Glory Days: Memories of High School Track in Saskatchewan

This blog shares the track and field experiences of Saskatchewan athletes in high school and university during the those "1960s", our "glory days," in the perhaps bitterly nostalgic phrase of Bruce Springsteen. I am opening this blog to the public and making it available to as many search engines as possible, at a minimum Google's. You are now welcome to comment on any postings in this blog on the site itself. I hope to see more comments in the future.

Monday, December 15, 2014

An Important New Approach to Running Injuries

This appeared on the same site as the people who are pushing the re-injection of your own blood plasma to cure bad tendons, etc. The 3-D printing of knee parts has obviuos implications for those who suffer from any recurrent joint tear or similar career-ending track injury, like a torn achilles tendon. Of course, it will generate questions about bionic athletes for a while, but there is a difference between survival and cheating, the purists aside.

Regenerative Medicine in 2015 and Beyond

@BloodCure

Follow Dr. Mishra

HalfDome.TV

Sports Med Videos

Sign the Online Petition Supporting Regenerative Medicine

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Join the

Biologic Orthopedic Society

(~3000 members)

For Profesionals interested in Biologic Orthopedics

3D Printing of Meniscus Cartilage

Researchers from New York have recently published a paper about how to use 3D printing technology to create a new meniscus. This is a merging of technology and medicine that could be transform treatment of knee arthritis.

See video and read more about 3D Meniscus Printing

Help Avoid Meniscus Injuries with Exercise

PowerKnee Hamstring Stretch

QuadCrunch

Why Kobe Bryant may go to Japan to treat his Knee Arthritis Next Time

Kobe Bryant has gone to Germany at least twice to be treated with a component of his own blood for knee arthritis. Japan recently passed and instituted new legislation aimed at accelerating regenerative medicine in their country.

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Friday, November 28, 2014

Track Town Canada---Edmonton?

I don't know what to make of this. I went to the World Cup way back when in Edmonton, when Canada became the first country to host it and win not a single medal. These articles seem to show they're good organizers and have bottomless pockets, but there is precious little mentioned about developing good athletes......any one know anything about "Track Town Canada", an explicit knock off on Eugene's language.? Click on URL below.

http://www.insidethegames.biz/commonwealth-games/2022/1021180-edmonton-rechristens-itself-tracktown-canada-as-2022-commonwealth-games-bid-gathers-momentum

By the way, Toronto is supposed to host the 2015 Pan Am games this summer, although they are having a lot of money problems.

Track Town, The Movie (see below)

Tracktown: The Movie

Former Duck All-American Alexi Pappas, MA ’13, directs love story set in track world

Saturday Night Live’s Rachel Dratch and The Office’s Andy Buckley play Pappas’ parents in the film. (Courtesy Tracktown)
Tracktown is a love story.
It’s a coming-of-age love story about Plumb Marigold, a promising runner who falls in love with Sawyer, a baker, on the eve of the Olympic trials.
It’s a love story to Eugene, the town that welcomed star and real-life Olympic hopeful Alexi Pappas when she enrolled at the UO to compete for the Ducks while working toward her master’s degree.
And it’s a love story written and directed by a couple in love, Pappas and boyfriend Jeremy Teicher—who fell for each other while studying at Dartmouth, and collaborated on Teicher’s acclaimed first film, Tall as the Baobab Tree.

Former UO All-American and Olympic hopeful
Alexi Pappas stars in Tracktown, a movie she
wrote and directed. (Courtesy Tracktown)

