Whatever happened to BRUCE KIDD, Canadian Phenom in the early '60s? A pre-PRE!?

Orville Atkins wrote:

Steve,

Jerome Drayton ran for the Toronto Olympic Club. That great club was formed in the 1950s with one of the founders being runner Paul Poce. Paul is still the Head Coach. The TOC has had a great many Canadian Champions and Internationalists. Along with his many other successes, Drayton won Boston (1977), was 6th in the '76 Olympics and won Fukuoka in 1975. I believe that his Fukuoka time of 2:10.09 is the current Canadian Record for the marathon. Maybe somone from the Toronto Olympic Club will come on this thread and answer your question more fully.

Hey Orville, I don't know if you met him, but Tom Howard lives in my town. We see each other often.

Orville Atkins wrote:

David Bailey ran for the Toronto Olympic Club at the end of his running clareer. I new Cedric Wedemire but I do not believe he ever ran with East York. Please give him my regards. Cedric ran for the Toronto Olympic Club, a great distance club. They were our big rivals. In my day, their Coach and founder Paul Poce often competed with us too. The TOC had many great runners for many decades. We need to find a good researcher/writer to write a book about Coach Foot and the East York Track Club and another to do the same about Coach Poce and the TOC.

Gee Orville...any ideas on who can write this history? :)

(meant to say) never knew him personally, a short meeting with J.D. following Boston 1981, were all knackered like never before...always was a fan of J. Drayton, the way he would train solo & race like a maniac...sure he dropped out of a lot of races...butthey if he was as temperamental like I was, who's surprised?

Skuj, ..a question..get my email

Coach Fred Foot became a volunteer track and field coach shortly after World War Two and coached for nearly 60 years. He also coached at the University of Toronto for 15 of those years, retired and then went back for more. He was always there when we needed him and only asked that we work hard and do our best.

As I stated earlier, Fred had at least one athlete on Canada's Olympic team for ten consecutive years. He also had athletes make countless Commonwealth, PanAmerican and World University Games Team and win countless Canadian Championships. He was the only Track and Field coach for the 1956 Olympic Games and the 1962 Commonwealth Games teams. The whole Canadian sprint relay team at the '56 Olympics came from the East York Track Club.

I understand that when Fred returned from the '56 Olympics he had information about what other countries were doing and about interval training. He began to stress the middle distances as well as the sprints. Fred's athletes won medals at the Olympics, Commonwealth Games and other international events. He taught us to fear no one and his relay teams won events at the American Relay Championships as well as those of Canada. In 1965, Fred's University of Toronto Cross Country Team won the CIAU (Championship) Cross Country Championship with a perfect score. All seven of his runners finished before the first man from another team.

He drove us to meets, used his own money for expenses and blew out the engine in his car dragging the dirt track at East York Collegiate.

He was there to coach us six days a week rain or shine. The success of the members of the East York Track Club came from Freds hard work and experience. He received no monitary reward but it was all great fun for all of us!

Ab Morton does a bit of walking nowadays to keep fit. He and his wife recently moved from their apartment into a senior's residence for the usual reasons that 90 year olds would have. A very sweet couple they are. Ab always supports our local races, financially, and by his attendance. He has a great collection of awards from his glory days and loves to talk about those days.

Jerome Drayton would often include his exact time for his best marathon when signing autographs. Once at a government sponsored sports awards night, everyone seemed to be flocking to the pro sports stars for autographs, so I wandered up to Jerome and got him to sign my program, since nobody else was asking him. He wrote his name, and 2:10:08.34, which rounds up, of course, to 2:10:09.

Bruce and I met eight times in the 64 indoor season and we each won four. Only a half a step separated us in all the races. It came down to who got the jump on the other so in each race the sprint started at a different place. It was fun. Neither of us ran to our potential during that winter. I think we were having too much fun running tactical races and no one could challenge us. Both of us beat Ron Clarke.

In Tokyo I went to the warm-up track to prepare for my trial and Bruce was there. I asked him how he was doing and he told me he had been having trouble with his achilles. He ran the trial I believe but because of the lack of training he didn't do well. I remember he looked as if he hadn't shaved in days and he was wearing an old sweat suit.

Outdoors the only time we raced was at Compton. In my autobiography I tell that story and Bruce and Gerry led most of the race.I didn't take the lead until three laps from the end. Both were very talented.

It is my understanding Bruce had both achilles lengthened with an operation. That was in May or June of 1965. He was a toe runner because of his short achilles. Yes, he was quick.

