| Blast from the Past - Rochester Track Club |
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Former GRTC President Bill Quinlisk has been kind enough to let me borrow his collection of Rochester Track Club and Greater Rochester Track Club newsletters. Starting with the oldest material, I am scanning and posting them to the Newsletter Archive on the GRTC website. Following are some interesting bits that illustrate the growth of our sport and club from modest beginnings some fifty years ago.
1958-1976 Rochester Track Club By 1964 the RTC had grown to over 80 members and begun publishing a newsletter for members (first issue shown on right). The club was increasingly successful in team competition, having won 17 team trophies since its founding. Befitting the club name, there was a lot of focus on track and field events. The 1964 summer schedule alone had 26 track meets. RTC members also starred in road races. At the 1964 Boston Marathon, 301 started. RTC finishers were Jack Coons 29th, Dick Ashley 31st, Jack Beahrs 60th, Pete Todd 141st, Dick Jackson 144th and Jack Disraeli finished outside the time limit in 5 hours. RTC newsletters from 1965-1970 are missing. Picking up the story with the 1971 issues, the successes reported in 1964 continued... the RTC team trophy count was up to 110 and club runners had won 15 National Championships. Notably in 1971, the RTC team won the Niagara District A.A.U. Track & Field Championships for the first time in 14 years, having been the runner-up for 13 straight years! Individual winners were Chuck McMullen (880 - 1:57 and mile - 4:17.8), Tom Connelly (high jump - 6'6"), Lynn Fuller (javelin - 217'), Tony Palumbo (triple jump - 44'-1/2"), Bill Soeffing (120 yd. high hurdles - 15.7), and Mike Van Auker (440 hurdles - 57.5). RTC activities in 1972 are especially well documented with results from summer track meets and several special events. The club inaugurated at 24-hour relay as an Olympic team fund raiser. Running 440 yard legs, RTC runners tallied 271 miles on the RIT track. Two other novel events were the Trackathon and the Track Pentathlon. The Trackathon must have been especially challenging... ten track races, from the 100 yard sprint to 10,000 meters, including two hurdles races, run in one day with cross country scoring. Bob Backofen won by finishing in the top third of the 33 runner field in every event. The Track Pentathlon, with only five running events from 440 yards to 9.5 miles, had 63 finishers. Dan Ambrose and Tim McMullen tied with 13 points. Note: This type of event survives today in the form of the Tour de Pain (3.5 miles cross country, 400 meters track, 1 mile track) put on every August by the Genesee Valley Harriers. The RTC hosted the A.A.U. State Championships at RIT, won it and also repeated as Niagara District champions. The 1973 collection of newsletters don't include many results. Still there are some interesting insights into the life of the RTC. New club records were noted... Paul Stemmer broke Charlie McMullen's 1500 meter record by over four seconds with a winning time of 3:52.4 and the same week won the Track Pentathlon winning four of the five events. Jack Coons broke the mile masters record and a week later broke the 1500 masters record. The RTC again hosted the A.A.U. State Championships at RIT and successfully defended their State Championship with Tim McMullen winning the mile and Paul Stemmer the 3 mile. The meet included a special invitational mile with Dave Wottle edging Dick Buerkle by about one inch. Remember Dave Wottle? He won the 800 meters in the 1972 Olympics (shown in photo at right) and was famous for the cap he always wore.A highlight of the year was the induction into the Rochester Track Club Hall of Fame of Jack Coons. Coons was the club's outstanding distance runner of the early and middle sixties. He joined the following athletes in the Hall: Trent Jackson (1964 Olympic Team sprinter), Ed Duncan (10th overall in 1958 Boston Marathon at age 17), and Dick Boddie (23'1-1/2" long jump club record unbroken for 19 years). In the sixteen years since its founding in 1956, over 1400 different runners had been members of the RTC. The count was now up to 135 team trophies and the club had won 15 National Championships. And since its founding, Pete Todd was the backbone of the RTC. The 1974 newsletter text hints at some of the strains of running a growing club in addition to his full time job teaching and coaching at RIT. In the first newsletter of 1975, Pete Todd announced that he would resign the Presidency of the Rochester Track Club. A group of interested members met in September 1975 and reorganized the club with Bill Quinlisk as President and a full slate of board members to support the club's many activities. As summarized by Bill Quinlisk in May 1976, the Rochester Track Club is the area's oldest and largest A.A.U. track and field club. The club is best known for its Tuesday evening track meets over the summer months at RIT's all-weather running track. The club also fields a Cross-Country team, Indoor and Outdoor Touring teams and a year-round Road Racing team. While the Touring teams cater to those who qualify, more than 3/4ths of the membership run in the Age Group or Intermediate Level races. Membership costs are $4 student, $6 individual and $10 family. Membership includes entry eligibility to all summer meets plus special events. In late 1976 the RTC merged with the College City Striders (based in Brockport) and the Rochester Roadrunners Club. The resulting club with approximately 600 members was renamed as the Greater Rochester Track Club.