The story of Tracktown is inextricably linked to Pappas’ and Teicher’s journey from Dartmouth, where Pappas graduated magna cum laude and Teicher graduated cum laude, to Eugene, where Pappas earned her master’s degree. Pappas, Dartmouth’s steeplechase record holder, had one more year of NCAA eligibility remaining after her graduation, and wanted to work on her master’s at a university where her track skills would also be put to good use.
“Naturally, I thought about Oregon,” she said. “I looked at the interdisciplinary studies program and thought that both the running program and the master’s program were a perfect fit for me.”
On her recruiting visit, Pappas was recognized by locals while out running trails with fellow Duck Jordan Hasay ’13.
“I called Jeremy, and I said, ‘Jeremy, there’s this place where people know about running,’” said Pappas. “I’d never experienced that before. ‘There’s this place called Track Town and it’s real, and it’s filled with people who are running.’ There’s also this whole other side, this hippie side. This is a very specific and unique place; it’s not Anytown, USA. That started the idea for the movie.”
While representing the Ducks, Pappas earned two All-America titles and helped the team win two national championships, while simultaneously working on the script for Tracktown. Day in and day out, she would run twice a day, and fill her time off the track working on the script with Teicher.
The storyline centers around Marigold—played by Pappas—a talented but sheltered young runner who falls in love with a local baker on the eve of the Olympic trials. As the race of her life draws ever closer, Marigold is drawn into a world unfamiliar to her, one that could affect her quest for Olympic glory.
“We’re really interested in stories about growing up, and also stories that take place in really specific, cool worlds that maybe most people wouldn’t know about,” said Teicher.
Co-starring Saturday Night Live alumna Rachel Dratch as Marigold’s mother Gail, and The Office’s Andy Buckley as her father Burt, the film also includes appearances by fellow runners Andrew Wheating ’10, Matt Miner, MS ’14, Rebecca Friday ’13, Bridget Franek, and Nick Symmonds. The Eugene public also makes an appearance, as Hayward Field was opened up one day for the locals to make up a crowd during the filming of a dream sequence.
That isn’t to say track and field drives the movie, though.
“The movie’s not about running,” said Pappas. “It’s about growing up in a very specific world, which is Track Town, USA. It’s all sides of this place. Eugene is a character in itself.
“My running friends here say, ‘Oh, you’re calling it Tracktown?’ It’s such a buzzword here. But if we lived in a place where they were fascinated with pancakes and it was called “Pancakeland,” and we were to make a movie about it, we’d call it Pancakeland.”

Tracktown was filmed in Eugene, and a
number of Ducks worked in the cast and crew.
(Courtesy Tracktown)

The movie has more ties to the UO than just its star and location, though. A number of Ducks were involved in the production, including producer Jay Smith ’85, script supervisor Sierra Swan, art department assistant Courtney Theim, grip assistant Jacob Shadwick, production assistant Paige Ott, wardrobe assistant Laura Brehm, craft services overseer Brynn Grossman, and production assistant Drew Anderson.
“We definitely wanted to be as local as possible, and that’s why there are so many UO kids involved,” Pappas said.
Getting the film made has been a labor of love for Pappas and Teicher, albeit one that has taken every ounce of wit and talent the pair possess. Pappas leaned heavily on her entrepreneurial business degree while finding backers—John Legere, CEO of T-Mobile, is an investor, while the San Francisco Film Society and Sundance are providing mentorship support—and then used her connections, and a little sweat equity, to put the cast and crew together. Dratch and Buckley, the film’s two marquee actors, signed on after reading Pappas’ script, though veteran producer Smith, whose credits include movies City Slickers, Young Guns, and Major League, as well as TV shows Portlandia, ER, and The X-Files, needed a little more persuading.
“Jeremy and Alexi charmed me,” Smith said. “They came to me and said they really needed some help. I was trying to retire—I live on a cattle ranch outside of [Eugene]. They called me while I was in the middle of shooting a film with Kevin Bacon just to make some money so I could ranch. I got back to my ranch and they were really adamant about it, so I told them if they helped me pick up hay, I’d help them with the movie.”
For being shot on a shoestring budget, using friends’ houses as sets and with current students and recent graduates on the crew, the shoot went smoothly and drew praise from the on-set industry veterans.
“Everyone knows what they’re doing,” said Buckley, who portrayed David Wallace on the Emmy Award-winning American adaptation of The Office. “You don’t know that they’ve just graduated—they’re very proficient at their jobs, from the grips to makeup to the camera people. It just feels like another small independent movie.”
Pappas—whom Buckley said could become “a terrific actress,” while joking that she’s also a great “daughter” who keeps her room clean and gets good grades—will return full-time to the track world once her work on Tracktown ends. Now settled in Eugene and running with Oregon Track Club Elite, she will replace camera equipment with Nikes and a makeup department with her signature bun while preparing for the 2015 IAAF World Championships in Beijing and the 2016 Summer Olympics in Rio de Janeiro.
That isn’t to say Tracktown will be her last filmmaking effort, though—far from it, in fact. It’s just that the talented runner, writer, and director—who has studied with Second City and the Upright Citizens Brigade, and who improvised some lines with Dratch during filming—has more immediate priorities.
“I want to act and write for the rest of my life,” Pappas said. “After I train for the Olympics with Oregon Track Club Elite.”
Want to learn more about Tracktown?

