This Weekend's Sacramento Area Meet at Folsom HS
Has Rich History!!

Golden West Invitational - 40 years ago 1967

A super Golden West Invitational Meet was held at Hughes Stadium in Sacamento in the third year that the meet was held in the State Capital after moving from Los Angeles, where the previous five editions had started this post-season competition for top senior year athletes. Three National Records would come from the 1967 meet. Bill Tipton (Central, Flint, Michigan) was a hurdles double-winner at 13.4w for the 120 yard Highs, and added a Prep All-Time best 18.3 for the 180 yard low hurdles around the turn, some pretty quick dashing over the barriers. Karl Salb (Crosset, Arkansas) took down the 69-03 prep Shot Put best by Dallas Long of North Phoenix from way back in 1958 with a 69-06 effort. The third standard breaker was Joe Kurzrok (Mt. Vernon, NY), who raced 37.3 for the 300 Meter Intermediate Hurdles to break the 37.4 prep standard by Jack Faubion (Texas) from this year.

Fabulous Jerry Proctor (Muir, Pasadena) was 26-05.75 in the Long Jump, a Prep Best Ever mark, but it was nullifed by too much wind, and he had two 26-01.25w marks in the meet. New Jersey’s Bill Gaines (Clearview Regional) added a quick 9.3w 100, a mark he had run for a new National Record without wind earlier in the spring. Mark Murro (Essex Catholic, Newark, NJ) had broken eventual pro football star and current commentator Terry Bradshaw’s National Prep Javelin best earlier in the spring with a 252-08 ealier in the year, and he was also ahead of the old standard with his 247-04 win here.

Mark Debevc (Geneva, Ohio) took a great Discus field with a 191-06 throw, with Santa Rosa’s Mel Gray a 21.0 Meet Record for 220 Yards around the turn here. Mark Newton (Whittier) was 47.5 to win the 440, with Dave Morton (Memorial, Houston, Tx) edging James Jackson (Boys, Brooklyn, NY) with both 1:51.8 for the 880. Pete Romer (Reedley) was 9:02.6 to win the two mile.

Golden West Invitational - 30 Years ago 1977

The GWI had built some real momentum as far as a solid fan base was concerned by 1977, with the competition drawing an impressive 9000 spectators. Still a “Boys-only” affair, the meet had its best competition in the middle distances. In the Mile, New Jersey’s Roger Jones (Ramsey) took rival Kevin Byrne (Catholic, Paramus) 4:08.1-4:09.3, with Charlie Christiansen (Edion, Huntington Beach) next a 4:09.8. Todd Harbor (Port Isabel, Tx) took early pace-setter Tom Martin (Ind), who was out at 1:20.0 for the first 660, closing down nicely for a 1:50.1 880 win that had the Texan win by two seconds! Steve Ortiz (Kennedy, Barstow, California), a school that eventually closed down due to declining enrollment, took the two mile at 8:57.8 over Dave Daniels (San Gorgonio, San Bernardino) 9:01.0. Tony Tufariello (Hewlett, NY) won the meet’s “Rodebaugh” Inspirational Award, named after the Meet Director, Maree Rodebaugh, who was sadly killed in a Shot Put officiating accident a couple weeks prior to the meet, with a 46.8 440 yard win by ten yards. Virginia’s Jesse Williams (Princess Anne) was a 9.6-21.6 100-220 yard sprint winner. Florida’s Andy Walker (Northeast, St. Petersburg, Fl) was 13.8 to take the 120 Yard Highs, run into a -7.0 mph breeze, with Florida’s Wyman Daniels (Killian, Miami) ran 36.9 to win the 330 Yard Intermediates by a second. Bill Hice (Oakland) was 7-00 to win the High Jump, with Jim Sidler (Villa Park) a 16-00 Pole Vault winner. Lamont King (Dysart, Peoria, Az) was 24-10.75 to win the Long Jump, with Keith Smothers (Wilson, Levittown, Pa) 49-05w to take the Triple Jump. The throws went to Frank Warren (Phillips, Birmingham, Alabama) in the Shot 64-07, Jared Finely (Wyandotte, Kansas City, Kansas) 193-10 in the Discus, and Terry Daffin (Central, Baton Rouge, Louisiana) 224-07 in the Javelin.

The International Prep Invitational in the Chicago area had risen to challenge the GWI by 1977, with that same June 11th affair in 1977 fully funding all participants to their affair, with the year’s top preps, like New Jersey’s Renaldo Nemeiah, who had run 12.9 for the Highs that season, California star James Sanford (Pasadena) (20.80 220 46.60 440), and many others who led the yearly lists, heading to the Midwest for that meet on the same GWI 1977 date.

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