One thing I remember very well is that Texas High School Track “ran” and “measured” its events in miles, yards, inches—not the metric—until somewhere around 1980, and then the change was not always graceful or well-accepted! I once told a student in my English class in the 1990s that when I had run in a few open track meets when I was holding summer track for the interested girls in Forney that I had run a “10.5” (my best ever) in the “100” and came in next-to-last against a field of mainly college track guys from neighboring North Texas State University and a couple athletically minor junior colleges. I was shocked that they thought I was really fast until I remembered that by then they were running 100 meter races and not 100 yards! (You can do the math and figure out how much longer 100 meters is!)
In 1974, Forney had some great track competitors. I remember that Marsha Talley won the 220-yard dash at the State Meet, setting a GIRLS NATIONAL RECORD with the winning time, and we had our GIRLS being asked to come to track meets instead of having to ask to attend. The relay teams of Darlene Alexander, Carolyn Higgins, Susan Walker, Alison Welch, and Marsha Talley were a
“force” in every meet they entered. The BOYS were also “top notch” everywhere they ran, with relay teams of Tony Jackson, Robert Runnels, Eddy Taylor, Ronnie Pittman, Steve Collier, Larry Runnels, and Ronny Talley. I remember seeing Talley run a sub-2 minutes 880-yard dash at the State Meet and Steve Collier tossing the discus for 1st place farther than any Forney guy had ever done before. The BOYS won 1st place over-all at District and Regional and came in 5th at State!
I must relate what happened at a practice meet in Rockwall on their “brand new track” that had not yet been completely “marked” for meets. Eddie Taylor ran the 220-yard dash and had all of us coaches rubbing our eyes in disbelief as our “stopwatches” clicked off at 19.2 seconds, an unheard-of time for high schools and colleges. We then found out that the “marks” were off and that he had not run a full 220 yards. The exact distance was disputed, but I (and some other Forney coaches and spectators) think he ran 210 yards, while most of the “competing coaches” said it was more like 200 yards. You will never convince me that we did not see an unbreakable national record that day! And I know I saw Steve Collier uncork a discus throw of 200 or more feet more than once in practice. (The school record was about 30 yards shy of those throws!)
And, I witnessed history as Darlene Alexander jumped completely out of the pit as she won the triple jump at Red Oak, beating a future Olympian by the name of Louise RITTER!
To this day, I believe that the 1974 Forney Track Squad was the best “total” squad of boys and girls we have ever had—and Forney had no “real” official track and pits upon which to practice!
I will have to admit that I came home from college a couple times and saw a young man named Ronald Venters, who could run the “open quarter mile” at a faster clip than most of my buddies and I could run the “220,” and another young man did the “unheard of” by running an official 9.5 seconds 100 yard dash—Ray PERKERSON. And, while still a student in High School, I saw Annie Jefferson throw the discus as far as could most of the boys, while Claudia “Sugar” Alexander, Annie Jefferson, Libby Bannister, and Karen Gowen were “pretty salty” 880-yard relay “legs,” and, oh yes, Theresa Jameson was a good hurdler. I am sorry I can’t remember more competitors!
(Remembered a few more!) Sammy Beeler, who held the school’s pole vaulting record for a while with his 12’ 4” record in the District Track Meet! I remember that quite a few of my friends and I called him “General Beeler,” because he had so many medals from winning “hurdles” races and pole vaulting competitions that he “clinked” when he walked! Richard Norwood, who was a good-sized center in football, would come out of the “offseason” program to compete in the District Track meets and would “win” without going through the whole season of track work-outs! And it seems like Michael Evans in maybe 1975 high jumped about seven feet and went to “STATE.” By that time, the “scissors” and the “roll” were no longer used for jumping techniques—the “FLOP” had taken over!
Okay! I will close with the memories of going to Mesquite (1960s) to use their track facilities to work out periodically and riding with Coach Jimmy Johnson in his “not so large” car with about six of us guys in there and holding Beeler’s pole vaulting pole out the window alongside the car and hearing the “shot puts” rolling around in the trunk and holding several “starting blocks” in our laps. We always had a great time—especially when Coach Johnson would buy us sodas before the trip back to Forney!.....And, yes, Forney had a “state of the art” track facility that opened for the 1974-1975 school year!
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