Saturday, October 25, 2014

What Have I been Up to Lately?

Like most of you I am rather surprised to have survived much longer than ever I expected to, except in my teenage years when I no doubt thought I would be immortal. But these intimations of mortality have lead me to consider what I would like to do in my remaining years, health permitting. Being a 60's kind of guy, I still get most of my current thinking from television. Hawaii Five-Ohs shots of the beautiful scenery in the background put a trip to Hawaii first in my bucket list. For some reason it became a trip of a lifetime on the heirloom boutique cruise ship, the Pacific Princess, from Vancouver to a bunch of stops in the Hawaiian islands. After poor little Ottawa, a walk around Vancouver's West End for the first time in decades, is pretty amazing. And fun. The ship was interesting and the multi-national, mult-racial (mostly non-white) staff were too. A week on the high seas with a bunch of rich, old (older than me), stiff fellow passengers (very white) from about equally, the US, western Canada, and remnants of the British Empire, are not to be highly recommended. Definitely not the time to brag about our province's interesting political history.

The ship kept stopping in major harbors around Hawaii, travelling at night, with optional bus tours during the day. On the ship we had begun to run into Hawaiian pop culture, music, language, hula dancing, ukulele lessons, etc. It turns out Hawaii is, in addition to being beautiful is interesting. Basically, there is no industry and past big agriculture (sugar cane, big ranching, etc) is failing, with the exception of some genetically highly tailored corporately controlled crops targetting tourists (macadamia nuts, kona coffee) which employ little labour. The obvious industries are tourism and the military. There is surprisingly little American flag-waving ansd a great deal of Hawaiian chest-thumping by the local chamber of commerce which has somehow incorporated native (like Native American) culture, music, laid back attitudes, which is very much linked in its own quiet way to our Red Power expierences back in the early 1970's ( it's all documented at the very excellent major Bishop's Museum and planetarium in Honululu). Somehow it does not feel like it is part of the US, far too peaceful, with a wonderful mixing of an incredible variety of races apparently sharing a good thing. And of course the exotic plants, the volcanoes around you and under your feet, the dangerous, beautiful ocean, the surfing and beaches, the climate that changes on every island and on every side of every island, the highest IT telescopes on earth, the beautiful women, the soil--often thin on volcanic rock--which ultimately would compare badly in fertility to that of Saskatchewan, the small amount of commercial fishing, and the unexpectedly disappointing farmers markets and sustainable food movements compared to plain old Eastern Ontario. Anyway, Hawaii is probably a glimpse of the future not only for the US and Canadian West Coasts, but for both of our societies. Not so bad, if my sociological reasoning is not too far off the mark (and yes, like the old man, I really do have a Ph.D. in Sociology, in my case from York in Toronto, a city where groups definitely do not get along like they do in Honululu.). I'll attach a picture taken in front of the the biggest mountain on earth, Mona Loa, undoubtedly volcanic. It is the second biggest in the solar system to one on Mars, Mons Olympus. Oloha.---Dick

Friday, September 12, 2014

Gordie Barwell: A Tragic but Beautiful Story

Gordie Barwell passed away of brain cancer in 1988, following a 10 year long brilliant professional football career with the Roughriders that ended in 1974, despite being only 29. He died at 43. There is a eulogy of sorts from the Regina Leader-Post attached entitled: "Barwell Was A Great Buddy", by Paul Henderson, of the famous 1972 Canada-Russia hockey confrontation, below.

Barwell was a great Buddy

Paul Henderson quickly embraced the topic of the interview -- which, for a change, was not his heroics in the 1972 Canada-Russia hockey showdown.

