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Section B
University Daily Kansan
Friday, April 19, 1957
SPORTS
32nd Annual KU Relays Begin At 9 a.m.Saturday
Packing 31 track and field final events, plus the preliminaries and the decathlon into seven hours of continuous action, the college half of the 32nd annual KU Relays opens Saturday at 9 a.m. in Memorial Stadium.
The second of three stops along a relay chain, starting at Austin, Texas April 5 and 6 and ending at Des Moines, Iowa, April 26 and 27, the KU Relays rank as one of the top outdoor attractions in college track.
Preceding the college performers to the stage of this giant outdoor spectacle will be Kansas high school track athletes who will be competing today in the 53rd annual scholastic meet.
Easton Seeks Sixth Big 7 Grand Slam
If Coach Bash Easton guides his KU track team to the Big Seven outdoor track crown at Lincoln, Neb. May 17 and 18, it will be his sixth consecutive grand slam of all three track crowns in one year.
Fans at the KU Relays will see Olympic winners, world record holders, and the very best in performances, providing the weather, which has usually been bad for the Relays, doesn't act up. Last year the skies were filled with sunshine and meet officials are hoping for more of the same.
KU Alum's Dream Ends In KU Relays
With ideal weather conditions last year, athletes gunned down nine one world record before 15.000 fans.
The Jayhawkers will be hoping to match last year's harvest of six first place trophies, a feat never accomplished by KU teams in the past. They should do it and might improve on the record, should they stave off Oklahoma's bid in the sprint medley.
No other school has put together one grand slam in the history of the conference.
Dees Undefeated In Big Six Shotput
It was raining in Lawrence on a spring day in 1923 when 20 colleges gathered at KU for the first running of the now famous KU Relavs.
He never was defeated in a conference dual or league meet during his entire varsity career. He won the old Big Six shot put crown six times in a row, three indoors and three outdoors.
Elwyn Dees, KU's first NCAA shot put champion, can lay claim to a string of loop performances that may never be matched again.
Dees later added the KU Relays record to his interscholastic record when he heaved the 16-pound ball 51 feet $3\frac{1}{2}$ inches in 1935.
(Darry Kansan photo)
1956 KU Relays with a 13 foot 6 inch leap. Lewis is a senior vaulter who improved to 13 feet 6 inches during the indoor season. He was fifth in the conference indoor as a sophomore.
PUT YOUR BEST POLE FORWARD—Bob Lewis and Dave Tams get ready for the Relays. Tams was the first 14-foot pole vaulter in Kansas history, reaching 14-1 in an indoor dual against Pittsburg State. He tied for third in the
Kansas came on out top in that first running. The Jayhawkers won the 440- and 880-yard relays, took second in the mile relay and placed third in the 2-mile relay.
A Kansas Relays had been the life-long dream of Dr. John Outland, Kansas alumnus. He thought seriously about the idea while a graduate student at the University of Pennsylvania, home of the world famous Penn Relays.
Dr. Outland's dream was realized when those 20 colleges entered the first of what was to become one of the world's greatest athletic events -The Kansas Relays.
The Jayhawkers had to compete against all the Missouri Valley teams, some Big Ten and Southwest Conference schools and Pennsylvania.
Rockne Referee
In 1924 little Occidental college travelled 2,500 miles to win a grand slam by taking the four baton events in record breaking times and also winning the quarter-mile relay.
Knute Rocke, Notre Dame's immortal football coach, was the referee in 1925 in a Kansas Relays that was insured for $5,000 against rain. Three world records were shattered and it did not rain.
Only 44 teams, a drop from the previous two years, entered the Relays in 1927.
Fhog Allen introduced the marathon and decathlon events in 1928 and in 1931 Big Six officials met to consider banning the Relays. Amos Alonzo Stagg was named referee and the Kansas Relays had their best year to date.
Pittsburgh State Teachers walked off with all the honors in 1932 while a driving rain protected all the records.
A record which lasted 18 years was set the following year, 1933. The Pitt mile relay team's time
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