Friday, April 18, 1986
Kansas Relays
University Daily Kansan
9
Despite lean years, Kansas Relays remain tradition rich
By Frank Ybarra Staff writer
Head Track Coach Bob Timmons sat in the bright sunlight on the aluminium bleachers in Memorial Stadium on Wednesday. With a baseball cap pulled over his gray hair, he looked out over the artificial turf, where the women's heptathlon competition was taking place.
Timmons has seen a lot of Kansas Relays since he took the job of head track coach in 1965. But looking out from his vantage point on the bleachers, he thinks the Relays are going change now that it is in its 61st running.
Although in recent years the Relays has suffered from low attendance, poor weather and competition, they are still a valuable asset, said the Relays is in for a change.
"I think that it's just a matter of time until we put it together," Timmons said.
Putting the Relays together, Timmons said, means putting together a team that can produce the likes of a Jim Ryun or a Wan Sente.
Although there is nothing wrong with the athletes on today's KU track team, he said, a big name athlete could bring attention to Saturday's 60th Saturday afternoon.
the relays on a Saturday, Dec. 10,
Ryun, after setting the world
record for the mile and the half mile
as a student at KU in the late 1960s,
returned to the Relays in 1972 and
drew a crowd of 32,000 fans.
If the Relays does have its renaissance, as Timmons predicts, it would be just another chapter of the long history for the Relays.
history for the IMAM.
An article in the March 24, 1986,
Kansan, gave an account of the
beginning and the 13-year history of
Photo courtesy of Kansas Archiver
Bob Karnes, Kansas, crosses the finish line and sets a new record in the four mile relay during the 1950 Kansas Relays.
sity in 1895 after completing his second year at the University, with founding the Relays.
While at Pennsylvania, Outland was influenced by the Penn Relays, and in 1923 he decided to begin a similar event at Kansas.
To help promote the Relays, well-known officials were picked in the early years. In 1925, K俊 Rocke Tunkle and Ralph Rowe attended Arlos Alonzo Stuff filled the spot.
Photo courtesy of Kansas Archives One of the many Kansas Relay thrills came in 1938 when Archie San Romani (right) edged out Glenn Cunningham at the wire to win the mile run in four minutes. 14.1 seconds.
In the second Relays program, and the next several to follow, an ad was placed asking students not to stand in the stadium because they would block the view of those behind them, the Kansas said.
On April 11, 1938, the Lawrence Daily Journal-World quoted W.A. Dill, director of the KU news bureau, that it had been Carnegie Cunningham, the great KU miler.
"Cunningham has gone to the post no less than 60 times in mile races in the seven years since he enrolled in KU," the article said. "Fifty times he has been the winner, seventimes he has been the runner-up and three times he has placed third."
On April 23rd, the Journal-World reported that 10,000 people were on hand at the Relays to witness a mile run between Cunningham and Archie San Romani, a former Emporia Teachers College star.
"On the first turn of the last lap, San Romani broke into the lead with Cunningham close behind," the artisans said in that way down the back stretch.
"Comming into the stretch turn, Cunningham put on speed to take the lead by about a yard and held it until the final 10 yards when San Romani blazed his way up the inside break of Cunningham's ahead of Cunningham," it said.
On May 2, 1955, the Kansan reported on the anticipation of fans at the Relays who were hoping to see Seth Rodgers hit a home run before break the 4-minute mile barrier.
"The 18,000 fans who thronged to the meet in hopes of seeing Wes Santee crack the magic 4-minute barrier were disappointed as Santee won the next 4.5 mark that was good for a new Relay record," the Kansan said.
The Kansas City Star reported the excitement of the 1956 Relays on April 4 of that year.
One of the bigger names at the Relays was a 7-foot tall high jumper named Wilt Chamberlain. "The Stilt" took second in the high jump with a jump of 6-6 and also placed third in the hop, step and jump.
the 400-yard relay team from Texas broke the world record in that event, with a time of 40.1 seconds.