By The Leader-Post (Regina)June 30, 2006

Paul Henderson quickly embraced the topic of the interview -- which, for a change, was not his heroics in the 1972 Canada-Russia hockey showdown.
Instead, Henderson was asked about former Saskatchewan Roughriders receiver Gord Barwell.
"He was one of my great buddies,'' Henderson, who established a ministry with Barwell, says from Toronto. "Unfortunately, he died on April 21, 1988.''
Barwell was only 43 when cancer claimed him. Despite Barwell's premature death, the mere mention of his name often inspires laughter.
"He was the consummate practical joker,'' Henderson says. "The common bond is that we loved the Lord. We were really interested in telling other people that the Lord loves them also.
"Neither one of us was what you would call a straight arrow before we became Christians. We understood what we'd been saved from. He was just a great guy. He had a great sense of humour. I loved his sense of humour.''
There are myriad examples.
"We'd go for dinner and I'd turn around and there would be a grape sticking out of one of his nostrils,'' Henderson continues.
"You never answered the phone. Any time we were doing anything with football players, something would happen. He'd say, 'The phone's for you. Go pick up the phone.' Of course, it was filled with shaving lotion and the side of his head would all be covered with lotion.
"Life's too short not to have a sense of humour. Gord sure had a great sense of humour.''
Barwell pulled one of his patented pranks in the early 1970s, shortly before the Roughriders embarked on their first road trip of the CFL season.
"It was when he had the Mr. Big & Tall Shop,'' recalls Nancy Barwell Kraft, who married Gord in 1964. "He told two or three different rookies that they should come in and he'd get them all dressed so they'd look good for the road.
"One by one, they all came in and he sold them exactly the same outfit. I think that was back in the days when there were the plaid leisure suits. So they arrive at the airport to go on their first big road trip and there they all are, dressed in the same jackets. I'm sure they got even somehow, but he just thought that was the greatest.''
Nancy had the same appraisal of Gord when they met as 16-year-olds at a high school track competition in Saskatoon.
"I borrowed his sweatpants and it was love at first whiff,'' she says with a chuckle from Tsawassen, B.C.
Barwell's speed was evident on the track and, eventually, the gridiron. It took him under 10 seconds to cover 100 yards, which made him difficult to cover.
Barwell's jets were on display Oct. 24, 1965, when he caught a 102-yard touchdown pass from Ron Lancaster. That was the longest pass in Riders history until Kent Austin and Jeff Fairholm collaborated on a 107-yarder in 1990.
Lancaster and Barwell hooked up for another memorable bomb in the 1966 Grey Cup. Their 46-yarder was Saskatchewan's longest pass play in its 29-14 victory over the Ottawa Rough Riders.
The following year, Barwell caught 30 passes for 753 yards -- averaging a stratospheric 25.1 yards per reception.
He remained with the Riders until 1973, retiring after an injury-plagued season. Despite being only 29, he had already played 10 years in the CFL.

The Fastest High School Milers in History

It is interesting to see that the fastest high school miler ever, Jim Ryun, was, according to these numbers, the earliest. And he did it just about the time our Saskatchewan high school runners group was peaking (1965). I most definitely do not believe there is some sort of reason for everything in a universe so obviously built on the product of amazing essentially mathematical coincidences, but it sure does make you think.

The Fastest Miles In High School-Only Competition

compiled by Jack Shepard

There are 5 U.S. high school boys who have broken 4:00 in the mile. Legends Jim Ryun, Tim Danielson, Marty Liquori, Alan Webb & Lukas Verzbicas combined to do it 9 times. But only 2 of those marks didn’t come without the help of older competition.

If you want to talk about high schoolers competing against high schoolers, the feat has still been turned only twice, by Ryun and Verzbicas.

The all-time list of prep-only milers through May 27, 2013:

3:58.3........ Jim Ryun (East, Wichita, Kansas), State, 5/15/65
3:59.71...... Lukas Verzbicas' (Sandburg, Orland Park, Ilinois), Dream, 6/11/11
4:01.32...... Bernie Montoya (Cibola, Yuma, Arizona), Dream, 6/09/12
4:01.69+.... German Fernandez (Riverbank, California), State, 5/31/08
4:01.81...... Alan Webb (South Lakes, Reston, Virginia), Arcadia, 4/14/01
4:01.83...... Austin Mudd (Center Grove, Greenwood, Ind), Dream, 6/11/11
4:02.01...... Sharif Karie (West, Springfield, Virginia), National Scholastic, 6/14/97
4:02.08...... Elias Gedyon (Loyola, Los Angeles, California), Dream, 6/11/11
4:02.0........ Ryun, Invitational, 4/23/65
4:02.23+.... Jantzen Oshier (Trabuco Hills, Mission Viejo, Ca), State, 6/04/11

