continued from page training facility, ….

continued from page

training facility, but you are also enveloped in the most uplifting outdoor atmosphere. Run with the wind, listen to the birds’ chirrup, no smokestacks within 50 miles—this facility is first class and emotionally uplifting in every respect.

It was good to see that the name of the old track for Spec Towns, Georgia’s 1936 Olympic High Hurdles champion, carries forward with the new track.

His story will never not resonate. He was born with the perfect physical makeup for the high hurdles. An Augusta sportswriter lived next door to the Towns family and looked out a window at his home one day where he saw Spec’s father and an uncle with a fishing pole resting on the top of their heads. The younger Towns soon leaped over the pole which prompted the sportswriter to call the University of Georgia and informed them they should call on this young athlete post haste.

He was recruited to play football and distinguished himself at this rugged sport because his speed made him a valuable player for the defense. He didn’t worry about getting hurt or finding a negative to carp about—he was getting a free education to play a sport.

However, Weems Baskin, the track coach knew how great a talent Towns was. He had form, speed and intense competitive fire. Spec never lost in a dual meet because he was just too good. He was a fierce competitor who practiced with the greatest diligence. He became expert by placing a book of matches upright on the hurdles and learned to knock over the matches without ever hitting the hurdle.

In his day the high hurdles were substantial. You hit one and you likely crashed into the cinder track which was standard. What followed was weeping, wailing and gnashing of teeth.

Those hurdles were referred to as “T” hurdles which is what they looked like when they were inverted. In the fifties, technology brought about the “L” shaped aluminum hurdles. Coach Baskin once said that if Spec had competed on the “L” shaped aluminum hurdle “that he would have set records that never would have been broken.”

The first man to run the 110-yard-high hurdles in less than 14 seconds, Towns, following World War II, became Georgia’s track coach until retirement.

His time of :3.7 took place in Oslo, Norway after the Olympics. The official timers could not believe their stopwatches.