More Scenes From Franklin Field

Morgan Shigo, winner Hammer Throw.

RB Caldwell, Jake Bartholomy, Che Aresomena, Ken Cooper.

Bob Beamon and Tim Johnson.

Only Walt "Clyde" Frazier could outshine that oufit!

Layers And Layers Of PSU Track Alumni Golfers

“They worked so hard, and they ran gutsy races…it came together at the right time.”

-Mark Haywood.

Our efforts here at the Blog With It All are partially to unite Penn State T&F/XC athletes across multiple decades who otherwise might not know each other.  But then sometimes, other events intervene to bring them together without any efforts on my or the Interns part!  (Even though Mark Haywood and Tim Johnson already knew each other.)

Like when the reporter covering the District 3 XC Championships gets to interview the winning coach of the Class A Girls race... 

Camp Hill Wins District 3 XC Meet

Very proud to know both of them, who are among the rest of my PSU Track Alumni (Golfer) family.  The finest people the world produces BTW.

I Had Nothing For Today

I really couldn't come up with anything for a post today, and no one has sent me anything of interest in awhile (Hint, hint...).  So I went to the Intertubes again to steal a vacation photo from someone else.  I hope they don't mind.

Tim "Grizzly" Johnson and Dennis Pollow on top of Pike's Peak.

I'm Always Going To Be Outdone By The Youngsters

My vacation in nearby Harpers Ferry was scenic and tranquil (miserable internet sees to that!), but leave it to our younger set to outdo my vacation in a big way. Here are my favorite vacation spots for running.

Tim Johnson, Owen Dawson and Kyle Dawson headed west to meet Dennis Pollow for a tour of the western states.  Here's some of their photos I have stolen from various sources.  I don't think they will mind.

Kyle Dawson, Owen Dawson and Tim Johnson. Apparently they have been running!

The Coach/Athlete Relationship Is Complex

 It's a small world.  And one with way more than just 50 shades of gray.

Turns out Tim Johnson's dad  Jim Johnson ran for coach Jackson Horner and Assistant Coach Steve Gentry with a PSU teammate of mine, Bill Kvashay.  And he kept a detailed journal of his thoughts at the time. Tim shared some of them with me, pointing out the complexities of the coach/athlete dynamic.  Old-school philosophies may be few and far between nowadays, but I'm not sure that's a good thing...

"This journal obviously was written by an eleventh-grader, notably expressing the self-absorption of any teenager then or now. But it definitely expresses the emotions, both good and bad, of a teenager striving for personal and team success."   -Jim Johnson.

Anyone who takes half an hour to state who will go to the following day’s meet should not be heralded as a speaker, but there we all were, huddled around him, even those who knew they had no chance of making the meet. Jackson Horner is a good coach, an extremely good coach, as his record at State College High will attest. The whole track team can respect him as a coach. Why is it then that everybody fears him? During the season he probably affects our lives more than our family. We even feel nervous eating a doughnut if there is a chance he is around, even though there are no rules about eating on our team. Many conversations between teammates are about his bad points, but constant glances over the shoulder show that he is not forgotten. One thing every team member tries to avoid is getting into a talking match with him. As far as we know, the record is held by Jon Forster, with a discussion concerning student activities besides track; the talk lasted about forty-five minutes while the rest of us were jogging around an ice-covered track. Acting as a kind of buffer between the team and Horner is [assistant coach] Steve Gentry. He will joke with us about Horner when he is not there. However, when Bill Halpenny, a slightly built but good runner wanted to quit and told Mr. Gentry to tell Horner, Gentry wouldn’t do it. (After trying to get other team members tell Horner, Halpenny called Horner about a week later. Horner gave him a half-hour lecture and hung up.) Thus one can get a glimpse of the terror Horner installs in his runners and even his sub-coaches. 

Horner once was a state champion in the mile and a Golden Gloves boxing champ, but has since deteriorated physically. He still is pretty loose and spry, but has gained a large number of inches on his waistline, which Gentry refers to as the “Horner pot.” Horner still has enough left in him to chase his runners around the track a short distance, hitting or pushing them if they are not running to his liking. When Horner is mad, everyone watches out. On one indoor track day my sophomore year, as he came walking up to the track, the whole track team was kicking around a soccer ball. (The addition of Tom Szlega and other members of the “half track” men made things a little looser.) Horner ran up to the soccer ball and grabbed it. At first we though he was kidding, but all of us caught the evil glint in his eye. He got ready to kick the a thousand miles away, gave a mighty swish of his foot, missed the ball, and and landed flat on his back in the snow. All at once, each member of the team turned away and laughed, some out loud. Horner turned on Bill Dixon, a devoted runner who gave everything he had every race. It was the only time I ever saw Horner yell at Bill Dixon. Very luckily the track was snow covered and the only words Horner said to us after that were “Get jogging” and “Go on down.”

