First of all, from left to right: Yours truly, Craig Carroll (how did a junior get in this picture?), Erick Wadsworth, Darrell Burchfield, Bob Griffen, B.J. Johnson, and Don Minter.
This picture is from the Pasco (Washington) Invitational, a track meet in which schools from five states competed. The Lions ran away with the title, something that was no surprise, really.
So who's not smiling? Erick isn't. Erick won the 440 yard dash (remember yards before there were meters?) earlier that day. However, the mile relay team which he anchored, and which had not lost in two years, did not win at Pasco. Some of you may remember that Erick did not take to losing very well (or fouling out of basketball games, but that's another story for another time) and that day was no different.
If you have followed track in Idaho you know that the rules changed over the years. When we were in high school Erick only competed in two events, but if the rules had changed earlier he most certainly would have been in three or four events, and probably would have won all of them. There is one story that I remember well. Basketball season had come to an end in 1969 and Erick had only been out for track for a few days. There was a multi-team meet at Meridian, and Erick decided, since he wasn't "in shape" yet, that the only race he would run was a heat in the 100. We joked about it on the bus on the ride over, but my laughter didn't last. Here was a guy who ran cross country, ran the mile and 440, and I, a sprinter, was in the same race with him. You guessed it. He beat me by 2 or 3 steps.
Don Minter was not smiling either. He won the 100 yard dash that day in Pasco and anchored the 440 relay team to victory. However, he was the defending Idaho state champion in the 220, but he finished fourth or fifth. He didn't like losing any better than Erick.
On the other hand, Bob Griffen should have been all smiles. He stood on top of the winners platform in Pasco for winning the 180 yard low hurdles, the long jump and finishing first -- or was it second -- in the 120 hurdles, along with running on the victorious 440 relay team.
Craig Carroll was a phenom himself. As a sophomore he set the school long jump record and as a junior he finished third in the 100 yard dash in the state track meet. But it was his high jumping that literally drew a crowd. Craig used as his jumping style what was then called the "Fosbury flop". Dick Fosbury was a high jumper from Oregon State who won the event at the 1968 Olympic Games in Mexico City. If you saw his form today you might ask, "What's the big deal?" Nowadays all the top jumpers attempt to clear the bar going over back first, but except for Fosbury and a few others, nobody else was trying it in the sixties. Craig used it, and jumped well over six feet, and it was so unusual that at large track meets a crowd would often gather to watch. Some would would actually laugh because it looked so odd, but not the competition that he defeated.
As impressive as the football teams where in my high school days -- only one loss in three years -- that year's track team impressed me more. Even though the Lion football team of my senior year produced four starters on the Boise State team that one its first bowl game victory as a four-year school -- with one of them being an All-American, and a total of three getting NFL tryouts -- I guess I wasn't that impressed because it was pretty much expected at Borah in those days. However, when it came to track, I was quite in awe of guys like Erick, Don, Bob, Craig and others, like B.J., Darrell, Bill Cady, and Danny Knighton.
Track practice was really humbling. For example, maybe on a Tuesday Coach Arnold would have us run six 220's for our work out, and we were to work on our stride and run, say, three-quarter speed. I would have to run all out just to avoid finishing embarrassingly far behind, and I could hear these guys talking to each other as they ran, while I was half-certain I was going to die. It was not unusual for me to lose my lunch and breakfast while these guys were strolling to the locker room.
1969 ended with another state track title for Borah, the second straight and fifth in nine years. But Erick still wasn't smiling. The mile relay defended its title with him running the anchor leg, but he missed setting the state 440 record by a tenth of a second. I ran on the medley relay that day and we didn't get a ribbon. But it's a team sport, right? And at least I didn't lose to Erick in a sprint.
