While I was looking though old JACKRABBIT yearbooks, I had a shock when I could not find any track photos until the 1960s! Now, I know that we did not have a true RUNNING TRACK at Forney High School when I was growing up, but someone (probably from the Booster Club) would take a “grader” of some sort and form a make-shift track around the Legion Baseball Field each spring so that we could practice running; however, the oval was never a full 440 yards that was needed for a regulation track!
Come to think of it, the track may have been graded by a City or County worker with their heavy equipment! Anyway, it was just a “dirt” surface that often had some cracks if the weather was too dry and some muddy spots if it was too wet.
Our track practices when I was in Jr. High quite often consisted of being taken out a few miles into the country and then being told to run back to the school before the bell for the next class (often lunch) had rung. We were supposed to keep up a good pace and then “sprint” the final block or two!
I remember running on the farm roads with Donny Burchfield, Don Hamm, Tommy Reeder, Rod Stark, Pat Kelly, and Jerry Shipley when we were preparing for the District Track Meet. Jerry always won and was first back to the school field house area.
I don’t know why, but Coach Johnson put me into the District Track Meet (on a real track) with the 8th Grade Team when I was in the 7th Grade. I was scared to be with the older guys and had never run on a real track. Jerry told me to keep up a good pace and not get too far behind him and the leaders, and then when I got to the final curve to “run as hard as you can, Themer. I know you are a pretty fast sprinter, and maybe you can pass a lot of the guys at the end and “place” in the top six.” (Top six scored points.)
Well, things went about as Jerry had predicted. He won and then stood at the finish, yelling for me to “kick harder, Themer.” I did, and placed “in the money” at #6! And then I found out that “if you scored in the District Meet, you ‘lettered.’” We actually won the meet and were District Champs, and I received a winged-foot letter for Mom to sew onto the sleeve of my jacket! Boy, was I proud! And, you know what, I still think Jerry Shipley should have become a track coach!
Our 8th Grade track season, Coach Hernandez was our coach, and I remember having a “dirt track” to run on that year. The highlight that season for me occurred one day when I was “goofing around” after practice and happened over to where the “shot putters” were still working out. I started “tossing” with Kenneth Brooks, who was quite a bit “stouter” than I, and found that I could put the iron ball out there as far as he could.
So, tall and skinny Themer told Coach Hernandez that I wanted to “toss” in the District Meet. He laughed at me but said I could if I could be one of the three 8th graders who tossed the farthest the next week at a practice meet. I did so and was ecstatic. And, guess what? I placed 2nd in the meet (out-“put” by a big ol’ boy who outweighed me by at least 60 pounds) and received a red ribbon, which I valued more than any of the others I won that day! I think I still have that ribbon somewhere in a box in the attic! I think our 8th Grade team won 2nd place over all!
Oh, and by the other way, one of the two years in Jr. High, Coach Johnson did take us to Hanby Stadium at Mesquite High School so that we could work out on a real track, that also had real “jumping/vaulting pits.” Sunnyvale came to work out there that day, too. (They did not have a high school then—just 1st through 8th.) They had a really big and muscular boy who could “run like a demon.” He always ran “barefooted!” The Mesquite track was a “cinder track surface,” which to us runners meant “crushed bricks.” Some of us tried the barefoot method and “ended up” with bleeding feet, because we were accustomed to wearing shoes! Coach Johnson “rubbed it in” with, “I told you not to try it!”
Our Freshman year was not quite as fun, because we had to work out with the guys all the way through the senior class, and Coaches Barry and Johnson expected us to run as much as the “more mature” guys could. But, we did have our own division at the District Meet, and, again, we came in 2nd (I think.) to DeSoto.
However, the end of the meet was great, because we were awarded our ribbons by one of our “older” Cheerleaders, who was beautiful—Dixie Walker—and I remember standing there by Dixie and my teammate in the relays, Robert Dobbs, and having our picture taken for the “annual.”
I ran some more track my sophomore and junior years and do remember winning a ribbon in the high jump at one meet and one for the 880-yard dash at another, but usually, I was “out of the money!” I usually had to do distance work-outs with Pat Adams, Lanny Pike, and Robert Motsenbocker, and they were much better than I and almost “killed me!”
My senior year, the Coach and I agreed that I could better use my time and talents specializing with and concentrating upon BASEBALL!
Photos that accompany this article were taken from the 1963 and 1965 JACKRABBIT yearbook (FHS Annual). More to follow next week if I finish my race!
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