by RBR Admin
Walt Murphy is one of the finest track geeks that I know. Walt does #ThisDayinTrack&FieldHistory, an excellent daily service that provides true geek stories about our sport. You can check out the service for FREE with a free one-month trial subscription! (email: [email protected] ) for the entire daily service. We will post a few historic moments each day, beginning February 1, 2024.
This Day in Track & Field–March 10
by Walt Murphy’s News and Results Service ([email protected]), used with permission
1868—Great Britain’s Walter Chinnery set a World Record of 4:29.6 in the Mile in Cambridge, England.
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1967–The 1/2-mile, held on the first day (3-10) of competition at the NCAA Indoor Championships in Detroit’s Cobo Arena, was a dream matchup between Villanova’s Dave Patrick, who had been tearing up the tracks in the East, and Kansas’ Jim Ryun, who had already established himself as one of the best runners in the world.
Both had run heats in the 880 earlier in the day, while Ryun had also run a tougher-than-expected heat in the Mile. When the gun went off, Patrick never gave Ryun a chance, moving out to a quick lead and winning easily in 1:48.9 to set a World Record. A tired Ryun, who made no excuses after the race, finished 2nd in 1:50.7, with Notre Dame’s Peter Farrell, the now-retired women’s coach at Princeton, right behind in 1:51.1.
Ryun came back the next day (3-11) to win the Mile in 3:58.6, while Patrick ran a 4:00.6 anchor on Villanova’s runnerup distance medley (Kansas State set a World Record of 9:44.6). Patrick tried to come back 1/2 hour later in the 2-mile relay, but collapsed at the end of his 2:07 split! Other winners at the meet included Nebraska’s Charlie Greene, who took the 60-yard dash for the 3rd year in a row (6.0), and Washington State’s Gerry Lindgren, who repeated in the 2-mile (8:34.7).
A couple of footnotes to the 1/2 mile–finishing 6th (1:55.0) was the late Joe Kearney, a senior at Manhattan College, who was my teammate at St.Augustine H.S in Brooklyn for two years. We ran together at Penn in 1961 on one of those early-morning mile relays.
As mentioned above, the 880 was on Friday, and I knew that ABC was going to include coverage of the race in its live show on Saturday. Not wanting to know the results before watching the show, I avoided reading the newspapers and never turned on the radio. So what does announcer Bill Flemming say at the top of the show? “Be sure to stay tuned to watch Dave Patrick beat Jim Ryun and set a world record”!
Video Highlights: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Prm-OFs3DIU
Results: http://trojanforcestats.us/iNCAA-Meet-Results/iNCAAresults1967.pdf
1973—Manhattan College needed only 18 points (scoring was 6-4-3-2-1) to upset the “big boys” and win the team title at the NCAA Indoor Championships in Cobo Arena in Detroit (March 9,10).
The Jaspers, under the guidance of head coach Fred Dwyer and assistant Frank “Gags” Gagliano, got wins from Mike Keogh in the 2-mile (8:39.8) and its Distance Medley team (9:43.8/11-lap record), along with 3rd-place finishes by Cliff Bruce in the 1000y (2:10.7) and Ken McBryde in the Triple Jump (52-1 ½ [15.88]). The DMR team consisted of John Lovett (1:53.2/now an assistant coach at Manhattan), Ray Johnson (50.4), Joe Savage (2:55.9), and Tony Colon (4:04.3).
A long-time fan of the Jaspers, I was a crazed fan in the stands as the meet progressed and was able to celebrate their win with them on the flight home to New York.
When the team arrived back on campus, they were greeted by a throng of fans and students who had gotten word of their unexpected victory.
Read Jim Irish’s in-depth analysis of how the small school from the Riverdale section of NY City rose to the top of the college ranks.
(for subscribers): http://www.runnersworld.com/rt-web-exclusive/the-manhattan-project
Here’s to Manhattan: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oMovtWp_zvA
David & Goliath (by Mike Fanelli):
Results: http://trojanforcestats.us/iNCAA-Meet-Results/iNCAAresults1973.pdf
1979–Getting individual wins from Don Paige in the 1000y (2:07.27) and Anthony Tufariello in the 600y (1:09.41), Villanova edged UTEP, 52-51, to take the Men’s team title at the NCAA Indoor Championships (March 9,10) in Detroit’s Cobo Arena. The Wildcats didn’t clinch the title until they won the final event, the Mile Relay (3:15.52), with Tufariello contributing a 48-flat split on the 3rd leg. Villanova caught a break when UTEP’s 2nd-place 2-mile relay team was disqualified on an interference call on its 3rd runner.
UTEP’s Suleiman Nyambui, a 26-year old freshman from Tanzania, captured the first two of his record total of 15 NCAA individual titles, winning the Mile (3:57.89) over the Villanova duo of Sydney Maree (3:59.91) and Amos Korir (4:03.5) an hour after winning the first of his 4 straight titles in the 2-mile (8:37.87).
Maryland sophomore Renaldo Nehemiah won the 60y-Hurdles for the 2nd year in a row and his winning time of 6.90 just missed his World Record of 6.89.
Another repeat winner was Texas A&M’s Curtis Dickey, who won the 2nd of his 3 titles in the 60-yard dash, beating Auburn’s Harvey Glance, 6.15-6.17.
Mississippi College’s Larry Myricks, still in the early stages of what would become a Hall-of-Fame career, celebrated his 23rdbirthday by winning the Long Jump with a leap of 25-10 ¾ (7.89).
Sports Illustrated Vault:
Results: http://trojanforcestats.us/iNCAA-Meet-Results/iNCAAresults1979.pdf
