A unique stadium

[runforlife]

Re: A unique stadium

Can anyone help?

Isn't there a unique track around Seattle that has a right turn on the back streatch? I've seen pictures of it. I know it's not a stadium but worth mentioning.

[Bruce Kritzler]

Re: A unique stadium

Great videos from Stanford. Both high jump world record off grass, around 7-5! Guys aren't jumping much higher off synthetic surfaces today.

[James Fields]

Re: A unique stadium

runforlife asked "Isn't there a unque track around Seattle that has a right turn on the back stretch? I've seen pictures of it. ..."
___________

I've set foot on most of Seattle's outdoor tracks, ranging from 250 meters to 660 yards around, but I may not properly visualize what you refer to as a "right turn on the backstretch." The wording brings to mind Hiawatha Field just north of West Seattle HS where a turn of that sort on the dirt track was used by runners in the 1960s to access a 1000-meter loop for cross country running in the adjacent park which still contains long jump and shot put facilities.

If you could post one or more of those pctures you've seen I may be be able to provide more information. On 17 July 2010 I will be in West Seattle to assist at a "masters" meet which gets entrants as old as 95. One of them looking at your photos might correctly identify the site.

Before Seattle's Broadway HS was shut down in summer 1946 the track team ran on a dirt and cinders track (rectangular, not oval) around a reservoir. Three laps plus [or was it minus] some yards equaled two miles and there was a path angling off to the right, from the west straightaway, which athletes could use to connect with the high school.

But display the pictures, or at least one of them, now and I will query some oldtimers.

[paw]

here are a link to a video of the race of 400m from the US Olympic Trials in 1932 with among other William Carr and Ben Eastman
and from the race of 100m in the same meeting in 1932 with among others Ralph Metcalfe and Eddie Tolan:
the video explains a lot of the type of the stadium:

http://www.gettyimages.dk/license/542780984

and another link to a video of Ben Eastman's world record in 880y in Stanford Stadium, Palo Alto, California also in 1932:
http://www.gettyimages.dk/license/598965918

[dj]

Interesting stuff from paw.

The first clip is from Stanford Stadium at the Oly Trials with the first pair of shots being the start and finish of the one-turn 400m final. But it's clear that Yale's Karl Warner steps off the track with about 10m to go with Arnold Adams (Bates) finishing 6th. Warner has "always" been listed as having finished 7th, when he should be a dnf.

The second pair of action shots (following the byplay between Carr and Eastman) shows the a 100m start and the finish of the 100m final, in which Metcalfe (lane 5) is the winner over Tolan. But the view of the start is actually the 2nd heat, in which Tolan was also in lane 1. Notice the difference in uniform and race in the outer two lanes of each angle.

[dj]

The clip of Eastman's 1:51.3 880y world record is also at Stanford, but not in the stadium. That race was run at what three years later became known as Angell Field, site of the current Stanford track.

[paw]

thanks for all the informations