(10)

4:02.4........ Richard Kimball (DLS, Concord, California), Section, 5/25/74
4:02.6........ Kimball, San José Inv, 5/04/74
4:02.72...... Ben Saarel (Park City, Utah), Dream, 5/25/13
4:02.73...... Jacob Burcham (Cabell-Midland, Ona, WVa), Dream, 6/09/12
4:02.90...... Mac Fleet (University City, San Diego, California), Portland Festival, 6/13/09
4:02.98...... Josh Lampron (Mansfield, Massachusetts), Dream, 6/09/12
4:02.99+.... Steve Magness (Klein Oak, Houston, Texas), District, 4/11/03
4:03.12...... Brandon Kidder (Lancaster, Ohio), Dream, 6/09/12
4:03.18...... Marcus Dixon (White River, Buckley, Wash), Dream, 6/09/12
4:03.27...... Gabe Jennings (East, Madison, Wisconsin), National Scholastic, 6/14/97

(20)

4:03.29...... Edward Cheserek’ (St Benedict’s, Newark, NJ), Dream, 6/11/11
4:03.33...... Webb, Invitational, 5/20/00
.................. Sam Borchers (Yellow Springs, Ohio), NON, 6/16/07
4:03.85...... John Zishka (Lancaster, Ohio), Golden West, 6/14/80
4:03.87...... Sam Vazquez (Flagler-Palm Coast, Bunnell, Fla), AOC, 6/14/03

** 25 performances by 22 performers **

+ = 1600-meter time multiplied by 1.0058 (converted 1500s are not considered here);
* = junior; AOC = adidas Outdoor Classic; NON = Nike Outdoor Nationals
copyright © 2013 Track & Field News

For original article, go to the following link and select "Best High School-Only Miles Ever":
www.trackandfieldnews.com/index.php/archivemenu

Canada's New Track and Field League

Starting this Saturday, June 14, there will finally be a Canadian track league. I don't know a great deal about it but it appears to have been announced by Athletics Canada, which I gather is a type of federal (?) government-involved agency which plays a role analogous to the old AAU of our day. To run in Saskatchewan I had to join the AAU in the sixties, the days of strongly enforced amateurism. You all know the story--shamateurism followed and today every government and many corporations try to visibly support their athletes. The new league will actually give prize money for selected events, up to $800 for first place. By the way I heard Carleton U. finally got a track team, too. I hope these are signs of great things to come across Canada, especially for those of you who have children or grandchildren who might have a serious interest in track in Canadian communities or universities. Click on: Canada Gets New Track and Field League . If you get the suggestive banner, please ignore it. These things are hard to avoid today,

High School Cross-Country Comes to Saskatoon in 1961

In our case it is notable that our little cohort which began high school in about 1960, first made the news in 1961 and that is the same year that I could first find records of high school cross country in the Star-Phoenix. Don Gogel won the first cross country run in Saskatoon, squeezing past me and Allan Angell. Al, George, and I were on the third place Walter Murray team. See photo of Star-Phoenix article below (October 17, 1961).

List of Sakatchewan Provincial High School Cross-Country Winners

I am attaching a number of links (below) to a set of files which show all the cross-country runners (male) who came in first, second, or third in midget, junior, or senior final provincial races from 1962 on.

Title Page: Fifty Years of Athletics in Education---click on link.
http://www.ourroots.ca/page.aspx?id=3750318&qryID=97a9e419-2da7-410b-8c0e-ccddc2068d52

Page 202 Senior boys
http://www.ourroots.ca/page.aspx?id=3750525&qryID=153ef184-3eb5-40e5-9218-59d36f67293b

Page 200 Junior Boys
http://www.ourroots.ca/page.aspx?id=3750523&&qryID=97a9e419-2da7-410b-8c0e-ccddc2068d52

Page 198 Midget boys
http://www.ourroots.ca/page.aspx?id=3750521&&qryID=97a9e419-2da7-410b-8c0e-ccddc2068d52

There are many familiar names, probably as close as one could find to a "hall of fame" for middle distance runners of our age and point in history in the entire province. Names which I personally recognize are Charlie Simpson, Garth Hilderman, Ken English, Bill White, Allan MacDonald, Ray Rohatinsky, and Don Gogel. I am sure many readers will recognize others, including themselves.

