Gotta tell a story here, completely true and perhaps of interest to all you track history wonks like myself.
I was on an 11-day bicycle trip 11 years ago out in the "gold country" of California with 2 other guys. We stopped on the side of the road to look at maps outside of Murphys, about 40 miles south of Placerville.
A friendly courtly older gent stopped to see if he could offer assistance. His name was Ernie Klann, and a few minutes' conversation revealed that back in the 30's he had left California to run at Kansas, after finishing 2nd in the Cal state HS meet to Louis Zamperini in the mile, in about 4:35 if I recall correctly. Of course at Kansas he ran on relay teams with Glenn Cunningham, and he also ran in the 1936 Olympic Trials... at his house he showed me his old jersey from that meet. Ernie was still an active runner at about age 80 ( this was 1992 ) and road race organizer. We set up out tents in his front yard for 3 days and he treated us like kings ! We even went to a high school track in Murphys and watched him do his daily track workout, remember this guy was about 80.
Sadly, Ernie's wife send me a note about 5 years ago that Ernie had succumbed to cancer.
Anyone else ever heard of this wonderful, wonderful man ??
I was on an 11-day bicycle trip 11 years ago out in the "gold country" of California with 2 other guys. We stopped on the side of the road to look at maps outside of Murphys, about 40 miles south of Placerville.
A friendly courtly older gent stopped to see if he could offer assistance. His name was Ernie Klann, and a few minutes' conversation revealed that back in the 30's he had left California to run at Kansas, after finishing 2nd in the Cal state HS meet to Louis Zamperini in the mile, in about 4:35 if I recall correctly. Of course at Kansas he ran on relay teams with Glenn Cunningham, and he also ran in the 1936 Olympic Trials... at his house he showed me his old jersey from that meet. Ernie was still an active runner at about age 80 ( this was 1992 ) and road race organizer. We set up out tents in his front yard for 3 days and he treated us like kings ! We even went to a high school track in Murphys and watched him do his daily track workout, remember this guy was about 80.
Sadly, Ernie's wife send me a note about 5 years ago that Ernie had succumbed to cancer.
Anyone else ever heard of this wonderful, wonderful man ??
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