by Larry Eder
Walt Murphy’s News and Results Service ([email protected])
This Day in Track & Field/X-Country–November 27
1956–No one suspected it at the time, but the birth of an Olympic legend occurred when 20-year old Al Oerter won the first of his four consecutive gold medals in the Discus in Melbourne. Oerter, who was about to enter his junior year at the University of Kansas, got his winning throw in the first round, setting an Olympic Record of 184-11 (56.36). Oerter had two other throws that were better than silver medalist Fortune Gordien (179-10 [54.81]), the pre-Games favorite and world record holder at the time.
Taking the bronze and completing the U.S. sweep was Des Koch (178-6 [54.40]), who was only 4th at the U.S. Trials. He was added to the U.S. team when 3rd-placer Ron Drummond gave up his berth to concentrate on dental school! Oerter was only 4th at the NCAA Championships and 6th at the AAUs, but made the U.S. team with his 2nd-place finish at the Trials.
Bobby Morrow fulfilled his goal of emulating Jesse Owens’ 1936 sprint double by winning the 200-meters over defending Olympic Champion Andy Stanfield (20.6/OR-20.7). Morrow had also matched Owens by winning both sprints at the NCAA Championships and U.S. Trials. Thane Baker, winner of the silver medal at the 1952 Games in Helsinki, completed the U.S. sweep by winning the bronze medal here.
Poland’s Elżbieta Krzesińska equaled her World Record of 20-10 (6.35) to win the gold medal in the Women’s Long Jump. 16-year old American Willye White, competing in the first of her five Olympic Games, won the silver medal with her final jump of 19-11 ¾ (6.09), which was also an American Record. Winning the bronze medal was the Soviet Union’s (and Azerbaijan’s) Nadezhda Dvalishvili (19-11 [6.07]).
White competed for Ed Temple’s famed Tennessee State Tigerbelles and was a popular figure on the U.S. indoor circuit for many years. A year before she passed away in 2007 at the age of 67, White, who had spent 46 years in Chicago (where she established the Willye White Foundation to help poor inner-city children), moved back to her native Mississippi. She told the Chicago Sun-Times then, “I need new challenges so that I can keep growing. When you stop growing, you die. I still have a lot to give to help people who are really having a hard time. Sure, there are still people hurting in Chicago. But Hurricane Katrina left a lot of people in worse shape along the Gulf Coast of Mississippi… I’m going to be involved in community service helping those people rebuild their communities.”
In the Men’s Triple Jump (known as the hop-step-jump at the time), Bill Sharpe set an American Record of 52-1 ¼ (15.88) to take the lead after the first round, but had to pass on his final three jumps after pulling a muscle–he would finish 4th. Coming from behind to win his 2nd straight Olympic title was Brazil’s Adhemar da Silva, who set an Olympic record of 53-7 ¾ (16.35) in the 4th round. Taking the silver medal was Iceland’s Vilhjálmur “Willy” Einarsson (53-3 ¾ [16.25]). a Dartmouth grad. His son, Einar Vilhjálmsson, was the 1983 NCAA champion in the Javelin while competing for Texas and was a 3-time Olympian for Iceland (6th in 1984). Winning the bronze medal in Melbourne was the Soviet Union’s (and Russia’s) Vitold Kreyer (52-6 ¾ [16.02).
Complete Results:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Athletics_at_the_1956_Summer_Olympics
Olympedia Reports: https://www.olympedia.org/editions/14/sports/ATH
Oerter: http://aloerter.com/
NY Times Obituary: http://tinyurl.com/ya73kvk
Photos: http://tinyurl.com/yfvly3
ESPN.com Feature: http://tinyurl.com/ymfwu4
You can find many more links by Googling “Al Oerter”.;
White: Photos: http://tinyurl.com/yjy4ey;
X-Country
1939–Host Michigan State edged Wisconsin, 54-57, to win the 2nd NCAA Championship. The individual winner was Wisconsin’s Walter Mehl, the 1938 NCAA 2-mile Champion. Mehl, who was also the 1940 U.S. 1500-meter champion, is a member of the Drake Relays and Wisconsin Halls of Fame. He won the Wanamaker Mile at the 1941 Millrose Games.
