a little history, a
little humor
What
if you only had ONE choice for quality track shoes? ...
“In
the early spring of 1966 (era of heavy, ugly American spikes and names like
Nike, Reebok, Mizuno were not yet on the scene), when the only Adidas outlet west of the Mississippi
was in North Hollywood, I ordered, from Germany via the North
Hollywood store-Clifford Severn Sporting Goods, size 15 spikes (yes, 15!) for Jim Adkins, a promising young Palomar College
miler. Two months later, in a square
box, the valued shoes arrived. Adkins ended up a two-time So
Cal runner-up and second, fourth place finishes in the state JC meet mile.
“Lee Evans, San Jose
State teammate, future
Olympic champion, world record –holder, befriended Adkins
and placed the moniker “paddle foot” on his teammate.”
- Larry Knuth, Palomar College head track & field and cross country
coach, 1966 -67
Aisha Harrison
Wasco HS/ Bakersfield CC/ Nebraska
So Cal
Finals: 47-pts., State: 39-pts., BC team title
She set five BC records, two-time NCAA
All-American
Wasco
HS: Harrison set school LJ and
100-meter hurdle records.
Bakersfield: As a sophomore Harrison
led BC to the '97 Metro title with a
seven event scoring bonanza: 1st-100, 3rd –200, 2nd-100 hurdles,
1st-long jump, 1st-triple jump, and ran on both winning relays. BC scored 240
points to second place Santa Barbara’s
91.
1997 So Cal: Harrison won the So Cal
heptathlon-4332 points, and went on to score a total of 47 points for BC in the
meet: 100-3rd, 200-6th, 100-hurdles-2nd, long jump-1st, triple
jump-1st, and both relays she ran on qualified for state. BC lost the team
title by four points to El Camino.
1997 State:
Harrison scored 33 points to lead BC to a one-point win,
82-81, over El Camino. She scored personal bests with wins in
the long jump-19-8, triple jump-39-0 ¼”, second in the 100-11.97, fourth in the
100-hurdles-14.42, and both relays finished in sixth place.
Pam Kelley was Harrison’s coach at BC.
Nebraska: Two-time NCAA All-American, one
indoors, one outdoors. Harrison claims the highlight of her Nebraska years was
competing in the famed Penn Relays in Philadelphia. She long jumped 20-5 for third,
placed fourth in the triple jump, and helped her 4x1 relay to third place.
-Research by Bob Covey, BC's head track and cross country coach, 1963-2005
Kirk Pfeffer…a
special talent from the 70's
Grossmont CC
first state 10k champ set still
standing USA
records
Pfeffer’s 10,000-meters American community college
record set in the 1976 Mt. SAC Relays
is a still standing mark…He won the first state meet 10,000
title with a 29:48.8 time that held up until 1992-16 years. He still holds the American community college 10k
record of 29:03. Bob -Larsen was Pfeffer's
Grossmont coach.
Pfeffer set and still holds USA road racing records-
at age 18 he ran a still standing American record at the Mission Bay Marathon
–2:17.44 (1/11/75) …at age 24 he set a still-standing 2:10:29 in Japan’s
prestigious Fukuoka Marathon (12/17/80) …and, at age 25 he set a still-standing
half-marathon in 1:02.14 (1981).
USA marathon rankings: 10th in ’75;
8th in ’76; 2nd in ’79.