Sports
Daily hansan
58th Year, No. 125 SECTION C
Sports
LAWRENCE, KANSAS
Friday, April 21, 1961
Thirty-Six Years Of Track Thrills In Relays History
The 26th annual Kansas Relays this weekend will again offer a chance for many of the top athletes in the country to compete in virtually every listed track and field event.
THIS OUTSTANDING SPORTS event ranks with the Texas and Drake Relays as being among the best track carnivals in existence.
Not only do the Relays offer a chance for some of the best track talent in the country to compete against each other, but it also gives the students, faculty and alumni of the University, not to mention the people of the surrounding area, a chance to see the nation's top performers in action.
The KU Relays started in 1922 with Kansas dominating the events.
SOME OF THE MARKS set in that first meet were :10.1 in the 100-yard dash and 12-9 in the pole vault
In 1830 Cy Leland from Texas Christian set a record that stands on the Kansas Relays books today — 604.4 in the 100-vard dash.
The 1935 edition proved to be the year for setting records, as eight old marks were broken. One of these was set by J. C. Petty of Rice as he hurled the discus 154 feet.
TWELVE THOUSAND FANS watched in 1940 as Glenn Cunningham bowed out of the Mt. Oread picture by running last in the special mule that now has come to bear his name.
Nebraska's. Don Cooper kicked a hole in the dripping gray sky above the Kansas Relays in 1951 as he joined a charmed circle of pole vaulters when he sailed 15- $ \frac{1}{8} $ to erect a new national collegiate record.
However, the mark lasted only two hours as Don Laz of Illinois sailed 15-134 in a triangular meet at Los Angeles after hearing the news of Cooper's effort.
(Continued on page 3)
KU's Easton Cites Theory
"We work — this is the success story of the Kansas track teams," says track coach Bill Easton, who should know an awful lot about success.
Easton's teams have won the NCAA track crown the past two years and along with Southern
Bill Easton
California and Illinois are the only ones to take two consecutive NCAA championships.
IN ADDITION to national honors (Continued on page 2)
Olympic Stars in 36th Relays
By Steve Clark
Today and tomorrow the KU Jayhawkers play host to Olympians, national collegiate and Big Eight champions, and 20 major universities in the Centennial Edition of the Kansas Relays.
The returning individual champion in most jeopardy of losing is OU's Lindsay in the shot put. A close rival will be fellow Big Eighter Donnie Smith from Missouri. Smith, who has thrown 57 feet, finished a close second to Lindsay in the Big Eight Indoor.
SEVEN INDIVIDUAL DEFENDING champions are expected to return for the 36th annual event. The reigning kings are Phil Mulkey, decathlon, Cliff Cushman, intermediate hurdles, Kansas State's Rex Stucker, 120 yard high hurdles, Oklahoma's J. D. Martin, pole vault, and Mike Lindsay, shot put, Kansas' Bill Dotson, Glenn Cunningham, mile, and Emporia State's Monroe Fordham, high jump.
AN EQUALLY IMPORTANT rival is from the Southwest Conference, Baylor's John Fry, who is the greatest heaver in the history of that league.
Highlighting the card will be three Olympians including one world record holder. Ralph Boston, Ernie Cunelife, and Cushman all competed in Rome last summer.
Boston holds a new world record in the broad jump with a leap of $26-11\frac{1}{4}$ which broke Jesse Owens' 24 year old record of $26-8\frac{1}{4}$. The Kansas Relays record of $25-6\frac{1}{4}$ set by Jim Baird of East Texas State last year will be in danger.
Cushman, a former KU great, took second in the 400 meter hurdles at Rome. Cushman's :51.2 captured the 400 meter hurdles at the Relays here last year.
ERNIE CUNELIFFE, FORMERLY of Stanford ran the 800 meters at Rome last summer. Two weeks ago at the Texas Relays he set a new record of 3.47.1 in the 1500 meters to shave the old record by five and one-half seconds.
He fired the longest put ever by a Texan, 57- $ 5 ^ { \frac{3}{4}} $ , to win the Border Olympics. In a quadrangular meet at Waco he matched Lindsay's career best with a put of 58- $ 10^{ \frac{1}{2}} $ .
Expected to highlight the Relays will be the pole vault field. Assembled is a high-flyers corps headed by habitually 15 foot vaulters J. D. Martin of Oklahoma and George Davies of Oklahoma State.
MARTIN IS THE RELAYS' defending champion with a soar of $ 14-11^{1,2} $ , the second highest lift in Relays history. He holds the Big Eight all-time high of $ 15-9^{3,4} $ and is the NCAA champion.
This spring his best mark is 15-3 at the Oklahoma State Previews.