Long before Roger Bannister broke the magical 4-minute barrier in the mile in 1954, Mehl talked confidently of becoming the first to do so, but World War II got in the way. “We talked about the four-minute mile”, Mehl told Bob Phillips for a Racing Past article, “but the war came too soon for us to pursue that further. I truly believed I could run the four-minute mile, but going into the Navy and four years’ service put an end to that hope of attaining my dream. I felt that the best in most of us was never realized because of the war. I wish I could have had more time !” https://www.racingpast.ca/bob-phillips.php?id=26
Results:
https://trackandfieldnews.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/07/1939-men.pdf
MileSplit (9 teams, 67 finishers)
Other notable finishers: 8.Gil Dodds (Ashland), 14.Fred Wilt (Indiana Central)
1950–Kansas junior Herb Semper won the first of his two consecutive NCAA titles at Michigan State. Penn State, with two of the three Ashenfelter brothers, Bill and Don, finishing 8th and 22nd overall, won the team title.
Results:
https://trackandfieldnews.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/07/1950-men.pdf
MileSplit (9 teams, 66 finishers)
1961–It was a big day for Sam Bell’s Oregon State squad as Dale Story’s individual win led the Beavers to the team title at the NCAA X-Country Championships in East Lansing, Michigan.
Story, running barefoot in cold and blustery conditions, beat a field that included Tom O’Hara (he held the World Indoor Record in the mile from 1964-1974). They were the first NCAA titles for Oregon State and would be the only ones until the school won the College Baseball World Series in 2006 and 2007.
For 3 years in a row (2012-2014), Story’s twin granddaughters, Krista and Kara Story, helped lead Coeur D’Alene High School to the Idaho 5A State title. Grandpa was the x-country coach at Wallowa H.S in Oregon for more than 3 decades before retiring a few years ago.
Looking Back: http://tinyurl.com/DaleStory1961
Results:
https://trackandfieldnews.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/07/1961-men.pdf
(17 teams, 134 runners)
Other notable finishers:5.Tom O’Hara (Loyola), 40.Kevin Quinn (St.Joseph’s—long-time coach at his alma mater, since retired), 59.Al Lawrence (Houston–1959/1960 champion). In 100th place was Army’s Ron Zinn, who would place 6th in the 20k-walk at the 1964 Olympics in Tokyo. Zinn was killed in action during the Vietnam War in 1965.
Zinn
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ronald_Zinn
http://www.virtualwall.org/dz/ZinnRL01a.htm
1965–Ron Larrieu (31:11.8/10k) was a runaway winner at the U.S. X-Country Championships on a muddy course in New York’s Van Cortlandt Park.
For Subscribers: https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1965/11/28/98548673.pdf?pdf_redirect=true&ip=0
Other notable finishers: 7.Tom Laris, 10.Buddy Edelen, 12.Al Carius, 21.John J. Kelley, 25.Tom Donnelly.
Edelen, who set a World Record in the Marathon in 1963 and was 6th in that event at the 1964 Tokyo Olympics, was inducted into the National Hall of Fame in 2016.
HOF Bio-Edelen: https://www.usatf.org/athlete-bios/leonard-buddy-edelen
The 2nd Women’s Nationals were held on this same day in Cambridge,MA, with Sandra Knott winning in 9:06 on a short
1-1/2 mile course.
1967–Washington State’s Gerry Lindgren won the 2nd of his 3 NCAA titles in frigid weather in Laramie, Wyoming. 2nd was North Dakota’s Arjan Gelling, the NCAA Div.II Champion, and 3rd was Mike Ryan of the Air Force Academy, who would win this race in 1968.
Charlie Messenger’s 10th-place finish led defending champion Villanova to a narrow 91-96 win over the Air Force Academy. Finishing 51st was Indiana junior Bob Kennedy, whose son (of the same name) would win the 1988 and 1992 NCAA titles, also for Indiana.
Results
https://trackandfieldnews.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/07/1967-men.pdf
MileSplit (14 teams, 112 finishers)
Other notable finishers-5.Larry Wieczorek (Iowa), 6.Amby Burfoot (Wesleyan), 9.Sam Bair (Kent State), 16.Len Hilton (Houston), 23.Tom Donnelly (Villanova), 34.Dave Patrick (Villanova), 63.Dick Buerkle (Villanova), 90.Glenn Cunningham,Jr (Kansas),
1971—Frank Shorter wasn’t pressed as he won his 2nd straight U.S. X-Country title in San Diego.
Other notable finishers: 2.Steve Stageberg, 4.Tracy Smith, 5.Tom Von Ruden, 6.Kenny Moore, 7.Don Kardong, 20.Jack Bacheler, 22.Mike Manley, 31.Tom Laris.
