A Nice Weekend For Brannon Kidder

Brannon Kidder started out his weekend of running by helping Edward Cheserek run the second fastest Indoor Mile of all time.  He was the rabbit for the first 800M, tasked with running a 1:55 to set up the "solo" effort of Edward.

Kidder led Cheserek out, hitting 209 meters in 31 seconds and 409 in 59.x with Piazza behind him and Cheserek cruising in third. The crowd let out a roar when Cheserek crossed 809 in 1:56-low, signaling that the sub-3:50 was well and truly on. Kidder stepped aside after 850 meters, his duty done.

Edward Cheserek with his rabbits, Drew Piazza and Brannon Kidder.

Cheserek was pleased with his rabbit's efforts following his 3:49.44!

 Brannon wasn't done for the weekend.  He ran the Mile on Saturday.  He ran a PR 3:56.3.  More importantly, he crossed an official 1500M mark in under 3:39.5, with 3:39.17, thus surpassing the World Indoor Championship standard one week prior to the USATF Indoor Championships.  Congrats, Brannon.

And also in Boston, Casimir Loxsom ran in the New Balance Indoor Grand Prix 800M, placing 6th in 1:49.29.  The big news there is he ditched his Alumni Singlet for one of Billy Cvecko's Toad Track Club Singlets!

Photo by Tom Shiffer.

Penn State Track And Field Athletes Are So Spread Out This Week I Don't Know How To Keep Up!

So I'm packing it in on a real post and will bring you a Physics post instead.

Spire Invitational (at B1G site)

Iowa State Classic

Huskey Invitational

In 1975, a forward thinking Big Ten Physicist, Jack Hetherington included his 7 year-old cat on his paper published in the journal Physical Review Letters, Two, Three, and Four-Atom Exchange Effects in bcc(3)He

"As a colleague pointed out while editing the draft, Hetherington listed himself as the study's sole author, yet he had nevertheless written the entire paper using the "we" pronoun. This was against the journal's style rules, the colleague noted. Hetherington's paper would surely be rejected if it wasn't retyped."

 "Therefore, after an evening's thought, I simply asked the secretary to change the title page to include the name of the family cat."  

 He settled on F.D.C. Willard — F.D.C. being an acronym for Felis Domesticus Chester, and Willard being the name of Chester's tomcat father.

The ruse has even been repeated since by a 2010 Nobel Laureate, who included his pet hampster on a paper on gyroscopes.

A Lion's Tale OR A Tale of One City, Twice

I'm not speaking of London or Paris at all.  I'm talking about the differences I see in one City across the span of 35 years. Specifically, the City of Brotherly Love, Philadelphia.

I was a student living in Philadelphia from 1981 to 1985.  It was a glorious time to be there.  I lived directly across the street from the main police headquarters, so I felt safe enough and in the heart of the action. (Only one person was mugged, shot and almost died from my class!)

The local sports scene was pretty good at the time.  The Phillies were good (90 win season and NL East title) and had 5 future Hall of Famers on the field at the same time often (counting Pete Rose, daggummit...)  The Eagles had been to the Super Bowl in the preceding years and were still flying fairly high.  The Flyers were pretty good and still playing in the old Spectrum.  And the Philly 76ers were riding higher than all of them, with the best record in the league.  With Julius Erving, Moses Malone and a cast of position players unparalleled in Philly basketball history.

I went to see the Phillies game on Wednesday, May 25, sitting in my usual 700 level seat at the Vet, paying $2 for the ticket (don't listen to that $5 crap at my link!).  For some reason I can't remember, my brother was with me.  As we were leaving the game, a 6-1 defeat of Marty Bystrom, a little kid approached and asked if we wanted tickets to the next days game of the NBA Finals!  The Sixers had won game one and Moses Malone had promised a sweep of the LA Lakers with his famous Fo-Fo-Fo speech.  And the Sixers were nearly keeping his word so far.

The tickets were a big disappointment to my brother and I.  They were practically empty of script, and didn't even list the teams.  They were for "Game 2 of the NBA Finals", not even a date was included.  The price printed on the ticket was the exact price the kid was asking for!  I wish I could remember the exact price that we paid the kid.  Maybe it was $10 apiece?  I'm sure it wasn't more than $12, as I never had that much money on me. I was not able to verify this with my brother.  He only remembers that the tickets were "unusually reasonable" in price!  We figured we were being ripped off, but said "What the heck?"  The kid insisted it was all on the up and up!  We even had a little extra for a bag of squished, stale South Philly soft pretzels.

