by Oran Sorenson
Following a long-standing tradition, the Garretson athletic department this Saturday at the Jesse James Invitational track meet will honor a past state event champion or relay who has achieved track and field excellence deserving of such an award. Because of circumstances you will come to understand, this year five, not one, former stars will be recognized.
We will have to roll the calendar back a whole 53 years to the spring of 1969 to a time when all athletes were expected to participate in any sport where they could contribute. We only offered 3 male sports at that time and females had no athletic opportunities whatsoever. Thus, cheerleading was very popular back then. Hard work was valued by your coaches who most often served as coaches in all of those sports. Schools Garretson’s size only had two varsity coaches. Your head football coach was the assistant basketball coach. The head basketball coach was the assistant football coach. And one of the two was the head track coach and the other the assistant. If you wanted to be a part of Garretson’s most popular sport of that time, football, you knew you needed to be working out in track and field in the spring. Thus, there were always thirty or more boys out for track. To tell the whole truth, many boys may have had still another motive for sports, it got them out of hard work and chores back home. In 1969 junior high coach Al Bowar had 39 boys out for 7th and 8th grade track.
The above situation was the same in all area schools. Therefore, in those years track and field was very competitive and participants not only had the chance to display their skills, but you would get to personally know many athletes from many different towns. Track meets were usually only on Saturdays because extended time away from class was not acceptable. Because of fewer meets in those years, we often traveled farther to meets in Worthington, Tyndall, Hurley, Madison, Mitchell, Vermillion, Howard Wood, and Pierre. Hurley had a clay or dirt track, Madison and Dell Rapids used crushed quarry rock for their surfaces, and the rest were cinders. Every med kit had a bottle called “Cinder Suds” because when an athlete gave it his all and occasionally wiped out on the track, that product would help bubble the cinders or rock out from under your abraised skin. There were no all-weather tracks in those years, some even experimented with tar or black topped tracks. Most had no track at all. Your workouts were on the paved streets or some makeshift oval in a field or parking lot. Your biggest meets of the year were always conference, region, and state. There was no such thing as state pre- qualifying events. You had to place either first or second in the region meet to qualify for state. In later years they did allow three qualifiers from each region in the 100-yard dash.
In the spring of 1969, a contingent of athletes from GHS were able to bring home many victories on the cinders the season long. This year we honor 5 former standouts whose efforts combined to help Garretson finish 3rd in the state meet that year in Rapid City. Finishing first in the mile relay in school record time of 3:29.8 were seniors Arlon Gill and Randy Swenson, junior Dan Hanson, and sophomore Rich Holzapfel. Sadly, we lost Randy Swenson to cancer just one year ago. This foursome edged out West Central who was a tough opponent in this event all year long. We also honor this year Bob Garry, who as a senior earned the silver in the 220-yard dash. He finished in the same 23.2 time as Tony Merry, but after viewing the film from the photo finish the gold was given to the Quarrier of Dell Rapids, whose team went on to win the state meet. We also on Saturday will honor sprinter Royce Quamen who as a junior that year combined his talents with Hanson, Holzapfel, and Garry to finish 2nd in the 880 relay to a very talented squad from Wagner, who our runners battled all year. In all, 10 Blue Dragons qualified for the state meet that year. In those years only five athletes earned medals in each event. Also earning medals that year were Rich Holzapfel earning 4th in the open 440, and senior standout athlete Wayne Rask finished 5th in the shot put, both setting school records. Other qualifiers that year certainly deserving honorable mention were junior Steve Holzapfel competing in shot put, senior Neil Hammer in the discus, and pole vaulter and junior Joel Undem. Another area of excellence usually strong for Garretson has been the half milers and the 2-mile relay. They placed high in meets all year long but were not able to finish in the top two in the Region Meet in that event. Congratulations to you five and all the other former Blue Dragon runners, jumpers, and throwers who once competed and did their best for their alma mater.