Also competing will be Texas' Baylus Bennett and Colorado's Don Meyers who shared a third of third-place in Austin at 14-0 and Jack
Davies, a sophomore, dethroned Martin as Big Eight Indoor champion this winter with a career high of 15-4. The Cowpoke star has been dormant this spring because of groin injury.
Stevens of KU who has hit 14-6 twice indoors.
WITH MARTIN AND DAVIES meeting head on, the Relays record of 15-1<sup>b</sup> established 10 years ago by Nebraska's Don Cooper may fall.
In the high jump, Fordham's toughest competition might come from one of his own teammates. Sophomore Charles Richards won the Central Inter-collegiate Conference Indoor with a 6-4$ _{3}$ for a new record. As a freshman he set a league outdoor mark of 6-6$ _{3}$.
At the Oklahoma State Preview Fordham finished in a first place deadlock with Oklahoma's Mike Brady and defeated Big Eight Indoor king, Sammy Pegues of Oklahoma State.
BRADY HIT 6-6 during the indoor season as did Iowa State's Larry Ellert, but Pegues beat them both for the title at 6-6%.
Baylor's Eddie Curtiss has also gone 6-6.
A tentative list of five will be expected to challenge Phil Mulkey for the decathlon title. Last year Mul-
KU Stresses Baton Races
KU Coach Bill Easton has announced his tentative lineup as the Jayhawkers host for KU Relays.
The Hawks will concentrate on relay events rather than individual competition. Bill Dotson, defending Glen Cunningham Mile champion, will by-pass the defense of his crown for relay duty.
KU'S TWO MILE CREW that dipped to a season low of 7.339 at the Texas Relays will be composed of Kirk Hagan, Gordon Davis, Bill Dotson, and Bill Thornton. Hagan will be running in his first meet in two weeks as he has been sidelined by a bad cold and fever.
In the four-mile relay will be Thornton, Bill Hayward, Billy Mills, and Dotson. Davis, Bill Stoddart, Mills, and Dotson will form the distance-medley team that finished underneath the Texas Relays record, but second.
The mile relay will have Stoddart, Bob Covey, Dan Lee, and Davis. In the sprint medley Davis, Stoddart, Larry McCue, and Dotson or Thornton.
LARRY McCUE WHO PULLED a muscle at Oklahoma State in the first meet of the outdoor season is still doubtful. If well, he will enter the 100 yard dash.
The KU hurdle corps,minus footballer Curtis McClinton,will be Lee and Charlie Smith.
In the field events Jerry Foos and Barry Hanratty will go in the discus, Pete Talbot and Stan Ingram in the javelin, Larry Cordell in the high and broad jumps, Jack Stevens and Roger Schmanke in the pole vault, and Bob Albright in the shot put.
Bob Lindrud was KU's entry in the special 10,000 meter run held yesterday.
key broke his own KU record set in 1958 with a total of 7167 points.
Competing against Mulkey will be: Dick Perry, Hutchinson Junior College; Larry Evans, Southern Illinois; Dale Greiner, KSTC at Emporia; Jon Borgeson, Washburn, and Dan Rogua of Nebraska.
KU's Dotson will by-pass his defense of the Glenn Cunningham crown to serve relay duty on the Jayhawker's baton crews.
THE RECORD in the four mile relay could fall easily to Houston's four-mile contingent. At the Texas Relays the Cougar foursome knocked eight seconds off the old record to set a new mark of 17:02.8. The KU Relays standard was set in 1957 by Kansas at 16:57.8.
The team to watch in the two mile relay may be a Jayhawk crew of Kirk Hagan, Gordon Davis, Dotson, and Bill Thornton. The KU quartet hit its low of the season at the Texas Relays finishing second to Southern Methodist 7:33.6 to 7:33.9
IF THE AEILENE CHRISTIAN squad competes, standards could fall in the 440, 880, and mile relays.
At the Texas Relays the Wildcats were chosen the outstanding team on the strength of their four relay victories of which three were new records.
Included among outstanding individual performers expected to compete are Chuck Williams, Redlands' javelin thrower who holds the national collegiate record, and former Jayhawkers Charlie Tidwell and Kent Floerke.
A leading applicant for favorite in the 100 yard dash is John Lewis of McMurray, Texas, who has clocked a .09.5 in this still-infant season. Last year Tidwell took the century with a wind-aided .09.4.
Floerke, who in 1957-58 was the best hop-step-and-jump performer in conference history, will return for his specialty. In a dual meet between the USSR and the USA in 1958 Floerke hit a high of 50-1034 to finish third.
ENTRIES IN THE UNIVERSITY division include: New Mexico, Arkansas, Baylor, Drake, Houston,
(Continued on page 3)