You are probably trying to get over the excitement of my last blog when I shared my high school running career with you.(sarcasm 🙂 ) It consisted of three meets. However in one of those meets I set the mile record for the Clinton Rocket track team and became the Pheasant Conference Mile Champion while doing it. As my running career was just taking off the school cut the track program my senior year. That was both good news and bad news. The good news was I am still the mile record holder for the Clinton Rockets. It’s been 59 years and the record still stands. The bad news was who knows to what heights I would have risen had there been a track program in Clinton my senior year. I may have been ‘sparked’ to try out for the Olympics or perhaps a college scholarship would have been in my future. One will never know.
But that college scholarship comment does lead me into the subject of today’s blog. There was no college scholarship involved, however, I did have a college track career. I believe it was the shortest track career of any male or female runner in the history of track and field!
I shared my’ single meet’ track career with my University of Minnesota, Morris alumni in the alumni magazine titled “Profile” in the winter edition, 2006. Even to this day I’m sure some of my past classmates after reading the article are still marveling at my college track accomplishments. 🙂 The title of the article was “The Forgotten Track Meet”. I hope you enjoy it.
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I’ve attended many athletic contests over the years at UMM, and I’ve walked down memory lane as I viewed pictures of past athletes and teams displayed in the P. E. Center’s hallways. After each visit, I’ve always thought, “It’s too bad there is no record of the 1965 track season!”
About now a UMM historian reading these pages will snort, fume and exclaim, “What an idiot this guy is! Why, UMM didn’t have a track team in 1965!”
But that’s where the historian would be wrong. UMM did have a track team in 1965, and I was a member of it. I think it’s time I set the record straight!
UMM was a member of the Pioneer College Conference in 1965 . Bethel College (St. Paul), Northland College (Ashland, Wisconsin) and Superior College (Superior, Wisconsin) were the other three participating schools. In the spring of 1965, Northland College hosted the conference track meet. UMM was invited to participate! Well, okay, historians, at this point we did not have a track team. But Mr. Borstad, the football coach, volunteered to take a track team to Ashland. It just so happened that he was teaching a track and field class that spring. They immediately became part of the team.
Word spread throughout campus like wild fire that track athletes were needed to represent the maroon and gold in Wisconsin. It would be a weekend in tree country!
I was in Louie’s Lower Level sucking on a chocolate malt when I heard the call. I had one year of high school experience and was running daily in an attempt to stay in shape. “Heck,” I thought, “I’m going to run the mile in Wisconsin!”
We rode the “Maroon Loon” , UMM’s bus, across Minnesota into northern Wisconsin nervous and unsure of the approaching track meet that would feature athletes more experienced and in better condition then ourselves.
The morning of the track meet dawned clear, sunny and calm.
Many of the Cougar athletes were intrigued by the javelin throwing event. In Minnesota track, the javelin was not allowed. I and many others entered the event and learned the throwing technique as we competed. Needless to say, none of us placed in the event. In fact, placing in any event was very difficult.
When the call came for the mile run, I stepped onto the track in my maroon physical education shorts and reversible maroon and gold shirt. Three Bethel runners joined me. There would be four in the race, and they gave ribbons to the top four finishers. Barring a cardiac arrest or passing out from exhaustion, I was guaranteed a place.
However, I was not aware of the Bethel runner’s strategy that afternoon. Bethel had run many track meets that spring, and their coach saw this as an opportunity to help his athletes earn letters. He instructed the better runners to hold back allowing their teammates to finish ahead of them.
As the gun sounded, I jumped into the lead as it was my plan to win the race. The first Bethel runner passed me at the end of the first lap. “Hey, second place won’t be so bad,” I thought.
The second runner passed me at the beginning of lap three. “A third place finish would be just fine,” I thought and by now my unconditioned body was starting to reject my mind’s urging to maintain the running pace.
As I began the final lap, I was wishing I was back at Louie’s sucking on a chocolate malt. Little did I realize I had one lap to hold off Bethel’s stud runner!
When he passed me he did it in a humiliating fashion. On the final curve he pulled up along side and ran with me in the outside lane. As we hit the straight away he pulled away like I was standing still and by this time I almost was! I struggled to the finish line and earned a point for our team.
The final race of the meet was the mile relay. Four runners, each running a lap, were needed for this event. We didn’t have a relay team. If we could come up with one before race time, we would be guaranteed another team point.
I had recovered from the exhaustion of the mile run, so I volunteered to run a leg of the race.
Two other runners said they would be willing to run a lap, too. We needed just one more runner.
Marlin Jerpseth ’67 was our bus driver and also a UMM student. Seeing our desperate straights, he said if we could find him some running shoes he’d run a lap, too.
So the three track members and the bus driver placed fourth in the final event of the meet and earned another team point.
A story ran in the campus newspaper the next week reporting our Wisconsin track successes. I forget how many team points we ended up with but the story reported that I was the high individual scorer for the Cougars with 1 and 1/4 points!
So there you have it……a tidbit of UMM athletic history. Nowhere in the P. E. Center’s hallways can you see evidence of this event, and it should always remain that way.
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UMM never started a track program until after I graduated so my college running career came to a screeching halt after that one unofficial meet in Ashland, Wisconsin. I continued to run on my own and after graduation I became a cross country coach at the Wheaton Public School where I enjoyed running with my athletes for 14 years. I continued to run until I was 59 and 1/2 when a knee injury ended my running career.
So there you have it, a college running career that spanned a whole weekend and all in the state of Wisconsin. Interestingly my sister married a dentist from Ashland, Wisconsin and she and her husband raised their family there. Whenever my family visited them the memories of that painful, unconditioned race weekend came flowing back. However, the memories no matter how painful brought a smile to my face. During a couple of the visits I was tempted to run a mile on that track one more time, just for old times sake. Thankfully I quickly came to my senses! 🙂
Until next time.