Remember those cross country meets?

In October 30, 1961 the Saskatoon Track and Field Club sent only two runners to Regina's Luther Colege cross-country run. I won the junior high school run and my brother, George, won the midget division.
On October 22, 1962 Saskatoon cleaned up in all divisions at the provincial high school championships at Luther. Charles Simpson won the the midget division, followed by Garth Hilderman. Of special interest to me is the the senior division; Allan MacDonald beat me by two seconds, followed by Ray, Don,and Allan Angell. Talk about depth!

Also a sign of things to come was Valerie Jensen's win in the women's open.

There were many cross-country races in 1962 and 1963. I remember the Edmonton meet in the fall of 1962 when Don, Allan A., and myself won the team junior championship. On the way home we got stuck in some little town when a a wheel bearing overheated in our rental car.

About the same time the U of S had an invitational race in a football game at Griffith's Stadium. In the high school race Don won, Allan Angell got second, and I got third. In the open race the U of S team was composed of some names which have a familiar ring---John Maloney (was he my phys ed teacher?), Wayne Woolfit (remember driving home in his bumpy black beetle, in the dark at 40 below?), Lyle S. (of course), Jim Loetke, and Jim Halford (I will always remember shooting a poor badger hissing in pain on a hunting trip at his family's farm).

For many of us high school cross-country culminated in the fall of 1963. See the picture of the Junior Cross Country Champs. (Sorry it is hard to read). The Saskatoon teams won at every level. The junior team looks suspiciously like Walter Murray, coached in those days by Ralph Morris. Premier spot went to Don Gogel; he beat Al MacDonald (by a whisker), and Ray. I was way back in fifth.

I read in some track psychology book that every high school track "star" is, sooner or later, beaten by someone better. Seems to be true.

Tuesday, March 18, 2014

The New Super Track Groups

See the rise of the new track super-groups in the USA, from Oregon to near-by New York City at this link: Track and Field News April 2014, "The Rise of the Modern Training Group," pages 8 to 12

For world-class runners there always have been a lot of advantages to joining a club or living together in a remote mountain location, while working out with their peers and few distractions. The advantages include professionalism, a super coach, economic security (perhaps from a big sportswear company), good medical care, all kinds of psychological supports, and it now appears, Olympic medals. Maybe US track is back minus the "track star", painful over-training (including bad drugs), declining performance and public interest.

1969-1970 U of S Track & Field Team Wins Canadian Championship

This U of S championship team has many familiar names to those of us who had competed in high school track in Saskatchewan back in the sixties, including, among others, Charles Simpson, Bill White, Gerry Filson and coach Lyle Sanderson. The team, composed of men who chose to stay in Canada, and somehow managed not to get distracted from sports by the glamorous politics of the sixties, represents a successful culmination of sorts of our community of young runners. In retrospect, I wish I could have been on that team. See link in blue to a Saskatoon Sports Hall of Fame article and picture: 1969-70 University of Saskatchewan Huskies Men's Track and Field Team

Saturday, February 22, 2014

Where Are They Now? Don Gogel

In case you wondered if regular exercise and cross training could have a payoff, see this remarkable figure skating video on You Tube which Don Gogel performed in 2011. Don was a Saskatchewan runner who graduated from St. Paul's in Saskatoon in 1964 and went on to the University of Oregon and New York University. In later years, he ran in major marathons in New York City and Boston. This video was shot at Long Beach, California but Don learned most of his moves at the wonnderful Chelsea Piers facility, in New York City, studying under a former elite (Olympic perhaps) Russian skater. Click on this link: Forbidden Skating, featuring Don Gogel

Allan Macdonald: Standout at Olympic Trials in 1964

Allan Macdonald set a native record at the provincial Olympic Track and Field Trials in the 5000 meters. His running mate also from Yorkton, Ray Rohatinsky, established a native mark for the 1500 meters. Allan went on to the University of Saskatchewan while Ray went to Brigham Young University. See link below to
Saskatoon Star Phoenix, July 13, 1964, choose page 13.

