University Daily Kansan
Page 3
Friday, April 16, 1965
ANOTHER VICTORY—Miler Glenn Cunningham crosses the line in the race he became famous for. Cunningham, a former Jayhawk, was a star performer at the Kansas Relays in the 1930's.
Track Greats Highlight Past Of Traditional Kansas Relays
The Relays were founded by Dr. Forrest C. Allen, then KU Director of Athletics, and his track coach, Karl Schlademan. This pair combined efforts with Dr. John Outland, who is known as the "Father of the Kansas Relays" and inaugurated the track and field carnival which has come to be one of the nation's best track and field carnivals.
The opening of the Kansas Relays this year marks the fortieth performance of this annual track and field classic, begun in 1923.
For the second running of the event, in 1924, little Occidental College came out of California to make one of the largest wholesale sweeps of the field in Kansas Relays history. The Occidental crew, under the leadership of coach Joe Pipal, triumphmed in all four baton events in the college class, the 880, mile, two mile and medley. They invaded the university division, too, and nailed down a victory in the quarter-mile event.
In 1929, Tom Churchill, Oklahoma's great all-around athlete, returned to snare his second successive decathlon crown. He defeated the talented Oneida Indian contender from Haskell, Wilson "Buster" Charles, by 24 points with a total of 7422. Churchill took the win away from Charles who had held the lead until the final event during an afternoon of heavy rain.
Kansas State entered a showstealing squad in the 1934 relays and set a new world's mark in the 480-yard shuttle hurdle relay. Doug Russell, Oren Stoner, Larry Schmutz and Joe Knappenberger finished the event with a 1:01.7 time.
Glenn Cunningham downed his most persistent rival, Penn's Gene Venzke, by 20 yards with a 412.7 performance in a special mile run. Ray Sears, Butler's NCAA two-mile king, won the 1500 meters in 3:57.5.
Three relays' records fell in the 1939 meeting as Beefus Bryan of Texas upped his pole vault mark to $14.2^{\circ}$. Elmer Hackney, Kansas State muscleman, tossed the shot a record-breaking $52\cdot 12^{\circ}$. North Texas State, with Blaine and Wayne Rideout leading the way, chopped more than 17 seconds from the distance medley mark in the college division and won in 10:06.9, a mark that still stands in the relays.
The Kansas Relays were cancelled in 1943, 1944, and 1945 because of World War II.
Don Gehrmann, Wisconsin's Olympic mile, and Bob Walters, a virtual unknown from Texas, were the individual standout in fourth post-war running of the relays.
Gehmann swamped Jerry Thompson, Texas grad and distance
ace, in a time equalling the record.
The mark for the Glenn Cunningham event was 4:10.1. Walters elevated the high jump mark to '6' 8 3/16" which wiped out a 10-year standard set by Gil Cruter. Gehrmann's effort matched that of Blaine Rideout in the 1941 edition of the relays.
Denver's Jerome Biffle won the 100 in .09.8, picked up a second in the broad jump and a tie for third in the high jump. Oklahoma A. & M. whipped the KU Jayhawks for the two-mile relay crown in one of the best races of the day. Both teams smashed Wisconsin's one-year-old record and the Cowboys went on record with a time of 7:41.0.
During the 1949 relays, the Jayhawks again came into the limelight for the first time since the days of Glenn Cunningham, KU topped Missouri for the crown in the four-mile event and scored an individual first with sophomore Jack Greenwood in the hurdles.
In the 1954 relays, Wes Santee turned in the second swiftest mile in American history at that time by winning the Cunningham feature of the 29th annual relays with a time of 4:03.1. Challenged early in the race, Santee pulled ahead in the second quarter and the only question was whether he would break the four-minute mark.
Santee had to share the spotlight, though, with Texas' torrid sprint foursome of Dean Smith, Jerry Prewit, Al Frieden and Charlie Thomas, who went two-tenths below the world record of 40.3 in the quartermile relay. The same crew also swept the 880 in 1:25.5, while Smith, Frieden and Thomas placed 1-2-3 in the 100.
Three other records went under in the 1954 relays. Abilene Christian's quartet chopped four-tenths off the college mile relay time and turned in a 3:16.2 before a record crowd of 16,000. Iowa's Rich Ferguson won the 3000-meter steeplechase in 9:20.4. And Central Michigan's Jim Podoley outlasted a slim fiveman Decathlon field on 6128 points
In the 34th Kansas Relays, run in 1959. KU scored the biggest baton sweep since Indiana in 1936. The Jayhawks racked up wins in the 440, the sprint medley, two-mile and four-mile. They also crowned three individual winners—Ernie Shelby in the broad jump, Bill Alley in the javelin, and Charlie Tidwell in the 100. Tidwell was named the meet's most outstanding athlete for the 99.9 100-yard victory plus anchoring the 440 and running the third leg of the sprint medley.
In the 1960 running of the relays gusty wind and a new track, still too
soft for fast running, preserved all but one of the records. East Texas State's Jim Baird knocked down the oldest mark in the book, Ed Gordon's $25'4\frac{3}{4}$ performance in the broad jump, with a 25'5\frac{1}{4} span in Friday's opening action.
East Texas also tied two college class marks, the 440 and the 880, and added the sprint medley to become the first team in that division to bag three baton titles since 1933. Former KU NCAA champion Bill Nieder, competing for the Presidio as a first lieutenant, set a new stadium shot put mark of $63'10''_{4}$ after hitting a prodigious $66'14''$ in warmup.
Baylor's Southwest conference champions unwound the greatest onslaught in Kansas Relays history to capture six clear-cut titles and tie for a seventh while they dominated the 36th running of the relays in 1961. John Fry opened the assault by bagging the title in discus Friday and the shot put Saturday to become the meet's only double winner. Bill Kemp and Bob Mellgren added wins in the 100 and the steeplechase while Eddie Curtis was sharing the high jump crown. Bear combines also won the 440 and 880 relays.
Eleven Tigers from Texas Southern scored the greatest divisional sweep in Kansas Relays' history in 1962, bagging all six baton crowns in the college section and garnishing two of them with records. Coach Stan Wright's invincibles, paced by a lithe freshman, Ray Sadler, set new records for the mile and the sprint medley. They also won the two-mile, the 440, 880, and the distance medley.
Rice's Fren Hanson catapulted the first 16-foot vault in relays history to highlight a parade of six records in the 1963 edition of the event.
Fired home by a cleanup mile of 4:06.6 by Tom O'Hara, Loyola of Chicago knocked almost 13 seconds off the college distance medley record with a 9:54.2. Texas Southern, stars of the 1963 relays, lost some of their marks but still set new standards for the 440 and the mile relays. TCU high-jumper Jackie Upton set a new mark while another Southwest conference ace, Rice's Ed Red stretched the lavelin record.
At last year's running of the relays, the Missouri Tigers, led by miler Robin Lingle, prevented the Southwest conference from completely dominating the meet. MU took the four-mile relay away from KU and anchor man Herold Hadley as Lingle made up a 50-yard deficit and set a relays record. Six records were broken and two others equalled.
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