The Spring sports season, at the high school level, is much like dining at a buffet: pretty much anything you want is available. Tennis, baseball, softball, track and field and golf. Pick your pleasure.
Though not considered a spectator sport, track and field can be the most exciting of all from a viewing standpoint. The sport is a perfect blend of individual competition that rolls into a team sport, a team scoreboard. It is the most raw form of athletic effort. Running, jumping, throwing and, in the relays, teamwork.
What can make viewing the sport even more enjoyable is knowing the records that this years’ athletes are competing against. How do they stack up against the best of the best from years gone by? What are the school records in each event at a track and field meet? Though not readily available in programs or listed at school athletic fields, perhaps they should be. Nevertheless, contact your school’s athletic director and ask for a copy of the school records for both boys and girls. It will make for fascinating historical reading and provide an impetus to your enjoying the next meet.
Though it is generally considered that today’s athletes are bigger, stronger and faster, you will find that numerous records date back to days of long ago. A good example of this is at Larned High School where the shot put record dates back over six decades. Jim Blackwell heaved the shot put 56’ 5 ½” back in 1954 and that is still the school record .
A perusal of all of the state track and field records reveal that many of those records date back 30 and 40 years. Fans of the old Mid-State League will remember Lyons’ Darryl Thornton who set the record in 1979 for the 300 hurdles of 38.00.
So if you want a little fun historical reading and a way to enjoy your next track and field meet more, grab a copy of your school’s records. Reminiscing is fun and it will enhance your enjoyment of this crop of new athletes. The words of Winston Churchill ring true here as he said, “The farther back you can look, the farther forward you are likely to see.”
“Ole Roy” is all worked up in North Carolina. Roy Williams and his North Carolina Tar Heels barely had time to celebrate their recent NCAA Men’s basketball championship when, once again, that academic scandal within the North Carolina athletic department reared its’ ugly head once again.
Maryland University President Wallace Loh said that the fraud at UNC in the athletic programs should get the “death penalty”. “Ole Roy” responded by saying Loh is a “double idiot” for making that statement.
This festering boil has been cooking for a long, long time. This academic scandal was first reported in 2010. To say that the NCAA has been moving slowly on this would invoke thoughts of maybe attending a snail race! This is REALLY slow! So much so that schools that are not considered “blue blood” athletic programs have accused the NCAA of stonewalling on this investigation, of not wanting to penalize one of their “poster child” programs.
I get the point of those schools. Seven years is plenty of time to investigate a school and mete out the punishment, if guilty. Nobody is served well by this and it is causing even more resentment and mistrust of the NCAA amongst the members that are not considered the “elite”. It’s time for the NCAA to “put up or shut up” in the North Carolina investigation. Besides, I need to know if the President of Maryland University is a “double idiot”!
Buddy Tabler is a guest columnist for the Great Bend Tribune and his views don’t necessarily reflect those of the paper. He can be reached at budtabler@gmail.com.