O'Brien won with a toss of 60-feet $ 2^{1 / 2} $ .
The 15,000 spectators present got to see Perry O'Brien, the world record holder in the shot put, and Bill Nieder, a KU shot puter, battle it out for the title
Races were run in 1927 from the Kansas City area and Topeka to the stadium. A runner from Mexico, Jose Martinez, ran away 7 miles from Kansas City in a 6-46 41.
The Journal-World on April 15 of that year, reported on the unusual promotions called "Phog Allen Spectaculars," which were used by the great former KU coach to help generate interest in the Relays.
The 1930 Relays featured a rodeo with broncos, steers and cowboys, the Journal-World reported.
the Journal world article of April 12, 1958.
The excitement generated by the Relays was evident in the Journal-
World article of April 12, 1958.
"The highlights of the celebration on Mount Oread will be the pre-meet banquet, the engineering exposition, the state fair and the down Massachusetts Street," the
events involving two attractive queens and their court and the wind-up dance next Saturday night."
The current Relays don't have as many festivals, but as Timmons gazes out over the field he hopes that they will achieve the level of excitement it once had.
"We think we're on our way to bringing back the meet," Timmons said.
Photo courtesy of Kansas Archives
In 1927, Jose Torres won the 50-mile race from Kansas City to Lawrence. The race was part of the "Phog Allen Specaculars," which were used to bring fan support to the Kansas Relays.
Timmons continues to scratch from foreign athlete races
By Jim Suhr
Sports writer
It is not a race between athletes, but between coaches in what has become intercollegiate track's most challenging aspect; the recruiting of foreign athletes.
There is a new race in collegiate track and field — one that does not include a starter's pistol and is not based on time or distance.
Since the National Collegiate Athletic Association reduced each colleges' track scholarships from 33 to 14 in 1976, coaches not wanting to waste their limited amount of scholarships on young, untested hopefuls have competed fiercely with other coaches for athletes abroad.
Head track coach Bob Timmons refuses to recruit foreign athletes at Kansas because they take away from American athletes; chances to compete in their own country.
File Photo/KANSAN
In recent years, teams relying heavily on foreign athletes have begun to dominate NCAA championship competition in track and field, which has resulted in a bitter controversy among coaches that encompasses such hotly debated issues as recruiting policies, coaching philosophies and the emphasis on winning in college sports.
Coaches who advocate recruiting foreign athletes, including Iowa State's Bill Bergan and Missouri's Boel Tet, have recruited foreigners to either maintain a championship-team or turn a nothing program into a contender. Other coaches, such as Bob Timmons of Kansas, say the race is one they will sit out.
Both Bergan and Teel view the foreign-athlete issue differently than does Timmons, who refuses to recruit foreigners in an effort to build great U.S. teams. They said they knew what effect a quality foreign athlete could have on a losing program.
Bergan said recruiting foreign athletes was somewhat inevitable considering Iowa's strong competition with neighboring states for quality
pima State, before Bergan became his head coach in 1976, had either finished seventh or eighth in the Big Eight for 21 of 25 years. Since then, Bergan has recruited foreign athletes and the last five conference outdoor titles and 10 Big Eight cross-country crowns.
athletes and Iowa State's lack of an outdoor track
"We need foreign athletes to stay competitive," Bergan said. "We spend most of our time to get Iowa kids but we know we can't build a championship team with only them."
Moses Kiyai, who competed for Kenya as a long and triple jumper in the 1984 Los Angeles Olympic Games, is just one of seven foreign athletes on the Cyclone team this season. Kiyai, since joining the team and receiving a full roster from the Cyclone, paid dividends for Bergan and the Cyclones. He has seldom placed lower than third during his four-year collegiate career.
Kival, an All-American, said it was the high level of competition that attracted him to the United States.
"At home, there is nobody to compete with," he said. "But the competition here is really tough.
Berman said foreign athletes such as Kiyai made the program successful, which had helped the process of developing athlete bodies from the United States.
