There's Only A Week Until Penn Relays!

My favorite time of year!  And to start off the festivities here at the blog with it all is a photo from our very good friend Mike Fanelli from the garage of his California home.  Mike and I have crossed paths numerous times throughout our lives, and just missed meeting face to face probably dozens of times.  I wonder if actually meeting me will really disappoint him too much?  Mike even had the good sense to marry a Nittany Lion.

Anyway here's a pic of two runners from the early 1950's at Penn Relays:

 

The Army runner is Richard Shea, a very accomplished runner who paid the ultimate price for America on Pork Chop Hill in Korea soon after this.  Army's track is named in his honor, Shea Stadium. Shea won the 1952 2-Mile at the Penn Relays.

The Nittany Lion is Lamont Smith, a 1953 All-American teammate of the Ashenfelters and Curt Stone, who enticed many onto the teams that won many titles.  Lamont was second in the 1952 2-Mile race at Penn.

Mike Fanelli has such a large stash of memorabilia in his garage that he went looking for more on Shea and Smith.  Although he didn't (yet) find any more, he did come up with a great program for the 1952 Millrose Games:

This stuff is gold, isn't it?