Lee Ayres, The 1960 Wichita East Mile Relay Team: A Story of Victory, Defeat, and How We Met

Lee Ayres, 1960

Coach Bob Timmons built a legacy of State Championships in cross county, swimming and track. Athletes under his tutelage during our era who went on to compete at the college level included Jerry Gardner, Archie San Romani, Bill Stone, Bob Ware, Larry Hyde, John Van Slyke, Richard Quick, Bob Hanson, and many others.

The mile relay was a favorite event with the spectators because they could witness the whole event from the elevated seats of a football stadium. Further, the mile relay was the last event of the track meet. When held on a balmy evening in May under the lights, the event could be quite memorable.  (At right, Coach Bob Timmons)

I was fortunate to earn a place on the mile relay team during my junior and senior years. Greg Long was our fastest runner in the 440 yard dash. Several of us vied for number two.  The team composition for the four slots on the mile relay changed during the season. Greg Long often competed in the sprint events, so four others would make up the mile relay team.  Larry Reid and I usually competed. The team members and the leg each person would run were determined by Coach Timmons each week. The qualifying workouts were brutal. After the usual calisthenics and warm ups, we would run eight back-to-back ¼ mile laps, all out. Run a lap, walk a lap, run a lap. We practiced baton hand-offs every week, often adjusting to a new line up. 

The event calls for each of the four team members to run a lap on a ¼ mile oval track. The lead-off runner carries a baton which is handed off to the next runner, and so forth. A lot can go wrong in this event.

• We had to stay in our assigned lanes. One step outside the lane and the team was disqualified.
• We had to hang on to the baton. If it was dropped and bounced into another lane, the team was disqualified.
• We had to smoothly and expeditiously receive and hand off the baton. A mishandling of the baton hand-off could cause a delay and loss of the race or a disqualification.
• We could not leave our lanes after the hand-off until all of the runners had passed by.
• We had to complete the hand-off within a 20 yard stretch or be disqualified. If your teammate “ran out of gas,” you had to slow down and wait to take the baton within the 20 yards. Start too soon and you might leave the 20-yard zone before the hand-off could occur.
• We received the baton with the right hand and handed off with the left hand. Get this backwards and someone could trip and fall. If you did not get up to speed by the time the team member arrived, a collision could occur.
• If you looked back after you started running, you could inadvertently leave your lane or slow down the hand-off.
• You learned to judge the speed and distance of the approaching runner so that you could move from a standing start, while looking back at the approaching runner, to turning your back to the approaching runner and getting up to speed by pumping both knees and arms. And then, after three strides, thrusting your right hand down and back at a 45 degree angle at the moment the approaching runner arrived so he could, with an upward thrust, slam the baton into your outstretched palm between your thumb and forefinger – a sweet moment of satisfaction and relief when it worked and an unforgettable horror when it did not.

The day our mile-relay team won the 1960 State Track meet event, every hand-off worked beautifully. We knew it was going to be a challenging event because the Condit brothers from Great Bend were a fearsome force in track. One led off and one finished on their mile-relay team. (This is where I really miss Jim Davidson, he would have known their first names.)

“Feature this!” as Jim would have said. Here was the scene when the teams lined up to start the race.

• Only eight teams could qualify for the event, based on their times in the regional meets.
• Each team was assigned a lane, based on their qualifying times in the regional meet (Our regional meet was in Pittsburgh, Kansas; more on this later.)
• The fastest team was assigned the inside lane and the slowest team the outside lane.
• Due to the distance around the track being greater for the outside lanes, the starting blocks and lines for each lane were staggered accordingly.
• Wichita East, with the fastest qualifying time, had the inside lane. So we started at the regular starting line. Each lane was given a lead, so to speak, based on the comparative distance of the lanes, four times around the oval. The outside lane start line was placed at the first curve, with the other start lines staggered back toward the regular starting line.   

For the 1960 State Championship meet, our final team  for the Mile Relay was Sherman McClellan, Lee Ayres, Bob Hanson, and Larry Reid, in that order.

When the affable Sherman McClellan, an East High junior, settled into the starting blocks to run the lead-off lap, he was looking at the backsides of seven other runners who were placed well ahead and to the right of him. But he had a psychological advantage. As distance runners know, it is very hard to take the lead and keep it for the whole race. Better to stay close to the front of the pack and then make your move toward the end of the race.  The members of our relay team were motivated to catch up to and pass the runners ahead of us in the outside lanes. (Left, Sherman McClellan)

Sherman ran a fast split and the baton hand-off went great. The “thwack” of the baton in my right hand felt fantastic. I ran a competitive lap, and the hand-off to Bob Hanson went well. (Right, Bob Hanson)  Bob, a sophomore, was relatively new to our mile relay team. He ran like the wind that day. When he handed off the baton to Larry Reid, our anchor, we were in the lead.

This is when the Condit brothers became part of the story. One brother ran the first lap; the other faster brother ran the last lap. By the time Larry Reid reached the backstretch, Condit had sprinted to within a few feet of Larry.  The day had been a tough one for the Blue Aces. Several team members did not perform to the expected level. Were we going to lose this event? The answer came quickly. Larry must have heard Condit coming up on his heels.  It was like Larry was shot from a cannon. He stepped up the pace.  Condit could not keep up. We won the event! (Left, Larry Reid)

As the excitement of the race subsided, we had to come to terms with a sad reality. For the first time in years, the Wichita East team did not win the State Track Meet Championship trophy.  Later, we had a satisfying moment when we learned that the 1960 Wichita East Mile Relay Team set a new state record.

The how we met part of the story goes like this. When we competed in the regional track meet in Pittsburg, Kansas, to earn the right to compete in the state track meet, I met a very fleet of foot, engaging fellow named Stephen Wayne Clark who represented the Coffeyville, Kansas, high school team. Interestingly, each of us had made a point to visit the Pittsburg State stadium early to case the joint before the teams and spectators showed up.  One year later, we were fraternity brothers living in the Sigma Chi house at Kansas University. We became great friends and, in our senior year, moved out of the house to rent a duplex. On November 22, 1963, it was Steve Clark who broke the news to me that President John F. Kennedy had been assassinated.  That spring, Steve and I co-produced the Sigma Chi – Chi Omega production for the annual Rock Chalk Review, using songs adapted from the music from “Bye Bye Birdie.” The following year, we again shared an apartment with Jerry Palmer, Student Body President and future trial attorney in Topeka, Kansas. I was in graduate school and Steve stayed a 5^th year to complete a business major while continuing to be an accomplished journalist with the Daily Kansan and Lawrence Journal World.

Thirty years later in 1995, shortly after the Wichita East Class of 1960 35th reunion on August 13, I took my mother to Topeka to visit my Aunt Eleanor and then drove over to Lawrence to visit Steve Clark. We were hosted by his new lady friend, Shelley Patterson, who prepared a terrific dinner.  One month later, I received a call from Shelley. She asked me to help her better understand my friend Steve who was sitting in his car in front of the house that evening. I recall being very guarded with my remarks! A month later, she called to say Steve had died of a heart attack at her home. In the course of several phone calls and visits for the funeral and Thanksgiving, I fell in love with Shelley. We were married on January 1, 1996, by Pastor Bruce Coleman at the Presbyterian Church in Sunnyvale, California, with my three children present. (At left, Lee and Shelley, 1995)

To Marilyn Bellert and Mike McKee – Thanks for the invitation to tell the story of the 1960 mile-relay team. It allowed me to reflect on some very special people and events in my life.