Doris Brown won her 5th (and last) Women’s title in Wickliffe,Ohio (14:29.4/4k).
For Subscribers: https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1971/11/28/82218735.html?pageNumber=350
1976–Harvard grad Ric Rojas was the individual winner at the U.S. X-Country Championships, which were held on the hilly course at Philadelphia’s Belmont Plateau. The surprise winner of the team title was the Jamul (ya-mool) Toads, which beat the Colorado T.C., the 2-time defending champions, by 18 points (45-63).
The winning team, coached by the now-legendary Bob Larsen, was comprised of a group of runners from San Diego who had previously competed for two separate units, the Jamul A.C., Larsen’s group, and the Toads.
Most of the team members had been coached by Larsen at Grossmont Community College, and the team in Philadelphia included three men who had competed at the NCAA Championships 5 days earlier—Arizona’s Thom Hunt (13th) and Terry Cotton (18th), and Colorado’s Kirk Pfeffer (47th), who upset the Boulder-based Colorado T.C. by not competing for them.
18-year old Hunt, who had run a 4:02.7 (indoor) mile as a high school senior earlier in the year, was among the early leaders, but a sore calf forced him to drop back, eventually finishing a distant 77th. Picking up the slack for the Toads were Cotton and Pfeffer, who would finish 2nd and 4th. Back in the pack was Ed Mendoza, who responded to Larsen’s plea to pick it up by finishing 9th. Rounding out the scoring for the Toads were Dave Harper (15th) and Tom Lux (23rd).
Said a pleased Larsen, “Three weeks ago, my runners had to start raising money for the trip. We almost didn’t make it, and we sure didn’t think we had a chance to win it”.
Funds were so short, the team could only afford one rental car in Philadelphia. With not enough room to accommodate everyone for the ride from the hotel to the site of the race, Glen Best, the 7th member of the team, had to ride in the trunk!
Larsen recently added some background to the Toads’ unlikely win: “I established the Jamul A.C. while coaching at Monte Vista H.S. for four years, before moving over to Grossmont College. The Toads were started later. They were Clairemont H.S. grads. When Mike Breen, a Toad, was at GC we talked about combining the two clubs.
All the scorers at the ‘76 Nationals were our Grossmont College runners who had just graduated, except Dave Harper, who was a Toad from Clairemont. We all still trained together during the summer and winter breaks from college.
I did think we could be very competitive. I tried to get Nike to sponsor us for some shoes and travel money to help get us to Philly. They turned me down, saying the Colorado TC knows how to peak! That became our rallying cry. Jogging the course the day before the race, I suggested they get out ahead of Colorado. I felt they would then be inspired and they would be strong enough to hold Colorado off the last couple of miles.”
A recounting of the Jamul Toads’ odyssey is one of the highlights of the documentary about Bob Larsen’s coaching career–“City Slickers Can’t Stay With Me”. (http://www.boblarsenfilm.com/)
After seeing the documentary, Matt Futterman expanded on the story in his book, “Running to the Edge: A Band of Misfits and the Guru Who Unlocked the Secrets of Speed” (available on Amazon, as is City Slickers)
Other notable finishers in the race: 5.Barry Brown, 7.Ted Castaneda, 11.Tom Fleming, 12.George Malley, 17.Bob Hodge, 18.Matt Centrowitz, 19.Pete Squires, 20.Ron Spiers, 24.Randy Thomas (Boston College Women’s coach), 28.Steve Flanagan (Shalane’s dad), 29.Benji Durden, 31.Byron Dyce, 34.Gary Cohen, 36.Paul Stemmer, 38.Don Kardong, 46.Tony Sandoval, 57.Julio Piazza, 60.Pat Tyson, 62.Marty Liquori
For Subscribers: https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1976/11/28/83183351.pdf?pdf_redirect=true&ip=0
http://www.si.com/vault/1976/12/06/621714/he-took-the-high-road
LetsRun.com Thread: http://www.letsrun.com/forum/flat_read.php?thread=469267&page=2
The U.S. Women’s Championship was held on the same date in Miami, with Jan Merrill pulling away from Julie Brown and Canadian Donna Valaitas in the final ¼-mile to win her first national X-Country title.
Other notable finishers on the 3-mile course: 5.Doris Brown-Heritage, 6.Peg Neppel, 8.Kathy Mills.
