Sam would have been 67 this Saturday. I still remember the birthdays of all my brothers though occasionally I have to look up the dates. My personal mnemonics to remember Sam's Jan 30th date is he was born the day after Kansas Day, Jan 29th. For Kim, April Fools is April 1st; but Kim's not a May Fool, so he was born the day before - Apr 30. Funky, but it was my way of remembering their dates. My other two brothers? Kenneth's Jan. 5th I had in my brain the longest since he's the oldest of the four and Don's Dec. 15th I just had to learn and often looked up.
The last time I visited Sam, he reminded me I created the Wichita Olympic Track Club, our family and neighborhood track program for my brothers and John Foster, a neighborhood friend. I coaxed Ken and Sam to run and jump the various track and field events we could do in the abandoned junior high school field just a block away from our house. At the time Don was the youngest and I got him recorded for a few runs. Yes, I kept a record book of each brother's performances in the 50 yd, 100 yd dash, the 600 yd run, broad jump (it wasn't called the long jump back then) and high jump.
The 50 yard dash was in the one playground area behind the former Central Junior High. The 600 yd run was once around the school block. It was amazing no one got hit my a car as they ran along 2nd Street which cut across the alley between two tall buildings. 3rd Street was safe as you had a clear view of the alley and the street.
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| Sam doing the 50 yard dash |
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| Sam on the takeoff on the broad jump |
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| This may be Ken running the 50 yard dash; if not then it's me. |
Later, in my woodworking shop class I made some pole vault stands. And with money from my newspaper route, I bought a real steel pole for vaulting. Before, we were using a bamboo pole which we eventually bent in two. John Foster bought an 8 lb shot and a high school weight discus. John and I spent a lot of evenings pole vaulting, high jumping, and throwing the shot and discus.
John and I weren't built for weight events. Photographs of our release on the shot put showed our head was looking down as the shot was just leaving the chin level, clearly the shot release wasn't keeping up with the rest of the body motion. I'll have to look up that photo, but here's a photo of John working on a science project in 1965.
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These aren't track & field photos of Don and Sam, but do show their jumping ability. I was copying the style of Life Magazine photographer Philippe Halsman who made portraits of famous people jumping in the air.
My favorite shot of Sam is the one of him studying at his desk. I used one of King Mar's floodlights from the side for the lighting. This was from January 1966.
This fun photo was from January 1965 with Kim as the quarterback, Don and Sam the linemen. This was in out backyard at 350 N. Topeka.
