Other Sports

Russett Track Team
by Eugene Henry

I don't know if very many remember the Russett High School track team in the spring of 1947. Well, it was in the early spring of 1948 and Mannsville was having a track meet and was getting all of the schools in the area to participate in it. Mannsville, Russett, Ravia, Nida, Pontotoc, Bromide, and other schools that we played basketball with.

Mr. Murk got us all in the gym and asked us if we wanted to compete in the track meet at Mannsville. Of course we were all for it as this would give us another game to play.

Mr. Murk took us out to the baseball field and started off asking who wanted to run in the different races, the hundred yard dash and so on.

He would line five of us up for a 100 yard dash to find out who was the fastest. He would run several of us in five's and then the winners of that would compete with each other until he wound up with two or three of the fastest. They would then represent us in that race.

This went on in all of the events that were in the track meet. We all worked out very hard to prepare us for the meet the following week. I was pretty fast and for the speed, I was in the top five.

I was put in for a distance runner. Every day for the week we all worked out very hard. Well, do you know what happens when you have not conditioned yourself for these event over a period of time to work out all the kinks in your legs and wind? Well, I found out on track meet day.

When the event I was to run in started, we all lined up on the starting line on the track. When the starting shot rang out we all began to race. Well when I was running my muscles in my thighs and calves were so sore and stiff that it was so hard to lift one leg after the other. I was running as hard as I could and was getting further and further behind dragging up the rear so that you would almost have to have a pair of field glasses to find me. I felt like the tortoise and the rabbit and me being the tortoise.

When I finally got to the end of the race, Murk looked at me and smiled and didn't say anything. I know he knew what was happening.

I don't remember any of us placing in the track meet. Maybe some of those that competed will remember. I am not sure that Russett ever had a track team. I know that we didn't in 1948.