So there we were the next night filing into The Spectrum to see the Sixers slay Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Magic Johnson and the Lakers, who had beat the Sixers twice before in the '80 and '82 Championships.

AND THEY LET US IN!  AND WE WERE IN ROW 6, RIGHT BEHIND THE BASKET!  The tickets were real.

We had the time of our lives watching Julius and the boys defeat their nemesis.  I taunted Magic Johnson all night, pointing out his leading the league that year in turnover-to-assist ratio!  I swear he even glared at me once.

As the teams headed to LA for the third and fourth games of the series, life got back to normal at school.  Kids today don't realize that college went well into June in those days.  Nowadays, schools often are done before May arrives.

So when the Sixers fulfilled Moses' prophesy to the promised land, we all headed into the streets of Philly to celebrate.  We naturally gravitated to South Street, where there was something for everyone.

Some recollections of that night:

• Everyone loved everyone, without exception.  There was no hatred to be found.  Period.
• It was the closest Philadelphia ever got to Martin Luther King's Dream.  It was the best day I ever had in considering race relations in this Country.  The rebounding prowess and superb defensive play of North Carolina's Bobby Jones made every African-American greet every White American (and every other combination imaginable) with high fives, broad smiles and genuine love.  I am not exagerating this in any way.  The same city that was spawning MOVE, was in complete harmony that night.  It felt good to be alive.
• A few people climbed light poles, screamed and celebrated. Then climbed down.
• Some people were noticeably drunk. And happy.
• There wasn't a single car overturned.  No light poles were toppled.  No signs were stolen.  No fires were lit.  Every policeman was just as happy as we were. I saw no arrests in all of Center City that night. No stores were looted. No hotel entrance canopies were collapsed.  No store windows were broken.
• I paid for 2 cheesesteaks and ate them from Jim's.  Always got 2 in those skinny days...  No one ate horse poop that night.

The Best Race In This Year's Penn State National Invitational Was Named After Penn State Great Barney Ewell

"Ewell probably would have been the most decorated Olympian in the history of the games.”

-Bill Lyon, Philadelphia Inquirer

(The 1940 and 1944 games were cancelled.)

Barney Ewell.

 A Legacy of Greatness

Usually, the Mile has been the highlight of the Penn State National Invitational meet.  Occasionally the 800M has been great too.  But this year, the sprints outshined the middle distance races..  At least in my humble opinion.

An honorable mention has to go to the 400M effort of Penn State Junior Dan Chisena.  His PR of 46.27 got some Penn Relay-like ooohs and ahhhs out of the crowd.

But the best race of all was the Mens 200M.   This year's race was named after PSU great Barney Ewell to celebrate his 100th birthday.  With PSU stars Malik Moffett and Xavier Smith in the Finals, it was bound to be good!  Here's the race captured by 1979 Penn Relay Marathon victor Tim Backenstose's cell phone...



But who was that flash in the outermost lane?  It wasn't Malik or Xavier.  It was Penn State Freshman Terrance Laird in 20.79, from the same Coatesville area that brought us both Tim Backenstose and the Dawson brothers!  Wow!

The Interns Reshuffled The PSU Sub-4 Listing Chronologically!

Now I owe them time and a half and all my leftover Kung Pao Chicken...  But it was worth it!  The effort is always appreciated.

Greg Fredericks          Reading AA                3:59.7      State College            8/05/78

Larry Mangan             Penn State                   3:58.4      University Park        5/16/80

Mike Wyatt                 Philly Pioneers            3:58.0      Philadelphia             5/18/80

Matt Lincoln               PSU Alum                   3:59.39i    University Park          1/27/07

Ryan Foster                 Penn State                   3:58.49i    University Park        1/29/11

Robby Creese              Penn State                   3:59.52i    Seattle                      2/11/12

Brannon Kidder          Penn State                   3:59.48i   University Park        1/26/13

Owen Dawson             PSU Alum                   3:59.74     Philadelphia             4/27/13

Colin Abert                 Penn State                   3:59.51i    University Park        2/03/18

* Someone chime in and let us know the location of Matt's sub-4!  Matt himself and Ryan Foster have chimed in via our Facebook site and corrected this "corrected" version again.  My interns are the greatest!

And Now There Are Nine!

