three, Wincita East seems to have the best chance of repeating and moving ahead of Lawrence for the all-time lead in team championships.
Cold, wind, and rain caused postponement of the Anthony Relays and hampered the athletes in other carnivals, but some big meets have been held. Wichita North will be a top threat in Class AA. The Redskins beat East in a dual, and out-scored Hutchinson 81 to 65 for first place in the Sterling Relays, with Garden City, an easy winner in its own early meet, a distant third.
East showed power at the Ottawa Relays, outscoring Shawnee-Mission 641/6 to $48\frac{1}{2}$ for the AA crown, while Topeka had $38\frac{2}{5}$, and Lawrence $37\frac{1}{2}$. Wyandotte won the Pittsburg Relays with $63\frac{1}{2}$, 10 more than runner-up Coffeeville. Wyandotte was second by seven points to East at K.U. last year and will probably be in the picture again.
In Class B a wide-open race appears certain. Last year Coldwater was impressive, scoring 30 points more than any other school at K.U. Attica scored 37, Pretty Prairie $30\%$ at Sterling, while Moran won the title at Pittsburgh, and Conway Springs led at Ottawa.
Stafford, a close second to Kingman in the state last year, won a close battle with Ellis and Hoisington for the A title at Sterling and will be a threat here. Fredonia, a perennial power, was second here last year, and won the Class A title at Pittsburg. But the Haskell Indians, now in Class A after an enrollment drop, might be the team to beat. The Indians were impressive in winning at Ottawa with 53/3/7 points, 18 more than Rosedale.
The meet has been at pre-war standards the past two years and last year the marks were over-all the best since 1838. Records are hard to break, since they go by events, and not by classes, but three marks fell last year. Several will be in danger this year.
Wichita East's string of six titles was ended in 1949 by Shawnee-Mission, but the Blue Aces came back last year for their eighth crown, the other coming in 1940. Lawrence also has won eight titles, but most of them came before the meet was quite as large as it is now, and when the Lions were relatively larger in enrollment in the state picture.
Wichita North has won three titles, and Wichita High six before being divided into East and North. Wichita thus has 17 championships in all. Winfield has four crowns, tied El Dorado for another, and Arkansas City and Hutchinson have three each,
giving the Ark Valley league 28 titles. Others with more than one are Topeka three, Wyandotte and Summer two each.
The Class B division was inaugurated here in 1909, and the three-class system in 1945. Winners in the new Class A division started in 1945 have been Marysville twice, Hugoton, Ottawa, Fredonia, and Kingman, one each.
Valley Falls leads in the well-
divided Class B division with five
titles, and Chase County has four,
Pratt, Kiowa, and Kansas Vocational
School three each. Leon, Alma,
Mount Hope, Dickinson County,
and Moran have all won twice.
For the third straight year the medley relay will be omitted in
order to shorten the meet, and pre-
liminaries and semi-finals in the
100-yard dash and high hurdles
will be run simultaneously on on-
opposite sides of the track, speeding up
the meet.
The six one-mile relay teams with the best times, regardless of class, will be selected to compete in a special high school mile relay event at the K.U. Relays the following day.
Sections will be run in the 440, 880, and mile, with each section being scored as a separate event. Medals will be awarded in each class on the basis of best times. Preliminaries will open at 9 a.m. and all the finals, except for a few field events, will be completed in the afternoon, starting at 1:30.
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These young Jayhawkers, David Galloway, Dick Warner and Chris Barteldes, are rooting for the K.U. tracksters. David's sweat shirt, Dick's cardigan, and the "T" shirt Chris is wearing are available at ROWLANDS, sizes 1 to 44, from $1.25 to $3.75. Come in and see us at 1401 Ohio or 1237 Oread for your books, school supplies, and Jayhawker souvenirs.
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