Since retiring as Deputy Superintendent in Rochester, I have worked with troubled youngsters at Team for Justice, PEACE-for-Youth, Detroit SNAP, Trombly Adult High School, Wolverine Human Services, and Finney High. Although I’ve managed to turn many in a righteous direction, I find occasional respite from my stressful mission by interacting with kids already headed that way. I was privileged to encounter several at the recent Detroit Track Old-Timers Dinner at sold-out Barth Hall. Being an old quarter-miler, I was happy to present a plaque to Kyle Wilson, who ran a record 47.9 in the 400 meters for East Detroit High at the state meet. Wilson will attend MCCC on an athletic grant-in-aid and then, hopefully, transfer to WSU and break my 1957 school record of 46.5 when WSU reinstates its vaunted track program.
Other stars we would love to see run for WSU include Mumford’s PSL 3200-meter champion Shanique Maddox, Mumford’s state 100 and 200 champion Shayla Mahan, state 800 champion Isaiah Ward, Renaissance’s Division II 800 and 1600-meter champion Ramzee Fondren and Renaissance’s 200-meter champion Ashlee Abraham. All were honored at the dinner (Ward in absentia). Ed Kozloff of the Motor City Striders presented the Jim and Julia Ramsey Scholarship to Maddox and Emory Moore of Cass. Jim Ramsey set a U.S. marathon record in the 90-and-above age group.
Additional honorees included Mumford’s 1984 Olympic hurdler Kim Turner (in absentia); Leonard Alkon, age 85, Northern’s record-breaking sprinter of the early 1940s; longtime coach Kermit Ambrose, age 97; and old City College of Detroit’s stellar high-jumper Al Silber, age 95, who got a legislative citation from Marian McClellan standing in for Rep. Andy Meisner.
Attending luminaries included former boxing commissioner Stuart Kirschenbaum, Michigan Chronicle Managing Editor Terry Cabell, Mike “Tiger” Price of the Mayor’s office, ex-Globetrotter Ernie Wagner, Northwestern’s old PSL cross-country stars Alfred “Mouse” Williams, Ron Turner, Stan Fields and Dick Brown, historian Bill Hoover, PSL boosters Mitchell Aclise and Norman Thomas, old Miller half-miler Tom Sledge, noted track author Keith McClellan, long-time Pershing coach and DTOT president Al Tellis, Team Michigan Athletic Clubs director Baxter Jones, and Bob Holmes, son of the late Pershing coach Carl Holmes and nephew of legendary WSU coach David L. Holmes.
Also attending were Pershing’s old PSL champion hurdling brothers Orlin and Paul Jones, Reverends David Badger and Arkles Brooks, Team for Justice attorney Robert Plumpe, and George Gaines, the Mental Health director for Coleman Young. So were Mumford principal Linda Spight and retired principal Irving “Pete” Petross, who with Jim Bibbs, the late Billy Smith and I ran on the Detroit Track Club’s sprint relay team, which was fastest in the U.S.
Central principal Anthony Womack announced that the Trailblazer track is to be named for Cliff Hatcher, the great Central and WSU quarter-miler. County Commissioner Keith Williams spoke for a PSL Hall of Fame, the restoration of WSU track, and the construction of an indoor track in the city. It appears that Detroit and WSU track are destined to dominate again.
Dr. John Telford was an NCAA All-American quarter-miler at WSU. The Finney track is named for him. Write him at john.telford@detroitk12.org.