Colin Abert won the Mile at yesterday's Sykes and Sabock Challenge Cup at the Ashenfelter Track.  With his 3:59.51 time, he has become the ninth Nittany Lion and Alums to break the 4-Minute barrier for the imperial distance.  Congrats Colin!

Colin Abert.

He joins 6 other Americans and 2 Alums from foreign lands.  I include Matt Lincoln and Ryan Foster as honorary Americans for several reasons:

• Matt is from Canada.  The English speaking part!  I have always said that Canada is like America's Attic.  We rarely go up there, but when we do we discover that it is filled with wondrous things and we can't wait to come back again.  He also coaches American high school students well enough for National Honors!
• Ryan comes from Australia, which also is predominantly English-speaking.  With a cool accent. Even bettrer, he is from Tasmania.  He has also never had a single Foster's Lager, which he says is only sent to America! He has also golfed in our Tournament and performed a "Happy Gilmore" drive.  He has rejuvinated the XC/Track program at Division II Edinboro University.
• Both have married Americans. And any of us male reprobates who are married realize that all of us "marry up".

Penn State Athletes and Alumni Breaking the 4-Minute Mile:

Greg Fredericks (Reading AA)

3:59.7 (2)

University Park

August 05, 1978

Larry Mangan (Penn St)

3:58.4

University Park

May 16, 1980

Mike Wyatt (Philly Pioneers)

3:58.0

Philadelphia

May 18, 1980

Robby Creese (Penn St)

3:59.52(i)

Seattle

February 11, 2012

Brannon Kidder (Penn State)

3:59.48(i)

University Park

January 26, 2013

Owen Dawson* (unattached)

3:59.74

Philadelphia

April 27, 2013

Colin Abert (Penn State)  3:59.51   University Park  February 3, 2018

Canada      Matt Lincoln 3:59.39(i)  2007
Australia   Ryan Foster (Penn State)  3:58.49(i)   University Park  January, 2011

* Owen Dawson became the first ever to run a sub-4 minute mile wearing a Penn State Track Alumni Singlet.  He will forever be enshrined as a barrier-breaker of the first order.

Owen Dawson Sub-4 Penn Relays 2013. Photo by Matt Groves.

Here's a great map showing where athlete's first ever sub-4 were run. The dot at State College just got a little larger!

Phil Says 6 More Weeks of Indoor Track. Er, Winter.

Early February always means two things.  The Millrose Games and Punxatawney Phil predicting 6 more weeks of Winter.

My cursory view of the events at the Armory only revealed one Penn Stater on the program, Casimir Loxsom in the 800M.  Maybe if the Interns wake up before noon they will find some more...

Six more weeks of Indoor Track!

 But PSU has a long history at the Millrose Games: (From Mike Fanelli's Garage Museum!)

PAIR OF NITTANY LIONS AND A WILDCAT...culled this classic from the 1952 Millrose Games meet program out in my chilly garage...2 mile run circa 1951 with Curtis Stone, the former Penn Stater, representing Philly's Shanahan Club winning in 9:08.3 over Oly steeple champ-to-be, Horace Ashenfelter and the inimitable Browning Ross.

Thank You! We're Setting Records. And We Can Celebrate The Coach Groves Scholarship At Our Reunion In May

At some point soon, we will have peaked with over 20,000 page views in the past month.  And now well over 700,000 lifetime page views in our 10 year history.  Thank you for continuing to spread the word.

And now that we have fully funded a full tuition scholarship in the name of Coach Groves, we can celebrate at this year's Reunion and Golf Tourney.

Big News:  Clark Haley is finalizing details to have the first ever DOWNTOWN REUNION at the Days Inn.  You must set aside the weekend of May 18 and 19 this year to attend the festivities.  And spread that word too!

Singlets And Wristbands And Alums, Oh My!

The weekend was full of action, with many alums taking care to remember their roots in Happy Valley.  A few Alumni Singlets were sighted and a few Wristbands were noted on some Track Alumni (Golfers).  (Another sale of Alumni Singlets will commence shortly!  And possibly a new Wristband will be forthcoming at the next Reunion.)

Isaiah Harris with his newly replaced "PSU is 800U" wristband.

Diamond League Champion Darrell Hill competing in his Alumni Singlet at the Penn State National.

Cas Loxsom at the Armory with his Alumni Singlet.

Another Penn State Nonagenarian Track Alum of 880U Passes Away

From our good friend and high school coach of several Nittany Lions, Bill Preston, comes news of the passing of William "Bill" Jimeson.