 Today was Altoona. Altoona didn’t have enough guys to run two races, so everyone ran in the varsity race. During the race, two guys stole some of our warmup fleece. While the team went to the school to get dressed, Horner was following a chain of witnesses beginning with a little boy on a bicycle. When we again met up with Horner and asked about the boys that took the fleece, Horner replied, “I scared the sh*t out of them.” With the aid of the Altoona coach, he got our fleece back. (Yea, Horner.)

"The stories about horner that my dad shared with me are what framed my own understanding of my own high school coach, and then Coach Groves." - Tim Johnson. 

Tim Johnson Helps Us Relive Those Great High School Championships

The PIAA District 3 Cross Country Championships are on Saturday  this afternoon in Hershey.  And Group Member (and real writer) Tim Johnson helps us relive those great times in another great article for Penn Live.

Tim Johnson, third from left.

I have a few things in common with Tim and a few things different, other than the writing abilities.

Similar:

• We both had a top finish of 7th at the PIAA District 3 XC Meet. (In my defense, I did get 5th at States the next week.)
• We both aren't great golfers, although he is still way better than me.
• We both cherish our time at PSU.

Not Similar:

•  He ran at Districts all four years of HS.  I never made it until I was a Senior.  (correction: he only ran 3 years at Districts.  He played football as a Freshman.)
• He loves being in the stadium for PSU football games.  I can't stand it. 

Anyway, here's his article from Penn Live:

"That’s the true beauty of this meet. In just 16 or 20 minutes’ time on Wednesday afternoon, stories will be written, champions will be crowned, and the great mystery of the 2014 season will, at long last, be put largely to rest. Months’ worth of blood, sweat, and tears have been collected — only to be left behind on the hills of Parkview on a singular October afternoon."

More Stuff Coming My Way: Updates

I won't be at the Coach Groves Spiked Shoe Meet this weekend, so I'm hoping Matt will cover it with his usual aplomb.  Don Skerpon will also be there, so we will be well represented.  And I'll add my hat-tip to Coach Groves also.  A meet named for him is the very least he deserves.  Just don't let him drive the van!

And I've received some more neat items on previous posts.

1.  Our great friend from Canada (a Yank up North, as it were) George Brose helped us pin down a little more on the Willie Nelson running thing.  While it isn't rock hard confirmation, it gives credibility to the authenticity of that photo!

David,  I connected with a friend in Austin to ask about Willie Nelson's road racing days.

This came back.

Well, I never actually saw Willie in a race, but I have heard that he has participated in some races or fun runs, and he has been spotted on the Austin Hike & Bike trail in running togs.  But that was years ago.  Do you want me to research it for you?  A former law partner of mine  has represented Willie off and on for years.  I could check with him.  But I can tell you with some confidence that he has done some running in his day.

George

2.  Also from George's blog  Once Upon a Time in the Vest comes this great look back at the 50th anniversary of Bob Schul's 5000M Olympic Victory.  That's the same race that Bill Dellinger leaned just enough to get the bronze in his 3rd Olympics.

Bob Schul heavily influenced teammate and good friend Tom Rapp.  Tom in turn has been continuing the coaching techniques of Bob Schul quite successfully in Ohio.  Tom is married to former Nittany Lion star Mary (Rawe) Rapp.  Quite a pedigree there!

3.  After several weeks with my Best Running Shoe Ever Made, I can report that I am quite pleased with them.  They really do give me the impression of those great shoes from 1980, despite the many years and pounds since then.  And they have provided me with about a 6% increase in running efficiency, as measured by stride length and heart rate.*

And apparently others have a hankering for those old beauties too.  Nike has announced a new-fangled version of them to be introduced soon.

4.  Tim Johnson continues to write 3000% better than I do.  Here's his article on a recent local cross country race in Central Pennsylvania.

