Texas Relays won’t mosey over a little for masters
The Texas Relays form the opening leg of the Midwest Relays circuit, which includes Kansas and Drake. But unlike the Lawrence and Des Moines events, masters aren’t welcome in Austin. So learned M40 sprinter John Simpson when he politely asked Texas officials to add a masters 100, 200 and/or 4×100 masters relay. They said, “Sorry, podnah.” Actually, what Texas Relays meet director Doug Wilson wrote John was: “We have been approached a number of times about adding some Master Events to the Relays, but due to the schedule, we don’t want to add any more events, and we do cater to the High School and Collegiate teams, so if we added anything, and we haven’t for a while, it would be in those divisions.”
John wasn’t happy with that, but I won’t print his reaction. This is a family blog.
John and M40 American record holder Aaron Thigpen had come up with the idea of California vs Texas Showdown in the M40 age group at the April 2-5 meet.
But John, a Baylor University alum, passes along good news nevertheless:
Baylor will let us display our talents and hard work at the 2008 Baylor/Dr. Pepper Michael Johnson Invitational the weekend before Penn Relays. Kudos to Todd Harbour (Baylor’s head track coach) for inviting us back this year. Last year we ran a 4×100 and a 4×400 against the college teams. Stay classy, Baylor!
John will pass along details on the Baylor masters events when he gets them.
John, good work.
Texas Relays, go muck yourselves.
4 Responses
The Masters events at major meets all over the country have been proven to be very well accepted and applauded by the ticket purchasers. We have seen this in the indoor SW Conference meet (when it was alive); the passe indoor Dallas track meet; for many years at the Penn Relays, where they show on national TV the masters 100m; and at Drake, Kansas, Mt. Sac., and Millrose. One day, someone at the Texas Relays will wake up and realize that track is a sport for all the ages, and that the crowd will really appreciate seeing the masters compete. I have participated in a couple of masters events at collegiate meets (Penn and SW Conference), and they have always been very well received. I can guarantee that the masters events are better than the organizer’s tossing the dice as to whether the prima donna open athletes think it might be too hot (or too cool) to run and risk injury. The Texas Relays is a great three or four day meet. It is hard to believe that they cannot, or will not, find 10 minutes to support track and field’s masters competitors, considering what so many masters give back to track and field. Many of our masters competitors are collegiate and high school coaches. I don’t understand the obstinance, although I am aware that Bubba Thornton, the Texas coach, was not masters friendly when he was at TCU for many years. Perhaps it is because he has developed a gut that masters runners don’t display. Who knows? He was a pro football player. I wish the national, SW regional, and SW association USATF staff and local USATF organizers would push to get these masters events included at the Texas Relays. It shouldn’t be left to individual athletes to accomplish this. Nor should an individual masters athlete be subjected to such a cruel rejection as John Simpson received. He was trying to do the right thing.
Mr. Gray I appreciate your honesty in your response. I spoke with a teammate of mine who is a UT alum that kicks in a lot of $$ each year and he is pulling his for now on until the masters are minimally recognized at the prestigious Texas Relays. I competed there in HS, College and took many teams there over the years as a HS coach. I would love nothing more than to drive down the lane competing there once again, this time as an elite master. Again, kudos to Penn, Drake, Kansas, Baylor, Mt. Sac and many others that show some love to the masters.
Their loss, not ours!!
Sounds like the quote from the old Texas A&M AD who said that “the only sport more boring to watch than track is field”
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