Tracy Smith

bumping this thread to add this video of one of Tracy's greatest races

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zwi4nOGA7xY&feature=c4-overview&list=UUQZ4SlRLR1Qo_1AB1cyD_Ow

Enjoyed that, Good memories.

Wow I used to run in all those Mammoth 10ks also the Lions the Cornice etc for years and all these college runners would come up and Tracy would smoke em all. My best was placing 19th but that was respectable with that caliber of runners.

perspective wrote:

Seems to me that he held the indoor American record for 3 miles for a while. I want to say 13:16 set in New York City, but we're talking about pure memory here, so a fact check is in order.

1969 Outdoor 3 mile national championship results follow:

1. Tracy Smith 13:18.4

2. Gerry Lindgren 13:18.4

3. Juan Martinez (MEX) 13:35.6

4. Steve Prefontaine 13:43.0

5. Mario Perez (MEX) 13:44.4

6. Jerry Jobski 13:47.2

Ummmm, you realize that race was run in Miami in JUNE. No evening sessions back then.

Prefontaine owes a HUGE debt of gratitude to Tracy Smith. Top two finishers were American team for mammoth AAU tour of Europe. AAU required team members to run a po-dunk meet in Hawaii prior. A married Tracy Smith thought it pointless & stupid and refused. Of course AAU suspended him from Europe tour. Next batter up = Prefontaine.

That is how a high school senior made a senior national AAU team.

Can any old geezers confirm this?

I am not sure about that story, but I believe the three mile record was closer to 13:10.

Igy

Interesting story, if true, considering Pre's head-butting with the AAU in later years.

Soft Machine wrote:

Interesting story, if true, considering Pre's head-butting with the AAU in later years.

harry wales wrote:

Ummmm, you realize that race was run in Miami in JUNE. No evening sessions back then.

Prefontaine owes a HUGE debt of gratitude to Tracy Smith. Top two finishers were American team for mammoth AAU tour of Europe. AAU required team members to run a po-dunk meet in Hawaii prior. A married Tracy Smith thought it pointless & stupid and refused. Of course AAU suspended him from Europe tour. Next batter up = Prefontaine.

That is how a high school senior made a senior national AAU team.

Can any old geezers confirm this?

Can Tracy Smith himself or anyone else (namely Gerry Lindgren) confirm his being barred from 1969 AAU tour of Europe for refusal to race pointless meet in Hawaii prior to tour of Europe.

So you explain how else Prefontaine made his first US national team (1969) based on results posted above.

I lost my copy of Tom Jordan's book about Pre, but if I remember correctly, his AAU season and Tracy Smith are discussed

notfromhere wrote:

Can Tracy Smith himself or anyone else (namely Gerry Lindgren) confirm his being barred from 1969 AAU tour of Europe for refusal to race pointless meet in Hawaii prior to tour of Europe.

So you explain how else Prefontaine made his first US national team (1969) based on results posted above.

Tom Jordan's excellent biography, "Pre," states that Prefontaine, having finished 4th in the AAU Championships, was told that he would be on the US national team in the US-USSR-Commonwealth meet in Los Angeles in mid-July 1969, because Smith had chosen to instead run in the Military Championships in France.

Then, 2 days before the race in the L.A. meet, Prefontaine was told that Smith had changed his mind and would run there after all. Prefontaine was reported to be unhappy about this. But the next day, he was told that Smith had withdrawn due to illness, so Pre got to represent the USA anyway and finished 5th. This was his first national team.

Prefontaine then went to Europe that summer of 1969 for 3 meets as a USA team member (v. Europe, v. West Germany, v. Great Britain). I have no information on whether or not Smith was barred from the AAU tour.

fellow alumni wrote:

thanks for the info guys!

I think he was a LA city cop for awhile.

Or did I mistake him for Martin Milner in Adam-12?

The commentator on the video (Adrian Metcalfe, maybe?) used to describe certain runners as "a very DANGEROUS competitor, indeed" or something like that. I loved it when he would say that!

Also loved the format (CBS Sports Spectacular maybe?) where some of the top competitors would introduce themselves in the beginning of the show ("Hi, my name is Warren Edmonson and I'm running the 200m") followed by a video montage (maybe slow motion or stop action in time with the music) accompanied by "She Has Funny Cars" by Jefferson Airplane. Just that drum intro was enough to put my pulse rate into the sky!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a6JQj7WiJ3M

Thanks to whoever told me what the source of the music was (Track and Field News message board, maybe?) as I associated the music with the track broadcast only.

