Track and Field History with Jesse Squire

The podcast returns to take a dive into the 1985 film "On The Edge" starring Bruce Dern. 

From Rotten Tomatoes: "Banned from competition 20 years ago for exposing payoffs in amateur athletics, former long-distance runner Wes Holman (Bruce Dern) decides to enter the Cielo-Sea Race, a punishing, mountainous footrace in the Pacific Northwest. The competition has bested many younger runners, but by seeking the help of his old coach (John Marley) and reconnecting with his ex-lover (Pam Grier) and father (Bill Bailey), the middle-aged Wes may be ready to take on more than a race."

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Things like the American Track League and its recent string of meets are rare and a huge logistical undertaking. In United States history, I can think of another time when something simpler and similar has happened. I'm thinking of the International Track Association that launched in March 1973. It featured the likes of Lee Evans, Bob Seagren, Jim Ryun, Richmond Flowers, Marty Liquori, Randy Matson and founder Mike O'Hara.

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Jesse Squire sits down with Ken Goe – a sportswriter for The Oregonian for 43 years who just announced his retirement a few weeks ago. He’s got deep ties covering track and field since he was assigned the beat as he first got his start at the paper. He takes us through those early days in his career and the evolution he’s seen in the sport since. That and some thoughts on the state of the sport’s future.

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On Wednesday, November 4, the Bowling Green – Toledo rivalry will be renewed with its 85th football game. To celebrate this I will run from Doyt Perry Stadium, the home of the BG Falcons, to the Glass Bowl, the home of the UT Rockets. The course is 26.2 miles and the run will be known as The Marathon Of Hate.

If you’re a runner you won’t ask why I’m running 26.2 miles. You know there isn’t any particularly good reason other than that I want to. But why am I so invested in this rivalry? Now that’s a much better question.

For this episode of the podcast, I got together with my friend Sean Pennywitt to discuss our own history with the rivalry. He went to Toledo and I went to Bowling Green.

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"The club cross country championships are popular because of the team aspect. I can speak to this because when I owned my running stores (Big River Running Co.) we used to send our team (Big River Racing Team) to Clubs and it was our chance to re-live our high school and college glory days. You put on the spikes. You huddle up as a team before the race. You run the race. It kind of reminded you of the national meet back in the day when you'd go party afterward because it was the end of the season. We'd get together for workouts in the weeks leading up to the race. It was great. I think that the same atmosphere can be achieved in an ekiden. I know it can because I just witnessed it yesterday with that same kind of camaraderie."

Hoka One One Northern Arizona Elite head coach Ben Rosario discusses the Michigan Pro Ekiden that was held at Stony Creek Metro Park in Michigan this week.

For those unfamiliar with the ekiden racing style, it's super popular in Japan where a race consists of a multi-person road relay. In this case, it was six legs. Three men and three women covering the 26.2 mile-marathon distance with 10K, 6.1K and 5K legs.

The NAZ team won in two hours, 10 minutes and 11 seconds. Hansons Brooks Original Distance Project took second in 2:12:08 and Minnesota Distance Elite rounded out the podium in 2:12:51.

In this episode, you'll hear about how the race came together and where the ekiden style of racing could fit into the American distance running scene going forward as well as a little bit about race innovation amid the global pandemic, which has also led to Ben teaming up with a group to host The Marathon Project later this year.

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Like many of you, I try to keep myself in shape by working out through running. I often need some sort of goal in my future to keep myself honest on following my workouts. Usually, that's a race. The problem is that no races have been held in the United States since early March and it doesn't appear as though we'll have any for a while yet. I need something else to keep myself honest. I needed something big enough that was a real actual challenge. Something popped up on my Facebook feed about three or four weeks ago. It was an event called The Big Canada Run – a virtual run across the width of Canada that starts in Saint John, Newfoundland and going all the way to Vancouver. That's 8,000 kilometers or 5,000 miles. Canada is a massive country and much larger than the United States.  The goal is to be able to do this in a year. It's intended for teams of people to do together because that's nearly 100 miles a week for an entire year. There are Olympians that don't run that much. Let alone, people approaching 50 years old with full-time jobs. I signed up with a couple of guys.

This is not the first time that anyone has attempted to run across Canada. A week ago, CITIUS MAG tweeted out: "Without saying their name, what is your favorite runner known for?" It was assumed that my favorite runner was Dave Wottle, the Olympic champion who ran at my alma mater but it's not. It's not Kip Keino, the two-time Olympic champion out of Kenya and tremendous humanitarian. It's not Emil Zatopek – one of the most successful and well-loved people of all-time. It's not Joan Samuelson or Grete Waitz even. It was a man, who without identifying by name, I just retweeted it saying: “Today we got up at 4:00. As usual, it was tough.”

Guest co-host: Andrea Grove-McDonough

Consider donating to The Terry Fox Foundation – A single dream. A world of hope.

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Quick question: Which city has the record for most Olympic bids without winning or hosting? The answer is Detroit.

Detroit is now a cautionary tale of a city built on a single industry and how white flight can destroy an entire region. However, Detroit was once one of the most important and wealthy cities in America. It was either the fourth or fifth largest city behind only New York, Chicago, Philadelphia and then later Los Angeles. It rose through the auto industry. It had a lot of money and a broad middle class for a good portion of the 20th century. Detroit bid on every Summer Games from 1940 to 1972 and failed every time.

These are the stories and reasons behind its failure.

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We're going to take a look at one of America's greatest and most forgotten competitors – Earlene Brown. She is the greatest American women's thrower of the 20th century.

Four years ago, Michelle Carter won the women's shot put title at the Rio Olympics. She was the first American woman to win gold in that event at the Olympics. She was the first medalist since Brown in 1960. Brown is the only other woman to have won an Olympic shot put medal beside Carter. 

In 1958, Brown finished the year ranked No. 1 in the world in the shot put. The only other American woman to do that is Carter. 

She went on to win her bronze in the discus and finished 6th in the discus at the 1960 Olympics. Four years later, she finished 12th in the shot put at the 1964 Games. She became the first woman to compete in three Olympic shot puts. Not the first American woman but the first woman from anywhere in the world to accomplish the feat. 

Then throwing ran its course for Brown...she moved on to another pro sport – roller derby. She stayed in that sport for 11 years.

"When I was young I was ashamed of my size," she once said. "I never thought something of which I was ashamed -- my size and my strength -- could make me feel proud. But I am proud now."⁣

Here's a 1967 Interview with Brown: https://diva.sfsu.edu/collections/sfbatv/bundles/190890

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It feels a bit uncomfortable for me to be blathering on about sports history with all that is going on in this nation right now. But no less a man than Pope John Paul II said “the dignity of the human person is the goal and criterion of all sporting activity”. And we desperately need humanity and dignity at the moment. So on we go.

If you’re on Twitter and you like lighthearted takes on sports history you simply must follow Super 70s Sports, written by the fabulous Ricky Cobb. He does little to nothing with track and field though, so I take it upon myself to post some track items done in a similar style. A few days ago I posted a Sports Illustrated cover from February 22, 1971, with the comment “Dr. Del Meriwether. Because that really happened.”  What did I mean by that?

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If you run, jump or throw, it’s likely you have worn something that Ron Hill Sports has helped pioneer. This episode takes a look at Ron Hill, who is maybe best known as a marathon world record holder and definitely has a record-setting running streak, but you might not realize you wear his inventions every day.

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