Born On This Day*
Cristian Atanay Nápoles—Cuba 27 (1998) Bronze medalist in the Triple Jump at the 2023 World Championships…
…2017 (4th), 2019 (5th), 2025 (qual. round)
10th at the 2021 Olympics…2024 (qual.)
Hampered by an ankle injury the last couple of years
2015 World Youth/Under 18 Champion
Former ballet dancer is a singer and entrepreneur
PBs: 57-1 (17.40/2023)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cristian_Nápoles
https://www.olympedia.org/athletes/142028
Tom McCants 63 (1962) Set an American record of 7-9 ¼ (2.37) at the 1988 Jesse Owens meet in Columbus,Ohio.
(Jerome Carter also cleared 7-9 ¼, McCants getting the win on fewer misses)
1988 U.S. Indoor Champion
Ranked in the U.S. top-10 six times (’85-8, ’87-5, ’88-5, ’89-5, ’92-10, ’93-4)
All-American at Alabama: 1985 NCAA-2nd
https://worldathletics.org/athletes/united-states/tom-mccants-14245315
https://www.runnerspace.com/video.php?video_id=72738
Curtis Dickey 69 (1956) Big for a sprinter (6’1, 213), he was a 3-time NCAA Indoor Champion at 55-meters
(Texas A&M/1978-1980); NCAA Outdoors—1978 (2nd-100); PBs: 6.10i (55m/1980), 10.11 (1979)
A football star in high school and college (running back), he was the #1 pick in the 1980 NFL Draft
by the Baltimore Colts (5th overall); Rushed for 11 touchdowns in his rookie year—1980
Sports Illustrated Vault: http://tinyurl.com/SIVaultCurtisDickey
WIki Bio: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Curtis_Dickey
Football Stats: http://www.pro-football-reference.com/players/D/DickCu00.htm
Deceased
Henry Carr 73 (1941-May 29, 2015) 1964 Olympic gold medalist—200, 4×400 (team set WR of 3:00.7)
(Ollan Cassell 46.0, Mike Larrabee 44.8, Ulis Williams 45.4, Carr 44.5)
1963 NCAA Champion—220y (Arizona State);
2-time U.S. Champion—1963 (220y-tied w/Paul Drayton), 1964-200m
Set two World Records in the 200m/220y—20.3y (1963), 20.2y (1964)
Member of Arizona State team that set a World Record of 3:04.5 in the mile relay in 1963
(Mike Barrick 48.0, Carr 45.9, Ron Freeman 45.6, Ulis Williams 45.8)
World-ranked in all 3 sprints—100-1962-6, 1963-3, 1964-6; 200-1963-1, 1965-1; 400-1963-5
PBs: 9.3y (1963), 10.2 (1964), 20.2y (1964), 45.4 (1963);
Defensive back and kick returner for the NY Giants…once chased (in vain) the Dallas Cowboys
receiver Bob Hayes (the 1964 gold medalist in the 100) on a 40+ yard touchdown pass. (See photo)
Returned an interception for 101 yards-TD against the Rams in 1966
Hall of Fame Bio(1997): https://www.usatf.org/athlete-bios/henry-carr
NY Times Obituary:
www.nytimes.com/2015/06/08/sports/football/henry-carr-gold-medalist-and-then-a-giant-dies-at-73.html
Rankings: https://trackandfieldnews.com/index.php/rankings
https://www.pro-football-reference.com/players/C/CarrHe20.htm
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henry_Carr
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Athletics_at_the_1964_Summer_Olympics_%E2%80%93_Men%27s_200_metres
Charles Dvorak 91 (1878- Dec.18, 1969) 1904 Olympic gold medalist–Pole Vault
2-time U.S. Champion (1901,1903); 1901 IC4A Champion (Michigan/6-way tie for 1st)
From Olympedia: Was unfortunate not to win an Olympic medal in 1900. He went to the field on the Sunday for
which the event had been scheduled only to be told that, for sabattarian reasons, the event would not be held
that day. It WAS held, however, and Irving Baxter won with a modest vault of 10-10 (3.30) after Dvorak and his
two colleagues, Bascom Johnson and Daniel Horton, had left the scene. The following day a “consolation” event
was held, which Horton won at 11-3¾ (3.45) with Dvorak second at 11-1¾ (3.39). He was the first vaulter to
use a bamboo pole instead of the ash or hickory pole which had been in vogue for many years.
https://www.olympedia.org/athletes/78355
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_Dvorak