1977 The GRTC is Born "Heart thumping, lungs bursting, legs turning to concrete, sweat burning the eyes - such are the joys of long distance running. More and more Americans are experiencing them as they take up running - or, less strenuously, jogging - in pursuit of better health. Thus, of all events witnessed during ABC's excellent televised coverage of the Olympics, none probably found wider audience empathy than the marathon, covering 26 miles, 385 yards. Many Americans who never have Pole Vaulted, hurled the discus or soared off the high dive have tried to huff and puff their way a few miles around the neighborhood in sneakers and sweatsuit. They can feel only awe at the leading marathoners, who covered their agonizing course in times of less than five minutes per mile. And then, upon reflection, these Americans can also perhaps more fully appreciate the disciplined magnificence of Olympic champions in almost every sport." The second newsletter issue of the new club had an interesting comparison of shoe prices at the various store around Rochester. Of the six stores listed, only Dalbraith's is still in business. The consensus of the shoe store salesmen rated the following shoes as tops: New Balance 320, Brooks Villanova II, New Balance 305, Nike Road Runner, Adidas SL 72/76 and Puma 9190. These shoes were all in the $20-$30 range in 1977. Another highlight of the January 1977 newsletter was complete results of the 5th Annual Rochester Marathon. Held on September 6th, 1976, the race had 158 starters and 110 finishers. The race was won by Jim Boyle in 2:28:42. Twenty-five runners finished under 3:00 and the median finish time was 3:18. The Rochester Marathon win was only one of three outstanding marathons run by Jim Boyle in 1976. Earlier, he was the top local runner at Boston, finishing 29th overall in 2:31:56. The 80th edition of Boston was the hottest of all time according to an account in the Boston Globe... reporting it was 90 degrees at the start in Hopkinton, 96 degrees in Ashland and 93 degrees at Wellesley. I was there running my first Boston Marathon, representing the Atlanta Track Club, and wishing I had more heat training. Spectators along the course saved our day by bringing garden hoses out to the road so it was possible to get sprayed at least every mile or so. And fortunately, a breeze off the ocean picked up so once past Boston College it was much cooler. The race is remembered to this day as "The Run for the Hoses."
Boyle's third marathon in 1976 was his fastest. Less than 6 weeks after the Rochester Marathon win, Boyle finished 9th overall in 2:26:55 at the Rice Festival Marathon in Crowley, LA. The race was the National A.A.U. Marathon Championship. Coincidentally, I was also in the field that day, setting my all-time marathon best while finishing over 23 minutes behind Boyle. An enlightening interview of Jim Boyle appeared in the March 1977 issue of the GRTC newsletter. Jim Boyle is a 1968 graduate of Canandaigua Academy where he first started running. He went on to get his Associates degree from Dutchess Community College in Poughkeepsie in 1970. He is presently employed as a draftsman and is attending night school at RIT in pursuit of a degree in electrical engineering. He has been a member of the club for 8 years and is a familiar figure in area long distance races. He is best known for his high finishes at Boston and for his victory in this year's Rochester Marathon. GRTC: Could you give us some thoughts on your 3 marathons in 1976? Jim: As far as placing goes, finishing 29th at Boston was probably my greatest thrill in running. The Rochester Marathon was my first ever marathon win and finishing 9th at the AAU Marathon in Crowley, La. was very satisfying, being a National Championship event. Time-wise I was ready for a 2:23 this year but the weather and injuries made it impossible, so I wasn't completely satisfied with my marathons this year. GRTC: What kind of training did you do for the races? Jim: It takes me about 12 weeks to prepare for a marathon to the point where I can have confidence that I'll run faster than my previous best time. I emphasize fast, long runs for the first six weeks. Then 3 weeks of speed work, twice a week on hills or golf course. The last three weeks I do one workout on the track and one fast 5 to 7 miler a week. A typical track workout during this period would be 2 mile warmup, 10 times 1 mile averaging 5:00 and a 2 mile warmdown. GRTC: What are your marathon plans for 1977? Jim: I hope to run under 2:25 at Boston, but working 8 hours a day and going to night school at RIT makes it difficult to train properly. I don't know if I'll run any other marathons this year. I would like to run more short track races because I enjoy the head to head competition you get in shorter races. Marathons are run mostly against the clock. Win or Lose I would rather run a good tactical competitive race than run a good time. At this point the interview ended as Jim left to go out running.
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The Rochester Track Club was founded in 1956 by Pete Todd, then cross country and track coach at RIT.