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Wykoff Celebrates Anniversary
Of Great Upset Win Over Paddock
By Maxwell Stiles
Staff Sports Writer - Los Angeles Examiner
Thirty years ago next Monday (June 16, 1928) a 148-pould
athlete wearing on his boyish breast a huge block letter "G" of
Glendale High burst upon the sports scene by upsetting Charles W.
Paddock at the Coliseum in the Southwest Olympic Trials.
Wykoff beat
Paddock at 100 meters in 10.6 seconds and at 200 meters in 20.8,
after which Frankie went on to win the final team trials at Boston in
the 100. Paddock made No. 2 man in the 200, behind Charlie Borah
and ahead of Jackson V. Scholz and Roland A. Locke.
DIRECTS 10 SCHOOLS
Today, 30 years later, a 148 pound man serves under County
Superintendent, Dr. C. C. Trillingham, as director of special schools
in charge of budget and the educational program of 15,000
youngsters who are wards of the court and who are in custody of the
probation department.
The educator, who has 10 schools under his direct supervision,
is named Frank Wykoff. He hasn't gained a pound over that day in
1928 when he conquered Paddock in the Fastest Human's first defeat on
a Southern California track since 1916.
Wykoff looks much the same as he did then, as you may see by
comparing photo of the finish of that 1928 100 meters with a picture
taken of Wykoff last week on Cromwell Field.
Wykoff and Paddock are the only American sprinters to make three
Olympic teams; Paddock in 1920-24-28, Wykoff the
100 and relay in 1928,
the
relay alone in 1932,
and the 100 and
relay in
1936.
Wykoff was the first man to get official credit for
9.4s 100
(yard
dash), which he achieved
twice in 1930, but he was not the first to do it. Bernie
Wefers Sr. was timed in 9 2-5 before the turn of the century,
but the time was not allowed.
George Simpson did it in
1929, but it was not allowed because Simpson used starting blocks.
Wykoff made his 9.4 from holes dug into the track (without
starting blocks).
CLOCKED IN 9.3
Wykoff was, however,
first to run 9.3 -- but didn't get credit. "Those coaches showed 9.3 the day I ran the best race of my
life," Frank told me. "This was a
Lincoln, Neb. in the AAU of 1931.
Roland Locke came down out of the
stands and shoed me his watch. It read 9.3.
Dean
Cromwell's watch showed 9.3. The watches of the timers read 9.3.
"But the regular official timers, held up at the gate, were late
in arriving and did not time this race. Alternate timers were
used and their recordings were changed to read 9.5, for what reason I
never was able to determine."
________
. . . I asked Wykoff why, in his opinion, the 100-yard record
has gone down only one-tenth of a second in 30 years.
Wykoff,
"I think it was because we were
concentrating on the
sprints in this country as long as 50 years ago and we hit close
to the ultimate-- (?) than was the case in the mile, pole vault, and
other events."
FRANK'S TOP FOES
I asked Frank to rate the best men he ever met, and he did so as
follows:
100 yards --
1. Jesse Owens; 2.
Ralph Metcalfe; 3.
Percy Williams; 4.
Eddie Tolan; 5.
George Simpson; 6.
Charlie Paddock; 7.
Emmett Toppino.
220 yards --
1. Eddie Tolan; 2. Charlie Paddock(1920-1929); 3.
Charley Borah; 4.
Hector Dyer; 5. Percy
Williams (1928) (He says as best as he can recall he never met Owens,
Metcalfe, or Simpson in a 220).
He thinks the best 100 (yard) men he ever saw were, in order, Jesse
Owens(1936), Bobby Morrow
(1957), Mel Patton, Jim Golliday
(1955),, and Ralph
Metcalfe (1931-1936). In the 220 he names Dave Sime,
Mel Patton(1947), Hal Davis,
Bobby Morrow, and Ralph Metcalfe in that order except on a turn, where
his choices are Bobby Morrow, Jesse Owens, Mel Patton, Hal Davis(1942), and
Ralph Metcalfe. |