The picture on the upper left of page 13, "Among Standouts at Trials" includes Allan MacDonald, Dick Chinn (200 meters record), George Short (400 meter record),and Emmett Smith (long jump). Next to the picture is a major article, "Chinn, Smith Outstanding" which includes numerous familiar names, such as Linda Kostyniuk in the 400, Steve Molnar who won the pole vault, and Valerie Jensen who won the women's broad jump and javelin. Personally, I did not know Emmett Smith from Weyburn and BYU, who was a long jumper, perhaps someone else who was there can help me out.

Friday, January 31, 2014

Track and Field 1960s Reunion - June 17, 2010

Here are some pictures from the reunion of Saskatchewan track and field athletes from the 1960s, which was held on June 17, 2010 in Saskatoon. Below are Saskatoon runners Dick DuWors and Don Gogel. Don is wearing his track suit from the 60s which still fits just fine! The other picture includes major competitor Al MacDonald from Yorkton (second from right).

Ray Rohatinsky hits 100,000 miles marker in 2012

In the fall of 2012, Ray Rohatinsky, a record-breaking runner in his youth, reached his ambitious goal to run 100,000 miles. Here's a link to a newspaper article on this achievement: Provo man runs 100,000 miles - Daily Herald article

Thursday, January 30, 2014

How I Spent My Summer Vacation - Age 15

(This posting was shared with the Saskatoon Sports Hall of Fame newsletter who used it in their September-November 2013 newsletter. Click on this link to see the newsletter, and the article on page 2 titled "Sanderson's Coaching Goes Far":
http://smba.ca/download.php?id=254994)

I spent most of the summer of 1961 at Lyle Sanderson’s parents’ ranch in southern Saskatchewan. Lyle was coached at the university by my father, who also coached me. Most of the rather charming words which follow, come almost entirely from my letters home to my father and mother.

June 3, 1961. I was glad to hear that Ralph and Colin are doing so well. Would you please send me the Edmonton results? What about Gogel? What is Gregg doing, other than working?

Lyle and I did a pretty good 1.5 miles Wednesday. On Saturday we timed each other for one mile on our track. The objective was 4:55. I did 4:54 and I think 4:50 is quite possible on it without competition. I had an erratic pace—first quarter and last quarter fast, second quarter way too slow: 69-78-74-73. Lyle beat me in 1.5 miles by 2 or 3 yards.

R.E. DuWors Trophy - Canada West Championships

The Canada West Track and Field Championships were held February 22-23, 2013 at the University of Regina Fieldhouse. The R.E. DuWors Trophy ("Doc" DuWors) was awarded to the Saskatchewan Huskies in the men's team event. Click on this link to results and awards: Canada West Track and Field Championships 2013

Wednesday, January 29, 2014

"Doc" DuWors Workouts

Ralph suggested at the reunion that Dad was ahead of his time. I think he was, although the basic principles he followed can be found in a book he gave me in 1964 (Ken Doherty’s Modern Track and Field) which you can still probably order (updated, re-edited with a new title) from “Track and Field News”. The fact that “Doc” was possibly more competent or experienced, or just more motivated than some coaches may possibly have resulted in resentment and even lesser historical coverage of our group than our “glory days” deserved, as has been suggested (not by Ralph) , although I am not too comfortable with this claim myself.

All would agree Doc did not suffer fools gladly, but I think in a sense he earned a lot of respect on our behalf. Finally, both Doherty and Dad admired Bill Bowerman, who proved to be the greatest college track coach of our time, basically because he was creative and intelligent, as well as tough-minded (just ask Don and me!), and, most important, because he rejected the very popular pain-oriented pseudo-science of over-training of the day (endless hard interval training, Eastern European coaches, grimacing faces, or totally unrealistic aristocratic standards for “amateurs”, and, of course, racist ideas like Negroes just naturally exceeded in only very short races due to some peculiar “natural” structure of their bodies). Dad was also an old-fashioned Sociologist, trained to observe more than measure, and many of his track ideas probably came from observing in areas like Community and Social Mobility. I remember as a kid his complaining that he could not turn it (the sociological viewpoint) off.

He believed in rest and recovery between hard workouts, for both physiological and psychological reasons. He probably thought the latter as important as the former. Generally he advocated three hard workouts a week (M, W, F), and two easy ones (T, Th), and a long gentle one on Sunday. If there was a meet, then Friday was very easy as well. If there was no meet, Friday was often a time trial in your distance.