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A Look in the Rear View Mirror - 30 Years Ago HS T&F 1977 Through Early May

What was hot during the spring of 1977

by Doug Speck

1977 A Look in the Rear View Mirror – 30 Years Ago

National Records in a couple of areas were all the rage in 1977 to the early May point of the season, with the High Jump "Fosbury Flop," named after the American High Jumper from Oregon, 1968 Olympic champion, who went over the bar on his back, firmly entrenched as the way to do the event nearly a decade later, even among preps. Gail Olson from Illinois (Sycamore, Illinois) had jumped 7-03.25 surprisingly in the rain in late April to take down the old 7-03 National All-Time mark set by Reynaldo Brown (Compton, Calif) from way back in the 1968 Olympic Trials. Olson had improved to 7-04 by early May to lead a super group nationally that by early May had already equaled the best number of athletes ever to clear 7-00 in a season at eleven.

Renaldo Nehemiah (Scotch Plains-Fanwood, Scotch Plains, New Jersey) (photo to left) was setting up for something very special with a National Record equaling 120 Yard High Hurdles time of 13.2 (back in the days of about all hand-timing remember) to equal the prep best ever by Mike Roberson (Florida), Dedy Cooper (Calif), and Greg Foster (Illinois). Nehemiah, an amazing all-around talent, had 9.4 (100y) and 20.9 (220y) bests, with a 24-11.5 Long Jump to lead the nation, and 36.6 in the 330 Yard Intermediate Hurdles. With seven performances indoors that equaled National Records at the 60 Yard/55 Meter Hurdle distances at both the 39 and 42" hurdle heights (remember the hand-timing clogged those short distance sprint/hurdle lists indoors in those days!), Renaldo was the Track & Field News Indoor Prep Athlete of the Year in 1977, so his outdoor efforts were not totally surprising! Nehemiah eventually revolutionized the Olympic level in the event, taking the World Record down from 13.21 in 1977 by Alredo Casanas of Cuba all the way to 12.93 by 1981, with his career shortened by an attempt at pro football just four years after his high school graduation! He was top-ranked in the world at the University of Maryland four years between 1978 and 1981, and would have been the favorite for the Olympic Gold Medal in Moscow in 1980, but the US boycotted those games.

South Eugene, Oregon, home of an awesome prep distance program, had run a National Record 4 x 1 one mile relay record 17:06.6 in 1976 (a record that amazingly is still better than any prep 4xmile or 4x1600 when compared!), with the guts of that team in Dirk Lakeman and Bill McChesney (right photo) back for the 1977 season. During a solo Distance Medley May 6th at their own Relay carnival, Lakeman led off in 3:03.8 (1320 yards), Anthony Brown was 49.3 (440), and Bob Penny 1:57.7 (880) before anchor McChesney, of a super running family, took the baton and covered four laps (one mile) in 4:11.0 to run 10:01.6, a mark still among US Prep History’s top six all-time and a National All-Time prep best that lasted for a decade as a prep standard. In real tragedies, both brothers Tom (1973 grad) and Bill McChesney from South Eugene HS would die in auto accidents, Tom in 1986, and Bill in 1992, Bill with super 13:14.80 (5k) and 27:50.82 (10k) bests from the University of Oregon there on the track during his collegiate running career.

A great weight group chased 70 feet and 200 feet that 1977 season, with Dock Luckie (Ft. Pierce, Florida) 202-09 to equal the prep all-time best from Greg Martin (Mississippi) in 1976, and 67-05 through early May. Mark Sutherland (Shawnee Mission South, Overland Park, Kansas) had thrown 67-05.5 indoors with the Shot, and was 202-03 outdoors already with the Discus. Vince Goldsmith, a footballer and wrestler from Mt. Tahoma HS in Tacoma, Washington, was 69-11 in late April 1997, with a 181-01 discus best. Super group! Luckie had some interesting luck that 1977 season, with a 197-11 toss in mid-season having the misfortune of striking a telephone line along the way!

Cyril Wyatt (Oak Ridge, Orlando, Florida) was prepdom’s hottest sprinter, with a 9.2 100 yard in the mid-April Trojan Invitational in Jacksonville to lead the country, and he added a 20.9 in the 220 yard event at the same meet to share the national lead with Texan Carl Williams to the early May point of the season.

James Sanford (Pasadena, California) (photo to left) highlighted the annually strong Arcadia Meet, with a 21.2 220 Yard Meet Record effort along with a 48.0 440 yard win (he had a 46.7 best by early May), and strong 4x1 and 4x4 relay legs. Four seven-foot High Jumpers met at Arcadia, with Rod Smith (Western, Las Vegas, Nv) the winner at 6-10. Soph Linda Goen (North, Bakersfield), one of the first prep female stars who did not have age-group credentials as that side of the sport, emerged at the high school level, setting a National Prep Girls 880 yard record of 2:10.2 in that year’s Arcadia Meet, then added a 4:54.7 Mile win. Anthony Curran (Crespi, Encino) was on a roll that year in the Pole Vault, with a string of 16-00 weekends, a 16-01.5 victory here over 16-footer Ray Crook (Wooster, Reno, Nv). Mark Fricker (Hemet) took the Arcadia Mile at 4:11.3, with soph Chuck Assuma (Eisenhower, Rialto) starting a famed prep career with a 9:08.8 Two mile win there.

1977 was a fine Penn Relays competition. Local schools wowed the huge crowd, with Overbrook 41.1 to take Franklin of Philadelphia 41.3 in the 400 Meter (some meets were moving towards metric in those days already) Relay, then Woodson (Washington DC) had William Contee anchor a 3:14.4 4x400m relay squad over Overbrooko’s 3:16.2. The Jamaican presence was felt, with Clarendon a 7:42.1 4x800m win. Fine individual wins in the Mile went to Roger Jones (Ramsey, NJ) at 4:09.5, with John Tuttle (Alfred-Almond, NY) an 8:57.2 two mile victory. Sanya Owalabi (Sleepy Hollow, NY) jumped 51-01 in the Triple Jump. Mount St. Michael’s of New York City was a fine 10:06.0 to win the Distance Medley Relay, with Kevin Byrne of Paramus Catholic a 4:04.1 1600m anchor to lead his squad to third at 10:09.9. Renaldo Nehemiah was 46.5 on a relay leg during the competition that had no prep Highs event.

 

 

Looking over an early May National list from 1977 had eventual Oakland Raider receiver and Super Bowl Champ Dokie Williams at over 51 feet in the Triple Jump as a junior that 1977 prep season for El Camino of Oceanside, a near "jumping academy" that later turned out Willie Banks, among others.


Linda Goen (photo by Bill Leung) - Anthony Curran (photo by Bill Leung)

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