Tuesday, October 23, 2012

A Fast Blast From the Past

I came across this great pic from the days of yore, which brings back a whole bunch of smile-inducing memories.

That's former State College star and High School Mile State Champion Dave Felice in the lead. Dave was a Tasmanian Devil with the baton. (Sorry Ryan, is that racist?) Memories of the many spirited interactions between Dave and Coach Groves still make me giggle.  It's even better when you realize that Dave went on to coaching at State College High, where he had one 800 M runner named Matt Groves, the fastest of Coach Groves' progeny.  The world has a nifty sense of humor, doesn't it?  I'll bet Matt didn't give Dave the least bit of trouble however.

Dave was also a firefighter in Midland Texas after college and helped in the rescue of Baby Jessica from the well.  Dave's face plastered across all the national magazines and newspapers also made me smile from ear to ear!

In second place is Friend of the Group Malcolm East of Allegheny.  My memories of him are of the back of his head, but even they make me smile. 70's hair was wonderful, wasn't it?  I came across this photo as a suggestion for "friends" on Facebook.  I'm sure many of you have memories of the Allegheny teams back then, and of Malcolm.  I have made him an honorary member of the Group just for making me smile.

9 comments:

  1. This looks like PSU's track, what meet, year?

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  2. No idea, as nearly always. It is PSU's track. There were several meets there in possibly '78 or '79. Can anyone help?

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  3. Tom Black track. Tennessee...Dogwood Relays...1978 LTM

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  4. There you go, straight from the Laundry and Morale Officer's uncanny recollections. And not a Dogwood bloom in sight. If he knows the other 3 in the relay for PSU, I give up. (No cheating, Larry.) Back at PSU that year, I'll bet I did a Mountain Run in the snow, but possibly I was injured.

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  5. I love a challenge....this race was either the DMR or the 4xmile. If the former, then it was Shesky, Close or Chumley on the 800 leg, Falco on the 400, Felice on the 1200 and Snyder on the 1600 leg. If the 4xmile it was Rapp, Wyatt, Felice and Snyder.

    I have no idea who is the Murray State guy trailing Malcolm East....there are some limits to my vast trove of useless trivia.

    LTM

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  6. How timely!
    I am at Oak Ridge TN today.
    Just around the bend from UTK and the very nice track in this photo where spring comes in spring not summer like at PSU. I was at PSU last year in April and it was cold and windy and brown - flew to Knoxville - ran on the campus and it was spring with flowers and warm air and no wind. No wonder Dogwood was so loved by all vs. the NL Relays clmactic challenge track event.
    Boyer

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  7. Identifying the track was easy. 1) UT's track was patched all over the place, 2) the rail was a weird plastic/rubber thing with duct tape in places (when you're in oxygen debt you focus on odd things) and 3) there are orange sweats on the bottom of the steeple barrier behind Dave's left foot. LTM

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  8. These comments prove how great my audience is! We should work on some good dave Felice/Coach Groves stories. It's been long enough.

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Thanks for commenting. Keep up the good work! (Try to mention others to encourage them to comment too!)

 
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