5.  Bear stories (like mine!) are always welcome at the blog with it all.  Especially when they also involve golf.



*Not scientific, but anecdotal evidence.

Another Mish Mash of Stuff That Has Accumulated

1) I have supplied the coffee and donuts at the last 6 Alumni "Runs" at the track during our May reunions.  Well, maybe the Team supplied it that one year, but they too chose Dunkin Donuts and the Box o' Joe.

It turns out we were trendsetters of a sort as the entire University is now on board with Dunkin Donuts!  Download the app today to get a free coffee after each PSU Football victory this year.

Android and Apple

But there may be a competition for official PSU Track Alumni Golf Coffee next year if the merger between the Brazilian-owned Burger King and the Canadian chain of coffee/donut stores, Tim Horton's, reaches full fruition.  Those who have paid attention know my love of Canada and Tim's coffee. They can take the headquarters of BK north, just bring the coffee of Tim further south!

2) The Main Stream Press has also picked up the scandal in the Temple Track Program.

3) Former foursome-teammate Tim Johnson continues to write 3000% better than I for Penn Live with this article on college football.

If Loving College Football is Wrong, I Don't Want To Be Right

4) I own a Pomeranian who can't do this.  In fact, mine can only bark incessantly at 4:30AM, eat, poop, pee and then bark incessantly some more.  (And cost me $3500 at an emergency room when he develops hemorrhagic gastroenteritis for unknown reasons.) But then I'm the only person that didn't give up on Monty in the ER, so there's that.

The "Other"Team at (+9): Not Losers Either!

My foursome was so bad that we couldn't even get losing right!  It turns out that our 5 straight bogies to end the round were just enough to tie Keeper of the Cup Harry Smith's team.  Despite their youth compared to the geriatric team I was on, they managed to make their +9 score spread out evenly over the whole round.

Tom Shiffer, Harry Smith, Brian Fuller and Tim Johnson

I think all 4 of them are much better golfers than I, and yet they somehow managed one of the worst scores in our tournament's history (+10 being the worst).  I can only chalk this up to story telling, inattention or possibly adult beverages?  We may be hearing more on this and other things from our beat writer Tim Johnson.

All Kinds of Alumni Action From Coast to Coast

First up was Tyler McCandless again demonstrating that he is in good shape, even while furthering his Meteorology pursuits.  His 4th Place finish at the USATF 25K Championships (Third River Bank Run) will raise PSU's barometric pressure!  1:17:52.09 

Interview Here

Paul Souza broke out a new suit to take the stage at the 2nd meet in the American Track League meet in Charlottesville VA.  The weather kept the crowd down, but there were some fine performances again. (Podcast with Paul Here)

Now that's a suit.

Tim Johnson took part in an Ultra Relay from Hull, MA to Ragnar, Cape Cod, MA.  That's 192 miles with 550 teams.  And his team won the whole thing!  And he wore his Alumni Singlet! I'm pretty sure that won't help his golf game.

The Oregon Twilight Meet had at least 2 former Lions highlighted.  Cas Loxsom laced up the spikes in the 800M while Bridget Franek stepped down in distance to the 1500M.  (You can convert her 1500M time of 4:20.91 to the mile here.)

Women 1500M:

 1 Lauren Johnson    4:16.97  
  2 Annie Leblanc    4:18.05  
  3 Aisha Praught    4:18.23  
  4 Alexi Pappas     4:20.26  
  5 Bridget Franek   4:20.91 

Men 800M: 

 1 Harun Abda        1:47.33  
  2 Cas Loxsom       1:47.47  
  3 Tyler Mulder     1:48.76  
  4 Charles Jock     1:48.97  

The Definitive Guide to the Penn Relays From One of Our Own!

Tim Johnson is a real writer.  Tim Johnson is a real golfer too.  Tim Johnson has produced a darn fine preview of the Penn Relays on Penn Live for the casual fan (and the rather rabid fan too!).  This includes many links and previews of each day of the whole Carnival. Be sure to stop by the article and add some good comments and praise his works.

He has been commissioned to produce similar articles for the preview and review of our humble golf tourney, but I'm not holding him to a word count!  His fees will resemble those of the highest officers of our group.  Good luck with that, Tim!

We Have A Real Reporter!

