Honoring Two Great Coaches

First up is a celebration of Coach Groves' long string of Penn Relays ending this year.  Rather than dwell on the negative, Greg Fredericks has arranged a celebration at Coach's residence in State College to celebrate all the Carnivals he has attended.  This will be the first that Coach Groves has missed in about 70 years.  Coach started attending as a Grade Schooler in a 8 x 55 yard relay.  He ran there in high school and college, even running the same leg of a 4 x 880yd. against my father-in-law.  He also coached his Army team, his William and Mary team and, of course, the Nittany Lions.  Following that he was an honored trackside Official until last year. Not many people have as much history of their own at the Penn Relays.

Help Greg honor Coach on his birthday:

Penn Relays will be here soon and we all know what that means... Coach Groves birthday!

Coach's birthday is Friday April 24th and he will be 85.  We are planning a little celebration at his residence.  It would be really nice if you could drop him a card or give him a call.  He is a bit disappointed he will not make it to the relays so we can help cheer him up.  I believe he has missed Penn Relays only once in the past 70 years!

His address is:
Mr Harry Groves
c/o Juniper Village
610 West Whitehall Road
Room #132
State College, PA 16801

We are...
Thank you all.

greg

 The second way to honor Coach is to attend our 14th Annual Reunion and Golf Tournament.  Now is the time to get your check in the mail to Clark Haley.  All the details are in this post from 2 months ago!

And in a happy coincidence (?), the Memorial Service for ex PSU Cross Country captain and long-time State College Coach Jackson Horner will occur during our reunion weekend.  Many PSU Alums are also State College High Alums and will get a chance to honor Coach Horner and still attend all our festivities!

A service of remembrance for Coach Jackson Horner has been set.

Jackson Horner memorial service & luncheon
Saturday May 16, 2015
11:00am
Grace Lutheran Church, State College, PA

http://www.glcpa.org/

New Time Steeple Goodness, With Early Season Big Performances

Director of Operations Assistant Coach Ryan Foster broke out his Alumni Singlet and won the Steeplechase at the Bison Classic yesterday in 9:10.76!  I'll have to help him with his water jumps...  hee hee hee

In other top notch action, Director of Operations Laura Loht won the javelin at the same meet.  Robby Creese ran the fastest 1500M in the NCAA so far this year (3:41.74, with Brannon Kidder at 3:44.57) and Joe Kovacs opened his season with a PR toss of 73' 3" (23.35m)  in the shot put out west!

Old Time Steeplechase Goodness, Finally In English!

We have had the video of Horace Ashenfelter's steeplechase victory in the 1952 Olympics several times before, but it was never narrated in English.  Here's a new version picked up by our Director of Fun Teddy Quinn with commentary by Mr. Ashenfelter himself, in English!



Come join Teddy Quinn and me at the Reunion and Coach Groves Golf Tourney on May 15, 16. 

It's Time To Get Your Entries In For The Reunion And Coach Groves Golf Tourney

Remember, everyone is invited. Even You.  I guarantee a good time to be had by all.  Supporting the Penn State Track and Field/XC Program has become my hobby, but my first job with the blog is to herd every cat I can to attend Clark Haley's original vision to honor Coach Groves in a fun and playful way.

We have had our ups and downs over the years, with the lowest year of attendance spawning this blog.  We've grown steadily since and our overall list of attendees is rather impressive.  This year looks to be a good one despite the "off" year meaning the team will be away for the Big Ten Meet.  Everyone already knows the challenges we are up against with our choice of weekends to hold the events.  We have much to avoid, meaning hard decisions being made excluding some of our best friends.

• Mother's Day weekend
• Graduation weekend
• Memorial Day weekend
• High School District and State Meet weekends

So, it falls on the May 15, 16 weekend this year, with apologies to everyone that gets left off because of it.  But I have heard from many old and new friends, which means we will have a good turnout and a good challenge to get your name on the Coach Groves Memorial Cup for all time.

Remember, the golf is the easiest part to qualify for.  Come join us even with minimal or no golfing experience.  The best ball scramble method we use evens the scoring so much that even non-golfers find their names on the Cup quite often.  The real intent of the event is to get everyone to interact for several hours with "new" and old friends, honor Coach Groves and the past, present and future of PSU Track. The Friday night Meet and Greet,  Alumni "Run" and the golf tourney accomplish this goal in a fun, family-friendly way. 

See this post for all the Information you need!

Last But Not Least: All-Time Top 5 Indoor Mens Throws And Heptathlon

More 80's Pics Sigh....

One of these guys is John Jon McKay, a former hammer thrower. But which one?

Addendum: Greg Reyner and Todd Leggett report that John Jon McKay is the middle cheerleader, second from the left.  Thanks to Judy Lynn Weaver for the correct spelling of Jon's name.


