Games track nuts play

[Brutal]

It happened my soph year of high school. After track practice I went over to a friends to hang out. There on a desk in his room...."Track&Field News"....I thought.."wow!" Being a big fan of speed, I had to have this. Been a subscriber ever since. I can't remember who was on the cover but I do remember discovering Southern U and Texas Southern. Back then those SWAC schools had some athletes. The yearly lists (sprints) were full of SoU and TexSo sprinters. Once the SEC/SWC began to allow black athletes......well.

Anyway...

With the magazine I now could keep up with what was going on, and I did. I got some index cards and started keeping up with schools that could meet my criteria. Each school could field two athletes in the following events, if they met my standard.

110....13.9
long jump....25-0
100...9.4
200...20.9
400...46.9
4x1
4x4

I started out with just....

USC
UCLA
SJS
Kansas
New Mexico

Now I have 60 colleges. Sometimes having to go with just one athlete until somebody made my standard. New Mexico was at it's very best when I started this. Most of those on my initial card are still there. Bernie Rivers, Rene Matison, Adolph Plummer,Clarence Robinson, Steve Camidini are still there some 40 odd years later. When I have to replace somebody because someone better has come along it's like I'm saying good bye to a friend...haha!!

The fun was having track meets pitting these schools against each other. Yep 5 points for 1st 3 for 2nd 1 for 3rd. Relays 5 and 0 if a dual...ha!

The oldest athlete still with me would be Jesse Owens. He still long jumps for Ohio State and runs the 4x1 with Chris Sanders Chris Nelloms and Jerry Harris.

I'm still adding teams, with Texas Tech being my latest addition.

So who is the best team using the formate I have in place? That would be UCLA.

An athlete can only have one individual event but run both relays. Enter Larry Black,Steve Williams,Justin Gatlin etc.

Check um out.....

4x1

Mike Marsh
Ato Boldon
Millard Hampton
Warren Edmonson

110's

Greg Foster
Andre Phillips

long jump

Mike Powell
James McAlister

400

Steve Lewis
Danny Everett

100

Ato Boldon
Warren Edmonson

200

Mike Marsh
Millard Hampton

4x4

Everett
Wayne Collett
John Smith
Lewis

Yes USC is close. It's the relays that does them in.

Yep a labor of love.

[tafnut]

Does being in a fantasy track game for the last 20 years count? 8)

[dukehjsteve]

I mentioned my "track game" on this Board about 2 years ago, but here it is again.

Very simple, really, and it's quite enjoyable while driving alone; I do it almost all the time:

As you drive down the highway, look for any and all billboards, street signs, etc. that have a name that has a Track connection, such as " Lewis Car Rental", or Stones Real Estate", and on and on. Then yell out " Carl Lewis !" and " Dwight Stones ! ", etc. etc. It gets quite addictive but is indeed a lot of fun. And it is hard to go more than a minute without having a hit, considering all the hundreds, maybe thousands of Track names you know. Just don't get killed by forgetting to watch the traffic. I enjoy it the most of course when travelling in new territory.

P.S. Double credit for a full name, such as " Wes Santee Corporation" or the like.

P.S.S. Triple or even quadruple credit for seeing the very rare real thing, such as " Edwin C. Moses Boulevard" exit sign while driving on I-75 through Dayton, Ohio.

[MJR]

We have a Derrick Adkins Lane here on Long Island (NY). Gee, I wonder who grew up there??

[tandfman]

As you drive down the highway, look for any and all billboards, street signs, etc. that have a name that has a Track connection, such as " Lewis Car Rental", or Stones Real Estate", and on and on. Then yell out " Carl Lewis !" and " Dwight Stones ! ", etc. etc. It gets quite addictive but is indeed a lot of fun. And it is hard to go more than a minute without having a hit, considering all the hundreds, maybe thousands of Track names you know. Just don't get killed by forgetting to watch the traffic. I enjoy it the most of course when travelling in new territory.

Does your auto insurance company know about this?

[dukehjsteve]

As you drive down the highway, look for any and all billboards, street signs, etc. that have a name that has a Track connection, such as " Lewis Car Rental", or Stones Real Estate", and on and on. Then yell out " Carl Lewis !" and " Dwight Stones ! ", etc. etc. It gets quite addictive but is indeed a lot of fun. And it is hard to go more than a minute without having a hit, considering all the hundreds, maybe thousands of Track names you know. Just don't get killed by forgetting to watch the traffic. I enjoy it the most of course when travelling in new territory.

Does your auto insurance company know about this?

Shhhh ! Even my wife doesn't know I do this !!!

[dj]

Had an interesting drive back in '81 with GH. We were going from the New Orleans airport to Baton Rouge.

At some point we noticed that neither of us had said a word for ten minutes or so, only to discover that we'd each been playing the same game in our minds.

Each overpass listed the clearance height in feet and inches, most of them in the 16- and 17-foot area. The trick was to name the WR setter and the site of his record.

[dukehjsteve]

We have a Derrick Adkins Lane here on Long Island (NY). Gee, I wonder who grew up there??

mjr, where is that exactly ? I'm an old LI guy ( Huntington) myself. I know Derrick is from LI but cannot remember exactly where.

[gh]

Had an interesting drive back in '81 with GH. We were going from the New Orleans airport to Baton Rouge.

At some point we noticed that neither of us had said a word for ten minutes or so, only to discover that we'd each been playing the same game in our minds.

Each overpass listed the clearance height in feet and inches, most of them in the 16- and 17-foot area. The trick was to name the WR setter and the site of his record.

That was one of two games! The other was that each time you passed an exit sign you had to name somebody who went to HS there, or at least the name of a HS in the town. Like leaving the NO airport the answer for Metairie was "East Jefferson, Harold Porter!" The answer for Houma was "Terrebonne" but after all these years I'm blanking on an athlete.

[marknhj]

I saw a "Webb for Mayor" poster here last year ...flashed back to Steve's game and realised I'd been doing it subconciously for years too...

[tandfman]

We have a Derrick Adkins Lane here on Long Island (NY). Gee, I wonder who grew up there??

mjr, where is that exactly ? I'm an old LI guy ( Huntington) myself. I know Derrick is from LI but cannot remember exactly where.

Malverne.

[gh]

Along the lines of the subconscious is one that I think I also mentioned on the earlier tharead, and that's when I roll over in the middle of the night and look at the clock and see 2:00 my reactoin (is 6'6 3/4), etc., etc.

Strangely enough, 7:07, 7:17, 7:27, 7:37, 7:47 and 7:57 are exempt, because for those I say "Boeing!" (but then, I'm never in bed that late anyway)

[tafnut]

I can't ever go under an overpass that has its height marked without thinking a pole vault mark.

[gh]

The ultimate expression of geekdom is when you do an underpass that's marked in both metric and english and you take issue with the conversion factor they've used. "Hey, that 5.00m sign says 16'5"---that's a long jump conversion, they should be using the PV conversion of 16'4 3/4" !"

[tafnut]

"Hey, that 5.00m sign says 16'5"---that's a long jump conversion, they should be using the PV conversion of 16'4 3/4" !"

oh good lord :shock: maybe we WERE separated at birth - I've seen imprecise equivalencies and questioned the breeding of the sign maker! I was hoping to take that little eccentricity to the grave, but your admission has outed me!