Gerry Lindgren ran 13:44.0 soon after turning 18 at Compton 1964, while Bruce Kidd ran 13:43.8 shortly before turning 19 at Compton in 1961. So, Bruce's time would have been run his freshman year in college in equivalent years, while Gerry was a year younger. So yes, Gerry missed the WJR but secured the World High School Record. But Gerry basically beat Kidd's WJR the next year when he ran 13:04.0 for 3-miles in London, which converts to 13:32.0

Lindgren has told me the story of his 13:44 at Compton 1964. He says he had no idea he was running so fast, it being his first 5000m, because he spent the entire race fighting with Bruce Kidd for the lead. Kidd had a race plan and Gerry kept interrupting it by stealing the lead and messing with Kidd's pace. Remember Kidd was pretty confident as he still had the Compton Invite Record at the time and wasn't used to any Americans challenging him, and Kidd surely didn't think an unknown high-schooler was up to the task, as prior to this season the best US high schooler ever was over 30 seconds slower than Kidd's best high school 2-mile. Pretty crazy if you think about it. But anyways, Kidd kept throwing elbows at Gerry and raced very aggressively knocking Gerry around quite a bit. In the end, Kidd ran out of gas frustrated and finished well back of Lindgren and of course the fast sprinting Bob Schul. The first four finishers, including Lindgren, all beat the previous American 5000 Record.

Thanks for the great posts Bob and yesstiles. That is pretty much how I remember it too. Bruce did have injury problems in 1964. Bob, in Tokyo, Bruce ran in the Billy Mills 10k which was on the first day of Track and Field, October 14th. There were 38 starters. In the neat movie "Tokyo Olympiad" Bruce can be seen in an outside lane as he is being lapped. Then, on October 16, Bruce ran the first heat of the 5K. I believe that there were eleven in that heat. I wrote in my program that he was "6, 7 or 8".

In 1962, The National Film Board of Canada brought out an 11 minute and 43 second movie called "Runner" featuring Bruce Kidd with Fred Foot and other members of the East York Track Club as the supporting cast. That small artistic movie showed Bruce and the Club training and ends with portions of a 2 mile race held at the East York Collegiate cinder track. Among the competitors were Bruce, Laszlo Tabori, Max Truex and Ron Wallingford. I believe that the short movie "Runner" is still available on DVD on the National Film Boards web site or by calling 1-800-267-7710. The cost is $14.95 in Canada or $19.95 in the US. The promo on the web site has 4 pictures showing Bruce. One is of a few of the other members of The East York Track Club jogging.

I was always intrigued by Jerome Drayton's talent and longevity. He seemed to be a no-nonsense sort of guy; just got the job done!! It's interesting to see Drayton's name "way" back in the mid-60s in T & F News (2M and 3M), with very good times and see him running in the late-70s, with fantastic times and wins in races like Fukuoka, Boston, Springbank......Even in '76, he ran well at Montreal for 6th. Don't know if he was pleased with that, but I think most of us would be!!! What does Drayton do now, career-wise, and is he still running at any kind of level? A very remarkable athlete indeed!

Steve Hoag wrote:

What does Drayton do now, career-wise, and is he still running at any kind of level?

Recently retired from a high level Ontario civil service position. Not really able to run. Knees I think it was.

How's his pool game holding up?

Drayton is now retired from a provincial sports administration job here in Ontario. I believe he either lives with, or routinely looks after his mother in Toronto. No more running, but what memories he must have. I have a great photo of him at the Springbank Road Race in 1975, right on Shorter's shoulder. That was the year he out-sprinted Frank over the last mile of the '12'. Once, in the early 70's, I was leaving an all-comers indoor meet in Toronto and Jerome was racing a 3 miler. He looked particularly smooth and fast that day (running solo) and I couldn't tear myself away before seeing the finish. As soon as he won, I had to leave with my ride. The following morning I read in the sports section that he had run something like 13:07 and it was just seconds off the world record.

georun, interesting about his autograph, putting 2:10:08:34! Sounds like Drayton, very precise, and what the heck, it is :26 of a second !!! I was at Springbank that year (1975), behind by over a minute, so I couldn't see a fantastic race between 2 running legends. Springbank '12' was a great race, also the '4'.....do they still hold it? I haven't heard anything about it, so I assume it is defunct. Some of the best fields assembled there in London, ONT.

Springbank is just a shadow of what it used to be, but it is still held every September. It is a half marathon now, and there might be a 5 km as well. What great memories we have of it's glory days! Olympic quality fields and fast racing. I remember when Miruts Yifter showed up, to the surprise of the organizers. Occaisionally, I browse through my old Springbank programs to reminise and see how fast I ran while finishing 20th or 30th.

Steve, I don't believe they run Springbank any more. Working from memory...it made it into the early 80's before ending. Then it was resurected a few years before being abandoned again. Sad. It went under due to the weight of all the other races that've come along in the past 25 years. It may rate as the best showcase of talent in N America at the time and a format way ahead of its time.

I ran the '12' in just under an hour in about '78 and the '4' in about 21 the next year. The 12 was really about 11 1/2m and the 4 about 4 1/4m. When it was brought back, or maybe even before it went under the first time, the distances were converted to meters...5, 10 & 20.

I've enjoyed all the flashbacks on this thread. Can anybody place Dave Ellis in the pic somewhere?

I see that my words of Springbank's doom were, um, premature. Happy to be wrong! Beautiful venue along the Thames & city.

I ran Springbank in either 1977 or 1976. I think it may have been my all time favorite road race and I always planned to go back and do it again. But I dawdled and it vanished.

It's interesting to note that most of Canada's greatest distance runner's were in the 1960's and 1970's before Tim Hortons totally took over the country.