We at the blog like to pretend we are real journalist. Tim Johnson has realized the dream of many us blogger hacks. He has broken through to become a real report for the Harrisburg Patriot-News. His first assignment was covering the season opening game for the Harrisburg Stampede. The cities indoor football team.

Maybe one day Tim will get to experience something similar to Kenny Moore's visit to Mamo Wolde in Ethiopian prison. I mean that is the dream for runners turned journalist. Like Irish miler Eamonn Coghlan said to the marathoner:  "Runners don't exactly win men out of bondage. But journalists can."

It's Homecoming. Alumni Unite!

In an effort to unite alumni young and old (wise). We are hosting an alumni tailgate for the Homecoming matchup with Michigan this Saturday.  By we I mean fellow PSU Track Alums John Mahoney, Tim Johnson, Scott Sherwood, Jay Ifert, Kevin Fuller, Brian Fuller, Kyle Dawson, Owen Dawson, and myself. The excact location is being worked out but we will be in a yellow lot. Which if you look at this map could be anywhere between the IM Fields and Altoona. We plan to start early and will have plenty of food, beverages, and tailgate games. Anyone coming for the game drop me an email at Groves10287@gmail.com so I can give you our location once we have a parking spot. Happy Homecoming!

* If it is anything like the golf outing. You know it will be a good time.

Since When Did This Blog Become a Social Calendar?

Well, in an effort to unite all of Penn State Track and Field from before Curt Stone to after Cas Loxsom, I have met a lot of people.  Which has always been against my very hermit-like nature. But I muddle on, to the best of my humble abilities.  This year I got to golf with another recent graduate I have much in common with. (Except for the hermitty thing!)  I would be very much like Tim Johnson if:

1. I was better looking.
2. I was a little smarter.
3. I had better writing ability.
4. I had better golfing ability.
5. I could run a little faster.

Tim announced his engagement to Colleen Shannon.  This  combination of PSU Track Alumni Golfers is even a little bit like my own nuptials 25 years ago.  (Hint for Tim and Colleen: It goes verry, very quickly!)

Congrats to both of you from this old curmudgeon and "dozens" of his readers (Sixty daily at this point.)

My Foursome: A Gimp, a Limp, a Simp and a......

Mike McCahill, Coach Fritz Spence, Tim Johnson and Your Humble Host being photographed by Digital Archive Goddess Kay Warfel. Photo by Mark Hawkins.

I really do need to take lessons.  This was the worst I have ever played.  With no Mulligans, putting strings or other gimmicks, the scramble format exposed my pink under-belly of golfing talent and led to a frustrating afternoon of thrashing and wailing after little white balls.  I'm happy I pay about 25 cents apiece for the little dimpled orbs, as I left quite a few on the grounds of the Mountain View Country Club (formerly the Elks Club Course).


The greens were fast and somehow tilted more than they used to be.  But it was good to see the course in such good shape otherwise.  At least after you slice your shot 2 fairways to the right, you have a splendid view of either Nittany Mountain or Ski Mont (or whatever they call it nowadays!). I didn't even have any "cheater golf balls" left over from previous years. (These balls are slightly smaller than real ones, and have more dimples.  They supposedly were supposed to give me an extra 10 yards on my 150 yard drives.  As if any would ever notice!). Our group started out with 8 straight bogeys, a feat hard to do in the scramble format.  We were truly horrible at first.  But then, something clicked, and we played the last 10 holes at one-under par, right on pace with the best foursomes in our 9 foursome tourney.

My only good shot was 30 foot putt that I made with a twice-bent blade putter from the 1950s.  Several others may have recognized this club, as it was frequently in the extra bag people needed in previous years.  And it was once left on a green and retrieved by a generous alum who could have easily pitched it into the can as a club no one would ever want. It now has putter cover and has been renamed Billy Berue.

The Limp was Mike McCahill who hurt his calf muscle by picking up a golf ball while practicing putting.  I'm not making that up.  He played well despite the increasing limp during the round and I saved him from next-day incapacity by dispensing him some Celebrex after the round, a drug which gave Ken Brinker the ability to retire early to Florida and enjoy the good life. (You're welcome , Ken!)  Mike is a long-term member of our group.  I think he's only missed one Coach Groves Tournament.

The Gimp was Tim Johnson who suffered a debilitating "groin pull" recently playing ultimate frisbee.  I'm not making that up.  He was hoping continued golfing would improve his condition, which may or may not have happened.  Tim also played well at times, but we could tell the groin was holding him back.  I know the feeling, even after 30 some years. I had a groin-pull from fencing class at PSU gym class.  Yeah, I'm that dumb, which brings us to......

