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Recent email from Henry Kirk:
I am a member of Univ. Nevada Reno 1968 National Cross Country Championship Team held at Wheaton College in Ill.Nov.16 1968.The team was made up of 3 Englishmen,1 Aussie, and the other man is myself of Wash. DC. We ran away with the race, however, Nev. was stripped of the title, the individual title and given to Eastern Ill. some 1 1/2 years later. I had graduated and no one knew what had happened
I have been working to find bits and pieces of data for 9 mos. Also the NCAA sent me excerpts of a meeting and Nev. lost the title because of class transferring of the 3 Englishmen. They were not in a JC program, the univ. stated they all were eligible to participate in NCAA Championship Meets, the NCAA voted split decision to declare them ineligible by the rule 2-2.The univ. filed the initial protest but let it go and nothing ever happened
Now the story continues--I was hoping to determine what had happened 40 yrs ago. I have been meeting with Nev's. retired athletic director and the assoc. athletic director to get this '68 cross country team recognized. There are only 4 of us remaining and the coach, Jack Cook has also passed away. The spouses I'm sure will be grateful to have this team recognized
A further check in the Univ. Athletic Bldg., shows the univ. does not show or recognizes any cross country or track team existed for 68, 69,and 70.There are only three people at the univ. that remembers the specific team. Therefore, the athletic faculty board has agreed to recognize the 68 cross country team if I can show this team did win the Far Western Athletic Conference Cross Country Championships in1968
I'm sure we won the Championships, the meet was held on our Reno coarse. I think Peter Duffy was the winner. I have a photo of us with a large trophy. The meet would have been run on the 2nd weekend of Nov. 68 since the Nationals were held on Nov.16th 68.
I need a copy of the winning univ. and date from some type of listing in a book of rules, track publication, program, it doesn't matter when it was published. Other schools in the Far Western Athletic Conference were UC Davis, Cal Hayward, Chico, and maybe Humboldt State with Nevada. This is the only opportunity to get this forgotten team the recognition that it deserves. If anyone can come up with some printed results, I feel the univ. will keep their agreement, however, the 68 NCAA Championship will not be recognized by the univ. they don't want fight with the NCAA. Our team is the only team in the univ. history to have won an NCAA Title and yet if we had be represented at that time ,there are no doubts, we would have won our case, and would be a recognized athletic team of Univ. of Nevada, it is a shame, there is no one to help us. I was able to get my NCAA plaque last week from a person that has held it for 40 yrs. I'm really proud of that and I have other data saved that the other members don't have. The plaque has taken that long for it to be sent to me and the univ. will not display it.
Before I started on this journey, my plan I discussed with the Univ. was to have this NCAA Championship team announced at the football home-coming half time when other selected people are recognized. This was going well until I found listings of the title being stripped. I will try to contact someone of the NCAA Rules Committee and see if a case has ever come up like this before. The strange thing, the athletes continued running, graduated; one runner teaches and writes law.
I have met with track coaches of UC Davis and Sacramento State Univ. They do not have records except back to 2000. I have talked with retired coaches from UC Davis and UOPacific,but so far no physical records are available.
This started out as one project,but I probably will get shut down on the NCAA championship. However, the conference championship is handled by the conference themselves and the have their own ruling bodies two separate institutions but I think ultimately,the NCAA has final say with NCAA participation(Post Championships).I spoke with the athletic director to give him a heads up that I was still pursuing the winner of the Far Western Athletic Conference cross country title for1968.
I cannot express my gratitude of appreciation enough for any assistance to help provide myself,the team,its fallen members, and spouses the closure and some recognition to a great team and if I can help it,they will never be forgotten.You have to be talented to win any NCAA Championship.So we might find some information,computers were as large as a bed room at that time,and were in development and lots of data wasn't recorded at that time.
Henry Kirk
1620 Headslane Rd.
West Sacramento,Ca.95691
[email protected]
I am a member of Univ. Nevada Reno 1968 National Cross Country Championship Team held at Wheaton College in Ill.Nov.16 1968.The team was made up of 3 Englishmen,1 Aussie, and the other man is myself of Wash. DC. We ran away with the race, however, Nev. was stripped of the title, the individual title and given to Eastern Ill. some 1 1/2 years later. I had graduated and no one knew what had happened
I have been working to find bits and pieces of data for 9 mos. Also the NCAA sent me excerpts of a meeting and Nev. lost the title because of class transferring of the 3 Englishmen. They were not in a JC program, the univ. stated they all were eligible to participate in NCAA Championship Meets, the NCAA voted split decision to declare them ineligible by the rule 2-2.The univ. filed the initial protest but let it go and nothing ever happened
Now the story continues--I was hoping to determine what had happened 40 yrs ago. I have been meeting with Nev's. retired athletic director and the assoc. athletic director to get this '68 cross country team recognized. There are only 4 of us remaining and the coach, Jack Cook has also passed away. The spouses I'm sure will be grateful to have this team recognized
A further check in the Univ. Athletic Bldg., shows the univ. does not show or recognizes any cross country or track team existed for 68, 69,and 70.There are only three people at the univ. that remembers the specific team. Therefore, the athletic faculty board has agreed to recognize the 68 cross country team if I can show this team did win the Far Western Athletic Conference Cross Country Championships in1968
I'm sure we won the Championships, the meet was held on our Reno coarse. I think Peter Duffy was the winner. I have a photo of us with a large trophy. The meet would have been run on the 2nd weekend of Nov. 68 since the Nationals were held on Nov.16th 68.
I need a copy of the winning univ. and date from some type of listing in a book of rules, track publication, program, it doesn't matter when it was published. Other schools in the Far Western Athletic Conference were UC Davis, Cal Hayward, Chico, and maybe Humboldt State with Nevada. This is the only opportunity to get this forgotten team the recognition that it deserves. If anyone can come up with some printed results, I feel the univ. will keep their agreement, however, the 68 NCAA Championship will not be recognized by the univ. they don't want fight with the NCAA. Our team is the only team in the univ. history to have won an NCAA Title and yet if we had be represented at that time ,there are no doubts, we would have won our case, and would be a recognized athletic team of Univ. of Nevada, it is a shame, there is no one to help us. I was able to get my NCAA plaque last week from a person that has held it for 40 yrs. I'm really proud of that and I have other data saved that the other members don't have. The plaque has taken that long for it to be sent to me and the univ. will not display it.
Before I started on this journey, my plan I discussed with the Univ. was to have this NCAA Championship team announced at the football home-coming half time when other selected people are recognized. This was going well until I found listings of the title being stripped. I will try to contact someone of the NCAA Rules Committee and see if a case has ever come up like this before. The strange thing, the athletes continued running, graduated; one runner teaches and writes law.
I have met with track coaches of UC Davis and Sacramento State Univ. They do not have records except back to 2000. I have talked with retired coaches from UC Davis and UOPacific,but so far no physical records are available.
This started out as one project,but I probably will get shut down on the NCAA championship. However, the conference championship is handled by the conference themselves and the have their own ruling bodies two separate institutions but I think ultimately,the NCAA has final say with NCAA participation(Post Championships).I spoke with the athletic director to give him a heads up that I was still pursuing the winner of the Far Western Athletic Conference cross country title for1968.
I cannot express my gratitude of appreciation enough for any assistance to help provide myself,the team,its fallen members, and spouses the closure and some recognition to a great team and if I can help it,they will never be forgotten.You have to be talented to win any NCAA Championship.So we might find some information,computers were as large as a bed room at that time,and were in development and lots of data wasn't recorded at that time.
Henry Kirk
1620 Headslane Rd.
West Sacramento,Ca.95691
[email protected]