Gregg Garrity was on my dorm floor with Alan Scharsu and Don Skerpon.  There was always something happening in his room, but I don't think any of it was studying!  Gregg would have made a very fine PSU Trackster, as he was very, very fast.  In his Senior year he caught around 51 passes with 50 of them for first down or touchdown.  This was his last college catch.

Names people, I need names.

Addendum:  Tom Shiffer and Hugh Hamill respond!   1986 I believe is Mark Overheim, Dave Coney, and Steve Shisler. 1985 looks like Rick Kleban and Randy Moore. (Here at the blog with it all, we use more sources than the Rolling Stone!)

Dave Masgay mid-leap.

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Quaint handout from the years before the Internet! That's Randy Moore on the bottom, isn't it?

Hugh and Tom:   1985 looks like Rick Kleban and Randy Moore.

All photos from Greg Reyner.

Indoor Relay and Hurdles All-Time Mens Top 5 Performances! A Post That's Harder For Me To Screw Up

More Photos Saved From The Dustbin Of The Early 80's

Chris Herr at Villanova.

Todd Shenk Mike Valenti, with spectators John and Jim Reyner, above .Unknown Jumper, below!

Todd Leggett rightly points out that the thrower is Mike Valenti, not Todd Shenk.  Greg even told me that in his email.  I have no excuse for getting it wrong other than I'm an idiot.

Zeb Stewart, below. Unkown runners, above.

Fact checkers Alert.  You know what to do!  (A little help with identification...)  All photos by Greg Reyner.

Nittany Lions return to the Sunshine State, and Alumni unite at the Carlsbad 5000

I was thrilled to see some great results from this weekend's Florida Relays for the Nittany Lions.  It's actually been four years since the team made the trek down to Gainesville for this meet, and so to put that time elapse in perspective, I'll recall a few quick memories from that meet in 2011...

1) Chris Cipro, Sam Borchers, Tyler Corkedale, Connor Revord and I almost got eaten alive by an alligator.

2) Cipro ("Kipro" as announced by Flotrack's play-by-play broadcasters), Corkedale and I all toed the line for the men's 5K at about 11pm (delayed by five hours after the race was scheduled to start) Actually the cool air of the late evening probably benefited the whole field quite a bit.  That weekend was scorching hot I recall.  Race vid here:  http://www.flotrack.org/coverage/238228-2011-Florida-Relays/video/481893-M-5k-H01-1403-Winning-Time#.VSDB8vnF9u4

3) Cip ran an inspiring anchor leg of the DMR in his first (and maybe his only ever?) collegiate 1600m/mile.  But the MVP was the lead off, Connor Revord, returning to his home state, for his first ever collegiate track race, running a solid 1200 leg, then letting BBG and Borch the Torch handle the middle stages of the race.  Vid here:  http://www.flotrack.org/coverage/238228-2011-Florida-Relays/video/482142-M-dmr-H01#.VSDCcPnF9u4

Lo and behold, four years later, I'm sharpening up for a 5K once again, only this time it will be Mt. SAC.  The alumni singlet has been getting some love over here in San Diego, by the way.  This past weekend at the Carlsbad 5000 I had the pleasure of meeting the 2006 PSU grad, and 3:38 1500m man, Matt Lincoln, who picked me out from the crowd as I was sporting the singlet on my cooldown.  Small world, eh?

Classic Scarp tactics- hanging back early.  The neon green singlets are my track club buddies.  I go rogue w/ the white jersey.

All-Time Indoor Mens Top-5 Performances: The Jumps

I'm All In If They Bring Back Franklin Field's Old "Mens Rooms"

 "When I was a kid, I saw an illegal dice game in the bathroom at Franklin Field."
-Matthew Groves, 2013, remembering the Penn Relays Carnival

Turns out the University of Penn wants to apply for the NCAA Championships in 2022.  They never have been able to host the event because of the limitations of their track.  This is despite the fact that the Penn Relays have always been the best run sports event in the nation.  Anyone sitting in on Saturday's early events and seeing a 4 x 400 relay go off ahead of schedule every 5 minuts for 2 hours at a time knows this.

There will need to be a major overhaul of the facility, moving the brick wall back 3 rows, and putting the steeplechase pit on the inside of the oval. (yeah, I know it's not an oval.) Of course that will mean lane one will finally be the inside lane for the first time in many, many years.

I'm just hoping they bring back the original mens rooms, where there was never a line!

Thanks to George McWilliams for the tip on this one.  George also relates he is pictured in the previous 2 photos from Greg Reyner.  And another of Greg's is coming soon!

Updated All-Time Indoor Top 5 Mens Performances: Middle Distance/Distance