SlowFatMaster wrote:

The commentator on the video (Adrian Metcalfe, maybe?) used to describe certain runners as "a very DANGEROUS competitor, indeed" or something like that. I loved it when he would say that!

Also loved the format (CBS Sports Spectacular maybe?) where some of the top competitors would introduce themselves in the beginning of the show ("Hi, my name is Warren Edmonson and I'm running the 200m") followed by a video montage (maybe slow motion or stop action in time with the music) accompanied by "She Has Funny Cars" by Jefferson Airplane. Just that drum intro was enough to put my pulse rate into the sky!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a6JQj7WiJ3M

Thanks to whoever told me what the source of the music was (Track and Field News message board, maybe?) as I associated the music with the track broadcast only.

Watched those religiously as that was the only track on tv or anywhere back then. The bungling announcers were cringe-worthy due to their lack of knowledge (the lead guy was the networks horse race specialist, so a natural pick for track by CBS???), all except for former long jumper Ralph Boston (field events announcer), who was completely unintelligible.

Don't think the question of Smith's indoor 3mi record time is ever answered although it is in the video posted about 5 years ago.

I was at the meet and he ran 13:07.2

About a month ago, I Googled my old high school track coach Tracy Smith (Bishop Union High, Class of '78), and was disappointed when I came across his Wikipedia page that ran all of about half a dozen sentences -- wholly inadequate for the No. 1 American distance runner in the mid-'60s to early '70s, '68 Olympian and three-time world record holder in the indoor 3-mile. So I went on a jag and did a ton of research to do justice to his running career. It was quite an undertaking. Unlike a sport like baseball, the sport of track doesn't have a central database of every runner's statistics. It was a painful, tedious process tracking everything down. But in the end, it turned out great, I think. My old coach liked it. Now I just need to round up some photos. There were a bunch of Tracy leading Steve Prefontaine, but they had copyrights and couldn't be used on Wikipedia. If anyone can get their hands on some copyright-free pics of Tracy Smith in action, let me know. Also, Tracy told me about a meet he ran in Adelaide, Australia -- maybe the Adelaide Track Classic -- in 1968 prior to the '68 Games. He said it was one of his best all-time races in which he beat the great Ron Clarke and turned in a PR of 7:55 in the 3,000m. I'm trying to find the official race results of that meet so I can reference it in the Wikipedia page. If anyone can track that down, too, that'd be great. Enjoy.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tracy_Smith_(runner)

notfromhere wrote:

Soft Machine wrote:

Interesting story, if true, considering Pre's head-butting with the AAU in later years.

Can Tracy Smith himself or anyone else (namely Gerry Lindgren) confirm his being barred from 1969 AAU tour of Europe for refusal to race pointless meet in Hawaii prior to tour of Europe.

So you explain how else Prefontaine made his first US national team (1969) based on results posted above.

Can confirm everything Harry Wales says is true. Here is the offending 2 mile race that got Tracy Smith banned from 1969 AAU tour of Europe.

Marty Liquori ran 9:00 flat. As others have said, Pre owed Tracy Smith a huge debt of gratitude.

The Hawaii meet was mandatory for those wanting to compete for USA in Europe. You think this is unusual behavior for AAU? Tracy was going to be away from his family for a month in Europe, and didn't want to be away from them any longer, which is why he balked on pointless Hawaii.

Back in the day it was your wife or AAU - you couldn't have both.

fethi wrote:

notfromhere wrote:

Can Tracy Smith himself or anyone else (namely Gerry Lindgren) confirm his being barred from 1969 AAU tour of Europe for refusal to race pointless meet in Hawaii prior to tour of Europe.

So you explain how else Prefontaine made his first US national team (1969) based on results posted above.

Can confirm everything Harry Wales says is true. Here is the offending 2 mile race that got Tracy Smith banned from 1969 AAU tour of Europe.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=csZGZZMLkOc

Marty Liquori ran 9:00 flat. As others have said, Pre owed Tracy Smith a huge debt of gratitude.

Everybody talks about Gerry Lindgren's 200 mile weeks, but no one mentions his superb running form.