William "Bill" Jimeson, 97, of Ponte Vedra, passed away peacefully at the Bailey Family Center for Caring. Born and raised in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, Bill was an accomplished athlete in track and field, setting the Wilkinsburg High School track record 880. He also finished 6th in the Western Pennsylvania Cross-Country Championships and placed 4th in the outdoor 880 mile run. A graduate of Penn State University, Bill was captain of the freshman cross-country team. In a special mile relay event at the 1944 Penn Relays, he made up 25 yards as anchor, in a race voted the most outstanding of the meet. During his post-graduate studies at Johns Hopkins University, Bill won the 440, high hurdles, low hurdles and anchored the mile relay for high point man in the Mason Dixon Championship. One week in April he had the fastest time in the East for low hurdles. Bill placed 5th in the Olympic trials during the National AAU Championship in 1948. He went on to become a coach in track and field for the U.S. National Team, traveling to Russia and Poland. He also founded and coached the Baltimore Olympic Club from 1946-1967, which was the only club to ever have a fall dual meet cross-country season and an outdoor dual meet track season. In fact, the BOC won every South Atlantic Association AAU outdoor track championship from 1946 to Bill's retirement  from coaching. They also won the mile relay crown and had the fastest mile relay ever at old Madison  Square Garden. For 31 years, Bill worked as a sales representative for Allyn and Bacon Publishing Company in Baltimore. In 1979, he moved from Baltimore to South Ponte Vedra, where for 14 years, he served as the Fire Chief at Station 9, the South Ponte Vedra Volunteer Fire Dept. In his spare time, Bill enjoyed big band music and reading the Baltimore newspaper. He was a very devoted husband, father, grandfather and great-grandfather, and he will be deeply missed.
He is survived by his wife of almost 72 years, Margaret Jimeson of Ponte Vedra; a daughter, Barbara Dian Jimeson of St. Augustine; grandson, Brian Hayden and his wife Jodi Hayden and great-grandchildren, Amanda and Brian, Jr. He was preceded in death by his parents, Wilbur and Betty Jimeson; sister, Carolyn Martin and his son, William C. Jimeson, Jr.
A celebration of his life will take place at 3 p.m. on Friday, Feb. 10, 2018, at the Allegro in St. Augustine.
St. Johns Family Funeral Home  is in charge of arrangements.

Big News! It Was A Great Day In State College. Where Were You?

I had a wonderful day in Happy Valley yesterday.  I'm back at the three computers making up Blog Central again.  Too bad that two of them are on the fritz and the third one seems sluggish.

The day started out with a visit with final semester Daughter the Elder.  The shopping trip on her behalf didn't cost me too much, so I got off easy.  And her dog was rewarded with a dog bed from Five Below which she apparently really likes.

I held off on a Kung Pao lunch as we traveled to Coach Groves' favorite haunt, Panera in downtown State College for grilled cheese and tomato soup.  Driving past the blocks-long line to get into The Rathskeller reminded me of a few of my classmates (I'm thinking of you Mark Haywood!).

Then it was off to the Penn State National Meet for the afternoon Invitational events.  Got to see many Alumni (Golfers) and saw several winners of our Annual Performance of the Year polls.  There were a couple of highlights during the meet, which I will bring in future posts.

Then it was off to Little Szechuan (solid 8/10 on the Kung Pao scale I made up.) with Daughter the Elder for a real Kung Pao Dinner!  (You knew it was coming, didn't you?)

I then stopped in at the Coaches' Reception at Pickle's before heading home in the rain.  All in all, a good day.  It was great seeing so many of the best people on earth.

Big News:

In the days leading up to the Penn State National, some really great Track Alumni (Golfers) stepped up and put us over-the-top in our quest to fully fund a tuition scholarship in Coach Groves' name for the program.  That's right, we topped our goal of $300,000!  A few of our friends visited Coach Groves to present him with the certificate from the Penn State Varsity Club detailing the news.

We will have more on this to come, along with some additional stories, pics and videos from the exciting weekend.

Greg Fredericks, Bob Radzwich,Coach Groves, Larry Mangan and Mark Hawkins.

On The Road Again!

Finally, a day off!  And I'm using it to travel to State College for the afternoon invitational section of the Penn State National.  I hope to bring you a story or two of the kind of things that won't be in the official news releases.  Maybe a pic or two and even a video?

Be sure to say hello if you're there already...