INSPIRED BY PENN RELAYS
1441
'Dutch' visualized Kansas Relays
By Swaebou Conateh It seems difficult, now, to visualize KU without its annual Relays, but before 1923 the Relays were only a dream.
The dream of a man who had graduated from KU and came back to sell the KU Athletic Department on the idea of an annual Relays he had seen develop open while doing graduate work at a school in the East.
THAT DREAMER was Arthur C. "Dutch" Lonborg, 68, the director of athletics at KU from 1950 to 1965. What gave fruit to his dreams was the athletic departments reconstruction of old McCook Field, north of the present Memorial Hall.
Other contributing factors were the lack of an annual track carnival for the Southwest and the West on a scale equal to the Drake and Pennsylvania Relays and KU's central location with a favorable climate for outdoor athletics.
AS A RESULT, the KU Relays has today become one of the most looked forward to sports events of the year in the United States. Especially, since it has proved to be a frequent occasion for breaking records and for producing athletes for the Olympics.
The Relays established such a reputation even at its debut in 1923, an event attended by 770 universities, colleges and high schools. Participating were schools from the Missouri Valley, Big Ten, and Southwestern Conferences and the University of Pennsylvania—the school whose own development of an annual relays on a grand scale provided
Lonborg with the vast amount of first hand information that served KU in starting its Relays.
KARL SCHLADEMAN'S KU team proved themselves outstanding in that first Relays, winning the 440 and 880 yard relays and picking up second and third places in the mile and two mile relays.
Memorial Stadium, with one of the four largest tracks in the nation, then—compared with Harvard, Yale and Princeton's—was the setting for the breaking of two world records in 1925. One record was set by KU's 440 team and the other by Illinois' 880 relay group.
Side attractions at that meet were Knute Rockne, famed Notre Dame coach who presided over it, and $5,000 of insurance against rain. However, no rain came.
A JUMP to 1931 reveals the fall of six Relay records, with KU's Jim Bausch equalling the American record in the decathlon.
In 1934, a 480 shuttle relay team from K-State shattered the then world's record in that event.
A crowd of 10,000 in 1936, saw Glenn Morris establish an American record in the decathlon, while Emporia State's medley relay foursome set a world record.
A SIMILAR crowd saw the establishment of the world record in the shotput and in the 120 yard high hurdles in 1943.
A year previous to that proved to be the coldest and wettest Relays on record. It was so bad that all mile relay sections were run in darkness.
That is in line with the spirit behind the RELays, sometimes referred to as the Spring Homecoming. Rain or shine, a Relays has been held every year, except for the three year interruption previous to 1946 because of the war.
THE SENSATIONAL breaking of a national college mark in pole vault characterized the 1951 Relays. Two hours after Nebraska's Don Cooper jumped $15^{\circ}-1/8^{\prime}$, becoming the first collegian in history to reach that mark outdoors, Don Laz of Illinois leaped $15^{\circ}-1/2^{\prime}$ in a triangle meet at Los Angeles.
In 1954, a Texas University quarter mile relay team clipped the existing mark. Texas scored again in 1956 when they set another world record in the 440 yard relay. That record was lowered again by another Texas crew in 1957.
ONE OF the most exciting medley relay races was won by Oklahoma in 1958, when the first four teams across the finishing line bettered the collegiate record.
Only one Relays record fell in 1660—that was when East Texas State's Jim Baird leaped $ 2 5^{\prime}-5 \frac{1}{2}^{\prime}$ in the broad jump. He broke the oldest Relays record, the $ 2 5^{\prime}-4 1 \frac{1}{2}^{\prime} $ mark, set in this event 29 years earlier.
The 1961 Relays was dominated by Baylor's Southwest Conference champions, who won six titles and tied for a seventh before a crowd of 13,500.
In 1964, Robert Lingle anchored the Missouri four-mile team to a smashing 16:41.6 record with a 4:01 mile. He also ran a 1:49.9 half mile to lead Missouri to a two-mile relay victory.
the mile the following year, which was his last Relays.
IN THE RELAYS' 41 years of existence, KU athletes played a major role in setting track standards.
Glenn Cunningham is perhaps the first in a long line of great KU Relays performers. In 1932 he won in the 1,500 meters and went ahead to score fourth place for the same event in the Olympics.
He won the 1,500 meter again in 1933 and in 1934 won the special mile run in 4:12.7. Beaten for a number of years, he came back in 1939 and showed the crowd of 12,000 his last mile win. He lost
ALSO in memory are Wes Santee's frustrating attempts to break the four minute barrier in the mile. Ranked as one of the all-time great milers, Santee scored 4:03.1 before a crowd of 16,000 in 1954—the second fastest mile run then. He was hampered by bad weather in the 1955 Relays, and scored a 4:11.4 for the mile.
Daily Kansas Friday, April 22, 1966
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