Gerry Lindgren 8:40 indoors

lane 8 wrote:

[quote]Clods!!! wrote:

build the cinder track AND TRY IT!

You don't have to build one around here. There are still a number of them in the area.

I got to talk to Gerry a few years back and asked him about his shoes. He wore a pair he liked that he had used electrical type tape to hold them together. They were closer to baseball spikes if I remember right. I just remember asking him the weight. He said they were not really weighing shoes in those days. What he was describing was baseball spike shoes, of that day, cut up and tweaked with different types of tape.

Clods!!! wrote:

lane 8 wrote:

[quote]Clods!!! wrote:

build the cinder track AND TRY IT!

You don't have to build one around here. There are still a number of them in the area.

I got to talk to Gerry a few years back and asked him about his shoes. He wore a pair he liked that he had used electrical type tape to hold them together. They were closer to baseball spikes if I remember right. I just remember asking him the weight. He said they were not really weighing shoes in those days. What he was describing was baseball spike shoes, of that day, cut up and tweaked with different types of tape.

There weren't a lot of choices in 1963.

If you were in the pack on a board track, sometimes your foot would plant such that your stride was out of sync w/ the rebound of the section. Strange feeling that took the zip out of your stride, like landing in quicksand.

Off the Grid wrote:

If you were in the pack on a board track, sometimes your foot would plant such that your stride was out of sync w/ the rebound of the section. Strange feeling that took the zip out of your stride, like landing in quicksand.

I thought about this. Short, quick steps work well on a board track, both for navigating the tight turns and for the ability to avoid the dead seams where the boards are nailed down on the supporting studs.

The Cow Palace is located in Daly City. It was one block from the San Francisco border. The wooden track was 160 yards and banked.

I lived outside of Spokane in that winter of 1963-4 and Gerry's big indoor races were broadcast by the Spokane stations--radio stations--and *everybody* listened.

Gerry was a HUGE deal in the area, that winter/spring. We were thrilled, but not really surprised, when he beat the Soviets in the US/USSR dual-meet 10,000. He seemed capable of absolutely anything that year...probably the most amazing senior year of any American male HS distance runner ever.

...Yes, including Ryun's. In Jim's case, his senior-year performances, though fantastic, were a logical progression from what he'd done as a junior (when he'd run 3:39 flat!). By contrast, Lindgren took 40+ seconds off the previous best time for a high schooler's two mile and even lowered the mile record (for high school competition). He completely changed people's ideas of what a "kid" could accomplish in distance races.

I was at that race. It was a thrill to see Lindgren challenge Ron Clarke.

Clarke was a real sportsman, as usual, and tried to help with the pacing/leading, but Gerry would have none of it. If Clarke passed him, Gerry would do a surge to take back the lead.

It was a miraculous night. The crowd went nuts.

That same night, they had a guest appearance of Paavo Nurmi.

He did a stride around the track (he must have been in his sixties) and I remember thinking it was beautifully fluid and surprisingly long.

They ran the nutty "devil take the hindmost" race (called something like that), where whoever is last at the end of the lap must drop out. It's a race of attrition. Kinda interesting, but mostly nutty.

Madison Square Garden

Cobo Hall

I ran track from at least 10 years ... mostly in the Prairie Provinces of

Canada. And, especially in Saskatchewan ... I could not perform outdoors ...

in fact ... I never had a good outdoor season there ... because of the pollen.

I did have many good cross country seasons though.

Where I excelled ... was indoors ... and I Loved Indoors. The first time I ran

an 800 meters at 14 was in 2:16 .. first race. Wasn't long before a 2:02.7 came

at a young age and nationals and fun. I loved those boards ... and in those days ... late 60's ... very fast banked board tracks was all there was ... unless you include the 75 yard gym tracks with corners we'd pound off of :0) ...

Finally I got outdoors in Alberta and later Eugene and got some pretty quick times. But I'll never forget the fun I had, as a 5'10" runner flyin around those banked corners .... just loved it. Later came the Field Houses and their 200 meter tartan surfaced 200 meter non banked tracks. They were pretty good to

and progress continued ... but they were never as fun as the banked boards ...

at least IMO.

Cassidy

Thanks. I have 2 questions and the answers are hard to find.

First, So 13:17 might be called "in American Record time," but did it get credit as an actual American Record. (I can't find a progression of American records for 3 miles anywhere.)

Or, what was the American Record for 3 miles (who had it) as Gerry was racing?

And then 2nd, Were Gerry's 3 mile and mile runs on the same day? I've seen 8/13/64 for the mile.

And was it 13:17.0

Brad

theoldpro wrote:

dixswizzle wrote:

What was the track that Lindgren ran this record made of? I think this was before composite tracks, not sure tho

Long before composite anything. Leather spikes to boot.

This is not true at all. Composite can be as simple as straw mixed with mud to form bricks.

Fibreglass/Epoxy mixtures were around for years before the mid 60s.

It just wasn't deemed important to use composite construction for tracks in that era, not that it couldn't be done.

Did everyone cry about cheater spikes and tracks when rubberized services and non kangaroo leather shoes were introduced in the 60s and 70s?

Lindgren was the original phenom.

Been reading about Lindgren since the '60s . Such an enigma. I just don't understand where his talent came from. The times he ran in HS, especially considering how often/long he was injured--in HS. Simply amazing.

malmo wrote:

Cobo Hall

Hi George. It's been many years since I've seen a photo of Cobo. What were the pictures of, if you remember? I watched the NCAA Indoor Championship Meet there in the time frame of 1980

dude where's my car? ? wrote:

malmo wrote:

Cobo Hall

Hi George. It's been many years since I've seen a photo of Cobo. What were the pictures of, if you remember? I watched the NCAA Indoor Championship Meet there in the time frame of 1980

Most likely of Dave Patrick, Jim Ryun etc, showing that the boards were literally boards -- like running through lumber yard.

The photo's are still out there. Google those names "+ indoor" or "Cobo Hall indoor track" and you'll stumble across the images.