California State Meet History

1954 star Rafer Johnson from Kingsburg HS to UCLA to Olympic Gold!!

75 Years Ago – 1929 California State meet – Saturday May 11th, LA Coliseum

A one-day, male only (no ladies until 1974 at the 56th annual of these affairs), state meet had the athletes running heats in the High Hurdles, Low Hurdles (220 yard distance in those days) 100y, 200y, and 880 yard relay (the only baton even back at that time), then coming back for finals, sometimes within a half an hour. This was quite a test for one’s speed/endurance, with Jimmy Wilson (San Diego) pulling off the 100 yard-220 yard double at 9.8 and a record-tying 21.4 for the half lap event. He led his team to the title with 22 ¾ points (scoring at that time 5-3-2-1-1/2), with teammate William Miller (the eventual 1932 Olympic Champ in the LA Coliseum Games in a record for that competition at 14-01 7/8) taking the Pole Vault for the winning team at 12-06.
There were a number of records set in the 1929 competition. Irving Warburton of the winning San Diego HS team raced to a 49.6 tie of the State meet record, coming back from a 4th in the Southern Section meet two weeks previous (San Diego Schools were a part of the Southern Section back in those days when there were not a ton of high schools anywhere!). Herb Welch (Visalia) won the 880 for the second year in a row, taking down the 1:59.0 record to 1:58.4. Yancey of Compton upped the meet record in the Javelin (yes the javelin was thrown in those days!) with a 182-0 3/5 effort, with Walter Marty (Fresno) taking the HJ up to 6-04.25 (from 6-02 3/16). Jim Wilson’s 200 of 21.4 tied the old record set by Frank Lombari (Los Angeles HS) and Frank Wykoff (Glendale HS, who went on to the Olympics in 1928 as a prep and won a gold medal in the relay!).

50 Years Ago – 1954 California State meet – Edwards Stadium – UC Berekeley – Saturday May 29th

The 36th Annual meet was held at UC Berkeley, and featured a great cast of athletes. Don Bowden (Lincoln, San Jose - 880), Monte Upshaw (Piedmont – 180 yard Low Hurdles, and James Jackson (Alameda – 100 yards) had all tied or broken national records in the North Coast Section Meet on the same facility. The one-day meet had heats starting at 10:00 am (100y – HH – 220y – LH – 880y relay), with finals starting at 2:00 pm. There were two heats of 8 where affected, with 12,000 fans along to enjoy the action.

A great meet it was! Two national records were broken, and five meet records either broken or tied. Monte Upshaw (Piedmont) blasted the famed record in the LJ of Jesse Owens (East Tech, Cleveland, Oh) from 21 years ago of 24-11.25 with a 25-04.25 effort. Bowden, who would later be the first American under 4:00 in the mile in 1957 as a student at UC Berkeley, took the 880 at 1:52.9, a full second under the 1:53.9 national best by Lang Stanley (Jefferson, LA – another legend) from 1950. Bowden had a pending 1:52.3 from the NCS action. James Jackson (Alameda) blazed a 9.6 100 to tie a record set by three that dated from as far back as 1928. Leamon King (Delano) and Jackson tied the 220 record of 21.2 that dated from as far back as 1933). Monte Upshaw, the father of current Olympic level LJ star, Grace Upshaw, took the LJ, and the 180 low hurdles at 19.0, and was second in the High Hurdles at 14.5 behind one Rafer Johnson (Kingsburg), with Rafer an Olympic Decathlon Champ and one of track history’s all-time greats! Alameda did win the team title with 19 points (over Piedmont) off James Jackson’s 100-200 win, an 880y relay win, and points in the Highs and Long Jump by other athletes. The Alameda title was the first ever outright team title won by a Northern California school, with Los Angeles City schools taking the last eight titles in a row! Rink Babka (Palo Alto), who would go on to Olympic glory for USC and beyond, won the exhibition College weight discus, throwing 148-02.75. Leamon King (Delano) amazed with four years of placing in the State Meet in the sprints, with a gold medal in the 1956 Olympics for the USA, and he tied the World Record in the 100 yard dash of 9.3 that same year.

(Thanks to Donn Kirk and his great work on the California State Meet, which includes the history of meets – He was assisted by David Cooper and Keith Conning)

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