Missouri, Teal said, is the only large school in the country without a modern outdoor facility — a no-frills approach to track that has embassed the university and cost them the best high school prospects.
Teens' Tigers finished sixth in this year's Big Eight Indoor Championships at Lincoln, Neb. All of their 40 points came from foreign athletes
The condition of Missouri's cinder track has not allowed the Tigers to host a meet in seven ates. At one point, Big Eight rival Nebraska even offered to pay Missouri's travel exe- cept if they traveled to Lincoln for a meet.
Teel, who has focused on recruiting from Nigeria since about 1976, said Missouri has four Nigerians on its sound.
"Most American kids won't be attracted to the program because we've been bad-mouthed for our lack of facilities," Teel said. "When we
"The fact that they write about foreign athletes at Iowa State does not bother me. I've done everything I can do, but there's here for myself and my school."
can't recruit quality American kids, we look overseas."
But you must now have many more foreign athlete. Just get them to the site and they'll compete. My personal would have gone down the hill.
**10.** Write a letter to your teammate, describing how they'll compete. Your teammate would have gone down the hill.
“If you have a nature to be content, as the conference doormat, then you won’t recruit foreign athletes,” he added. “I know that the program around a mediocre athlete.
Teel also had other motivations for creating a foreign-spiced team.
The success of predominantly foreign teams in the Big Eight and others around the country has become evident in recent years:
Fourteen of the 21 Big Eight Competitions track-and-field representatives in the 1984 Summer Olympics were foreign. Those athletes included
six from Nigeria and four from Jamaica.
At one point or another, every Big Eight men's track program except Kansas has had a foreign athlete. The two current conference powers, Iowa State and Nebraska, predominantly foreigncompeted teams.
The University of Texas-EJ Paso and Washington State were two of the first teams to use foreign athletes. Both teams have since become national powers. Since 1975, UTEP has used teams made up predominantly of foreigners to win or place second in every NCAA tournament. All of the Miners points in their third-straight NCAA championship in 1981 came from foreign athletes, while only three of the top 15 individual finishers
Timmons, 61, has enjoyed success at Kansas despite his refusal to recruit foreign athletes. He has led the Jahawks to 13 Big Eight Conference Indoor Championships and 14 Outdoor Championships and two cross country titles in the NCAA in 1965. His teams also have won the NCAA indoor title three times and the outdoor championship once.
were from the United States.
At the 1984 NCAA Indoor Championships, foreign athletes scored 42 percent of the total points, and nine of them had received points from foreigners.
Years have passed for Timmons and his program, however, and his winning touch has left him. His Jayhawks sank from a first place conference indoor and second-place
outdoor finish in 1983 to last and seven places in 1984. Kansas has not finished higher than fourth in either event since.
Although the recruiting of foreign athletes may appear as an obstacle in Timmons' path to another championship, he will not filinch. He said that he would not offer scholarships to foreign athletes, but that those who wrote or phoned Kansas to other programs in the Big Eight.
He said he had his reasons for doing so, saying foreigners:
■prevent U.S. athletes from getting scholarships.
distort the scoring in team championships.
take away All-American ratings from U.S. athletes.
build foreign teams at the expense of the United States.
- make some countries resent their athletes for going to the United States to compete.
Besides the denial of scholarships and competition to U.S. athletes, one of the biggest complaints of Timmons and other coaches is that those foreign athletes recruited by schools in the United States are trained in the sports but return to their native land to compete in the Olympics.
As a result, those coaches think the United States has become a practice field for foreigners at the expense of the developing U.S. athletes. The United States track program, they say, may fall behind the rest of the world because U.S. athletes can not train in their own backyards.
Timmons said foreign athletes also were given unfair advantages, including up to $10,000 in financial aid from their countries, that were not allowed to athletes from the United States.
He said that although giving a foreign athlete a full scholarship was an NCAA violation, he questioned how foreign athletes from poor families and countries could afford to and from their country.
"I could live with the foreign- athlete issue if they would adhere to the same rules that Americans have to adhere to," he said.