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I am still savoring the Bonner Springs High School five-man track team that recently placed second in the state in Class 5A. I would like to have seen them get more recognition because their performance had to be one of the best of the day. Coach Jim Mitchell is still on cloud nine, but he is looking forward to next season with the return of the atomic twins - Jeremy and Jonathan Walker. This by far is the best performance by the Bonner Springs track team since winning the Class 3A state championship in the 1973 and 1974. The improved track facility at Bonner Springs High School has to be an asset for Mitchell and his Braves.

Speaking of facilities, it takes me back to my first year of track in 1938 at Wyandotte High School. Most all tracks back in those days were cinder tracks; however Wyandotte had one of the better tracks in the area. That was in the pre-starting block era and sprinters dug holes at the starting line to push off of. Our first starting blocks came the following year. They were made by our woodworking shop that consisted of about an 18-inch 4-by-4 sawed at an angle with two holes drilled in the blocks for long spikes. For added support you had someone stand on your blocks for your start. Our top sprinter was senior Larry Timmons, who was about 6-foot-1 and 190 pounds. Anyone who stood on his blocks could expect a big jolt.

Also, reminiscing of my days at Wyandotte reminded me a little bit of the success of the Braves' five-man team. Whenever Wyandotte would be in the same meet with Paola they were always outscored by one sprinter from Paola by the name of Don Walters who always won the broad jump (which is now called the long jump), 100-, 220-, and 440-yard dashes. Walters won all five events at the state tournament. In our meets against Paola, invariably I would always draw the preliminary heat with Walters. Walters continued his track career at the University of Missouri where again he was a standout.

Back then, the University of Kansas had a 200-yard straightaway, which was the most gruesome race I ever ran. In a preliminary heat at the KU Relays in the high school division, as my track fortunes continued, once again I drew Walters in the preliminary for the 220-yard dash. It had rained and the track was wet, and when we finished our heat against Walters I was covered with cinders from the top of my head to my ankles. Walters was a real fine guy and I joked with him often. On this particular day he gave out a big laugh when he saw his cinder-covered victim.

One of the highlights in my 1938 season was at the state meet where our sprint medley relay team turned up the heat in the prelims and tied the state record. The Wichita paper came out and took our picture with the expectation that our relay team would break the state record. In the prelims our anchor man Ken Thompson ran a 50 flat on his lap, but as fate would have it in the finals the next day he ran a 54-second lap which gave us third place. The last time I checked at Wyandotte High School we still had the school record for the sprint medley relay aided by the outstanding performance of Thompson.

Track has come a long way since those days of the 1930s, with highly improved facilities such as the one at BSHS, which is one of the better ones in the area. Now what we need for next season is for an athlete or two to come up big in the weights or distance runs. The track program at BSHS has been fortunate in having two coaches with good track credentials, Ken Russell and Jim Mitchell. This year's performance of our five-man team should certainly be incentive for our athletes to compete in track.

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