The Simp is me, of course.  As one of only 2 or 3 golfers to have braved this tourney every year, you would think I would learn my lesson and either take lessons or give up the game.  A Simp never learns...

The fourth in our group was Coach Fritz Spence.  He even agreed to be The Wimp to make things somewhat complete, but I don't have the heart to follow through with calling him that.  It doesn't fit at all, and neither does Blimp, Primp or Shrimp.  I was happy to share the cart with him as I set up my 7th grader's PSU Track Camp visit to spend time with him as the Women's Multi-Event Coach.  It was a pleasure to meet him and as a Bahamian who knows Mike Sands, I have hope he can help set up our dream of a Winter Coach Groves Golf Tourney in the Bahamas.  I'll bet we can get at least 2 foursomes for Paradise.

Tim Johnson on the Penn Relays

Tim Johnson, second from left

All my dozens of readers know of my passion for all things to do with Penn State Track and especially the Penn Relays.  (and Coach Groves!)  I use the blunt instrument of inferior writing style and limited vocabulary and hope that repetition and a Walking Lion gif  on the left sidebar makes my passion apparent to everyone.  So it comes as a great relief when someone else shares those passions and has a vocabulary and writing quality that far exceeds mine.  And when the writer is a fellow PSU Track Alumni Golfer, the results are really appreciated.

Read Tim Johnson's Celebration of all that is Penn Relays and let a little honoring of Coach Groves waft over your good vibes.

"When you're at Penn Relays and you watch the runners come around the last bend...if your heart ain't pumpin' then you ain't got no soul." –Harry Groves, Former Penn State Track Coach.

Don't forget, we also have some tweeting coming from Matt Groves and some contributions from the many others attending the Carnival this weekend.

Soooooo Close!

Owen Dawson continues his great first season as a self-coached runner.  It looks like he picked a great coach at that. Yesterday at the Columbia Final Qualifying Meet at the Armory in Manhattan, he just missed dipping under 4:00 for the Mile.  He was the winner of the Open Mile wearing a Penn State Track Alumni Singlet in a scintillating 4:00.49!  Order one for yourself and see if you can beat him to the first ever sub-4 wearing it.

Photo by Tim Johnson

"None Shall Pass" (Actually, Only a Couple Did)

One against the men and 2 against the women.  It was a good showing at the Penn State National Invitational Cross-Country Meet at PSU this weekend.  A large number of quality teams participated in the event with the Men coming in second and the Women coming in third.

The finish of the Mens race was quite exciting with Kyle Dawson and Vince McNally (both Juniors!)  accelerating from the trailing pack to place second and third respectively.  All the scoring runners are improving each race, with the MIDDLE DISTANCE runners astounding everyone with their distance prowess.  Syracuse took the Mens title, trailed by PSU and Villanova, all ranked teams.

The Womens race was equally exciting with PSU placing third to Villanova and Syracuse.  PSU had a great spread of only :24 seconds.  Sophomore Brooklynne Ridder paced the squad with her 20th place finish.

In my long absence from the college XC scene I was not aware that it has become a contact sport.  Somewhere after the half mile mark there is apparently a bridge with a Black Knight not allowing passage without a fight!  A large number of participants were felled by the Knight. Two on the Alumni Team were bloodied in the melee.  I'm not aware of anyone still missing, but it certainly looks awful compared to the genteel sport I was familiar with.  We only attained marks like this when working out in Rec Hall!

  "It's Only a Flesh Wound!"

Despite starting in the very last corral (near Park Forest). the Alumni team of Dennis Pollow, Brian Fuller, Teddy Quinn, Cody Edling, Kevin Fuller, and Tim Johnson beat the Pitt Panthers and 4 other teams with their 22nd place team finish. They all looked resplendent with their Letterman Jackets at the alumni reception at our usual Damon's Haunt afterward.  I had offered my services as a 7th man, but officials would not allow my walker on the course.  I bring you this unique perspective on a XC start instead:

And here is footage smuggled in from the half-mile mark by brave survivors.  Let's hope the woods are rid of the riff-raff by the time of the NCAA Regionals!


And here are photos of current Letterman Jackets along with my size 34",  "Old School" model!