Author: Sam Mowe
When Oxy’s Track and Field Team competes in the SCIAC finals meet on Monday, April 30 they will be participating in an athletic event that has been taking place for nearly a hundred years, and historically one that the Tigers have been very successful in. Since the SCIAC’s inception in 1915, which was an outgrowth of an even older athletic conference of which USC was a member, Oxy has won 53 league championships-many of them coming in bunches. In Oxy’s early years the track team would compete regularly against much larger schools such as Stanford, USC and UCLA.
Along with the large number of team championships there have been tons of individuals in years past that have graced Oxy’s track with marks that put Tiger track into world prominence. Oxy track has league champions, national champions, Olympic competitors and world record holders laced throughout its celebrated history.
Since the first awards banquet was held in 1951 there have been 141 individuals inducted into the Oxy track and field hall of fame. Between these individuals there are plenty of notable personal stories. One of which is Fred C. Thomson who was a track star in 1910, a world decathlon record holder for a time and later became a famous western movie star. His record was later broken by his younger brother Harrison who also attended Oxy. One can also point to Bob Gutowski ’57 who held a world record in the pole vault, clearing 15 ft. 8 ¼ in. back when they were on a steel pole. There is also Chuck Smith ’70 who, before he competed in the Olympic games in Munich, was called “the Cinderella Athlete” because he didn’t start competing in track and field until he was a junior at Oxy.
As it stands today, Bill Henry Track was built as a training site for the 1984 Olympics. However, a track and field flyer from Oxy in the late 1950’s tells us that the track was built for fast times from the very start. “Built by experts of crushed granite and other speed-producing mixtures, the track is ideal for training purposes,” the flyer reads.
Perhaps Oxy’s track and field athletes will be able to carry some of the speed of their track to Whittier’s track this year as the season closes at the SCIAC championships later this month. At least they can count on history being on their side.
This article has been archived, for more requests please contact us via the support system.
