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Lead Stories: Sunday, September 7, 2008

TFS News Briefs: 12/01/07

Posted December 1st, 2007 at 1:30 PM by J. R. Markham

Section: News & Results, Track & Field, Olympics, TFS News Briefs, Trail / Ultra

Bean Counters Threaten To Close Ottawa’s Only Track
Looking for a potential savings of $125,000, beaureaucrats in Ottawa, Canada’s capital city, are threatening to close down the Terry Fox Athletic Facility, the only track in Ottawa. The facility is named after Terry Fox, the Canadian runner who – despite having one leg amputated because of cancer – ran across Canada to raise money and awareness for cancer research. Read more at: [Ottawa Citizen][Wikipedia]

College To Honor Larry James, ‘68 U.S. Olympian
Larry James, part of the gold-medal-winning 4×400m relay team at the 1968 Olympic Games in Mexico City, will be honored by the Richard Stockton College of New Jersey. James has worked at the college as a track coach, athletic director and finally as Dean of Athletics. James, an African-American, came out publicly against the infamous protests at the games by other black athletes. Read more at: [The Star-Ledger - NJ.com, NJ]

Evel Knievel Was A Track Athlete
You might not have known this, but Evel Knievel, who died yesterday at the age of 69, was an outstanding track & field athlete. The death-defying daredevil, an exceptional athlete who played hockey and ski jumped, was also a pole-vaulter on the Army track team. Read more at: [NY Times][Wikipedia]
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USA’s Rupp wins Zatopek Classic 10,000m despite rain

Posted December 16th, 2006 at 4:47 PM by Adam Jacobs

Section: News & Results, Track & Field

The Telstra Zatopek Classic’s 10,000m event in Melbourne, Australia has featured victories by legends like Ron Clarke and Craig Mottram. This year, it was won by two international stars: American Galen Rupp, the 20-yr old standout from the University of Oregon, and New Zealand’s Jessica Ruthe (33:04.52).

Rupp had hoped to run the event in under 28 minutes, but rain and a conservative start by the race field made that impossible. However, he still secured the victory with a very respectable time of 28:28.18.
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BILLY MILLS
The Olympic Legend

Posted December 14th, 2006 at 9:19 AM by Jenna Sumara

Section: News & Results, Motivation, Columns, Olympics, SPOTLIGHT

This is part two of the 5-part series: “BILLY MILLS: Overlooked Hero of Running” (Links to the other installments in this series are located at the conclusion of this article).

Billy Mills was born in Pine Ridge, South Dakota on June 30, 1938 in the Oglala Sioux Indian reservation. Billy’s Lakota name is Makata Taka Hela meaning “love your country” or more traditionally translated, “respects the earth”.

After losing his parents when he was only 12-yrs old, Mills became involved with running at the Haskell Institute; an Indian school located in Lawrence, Kansas. In the late 1950’s, Mills attended the University of Kansas on an athletic scholarship.

At Kansas his hard work and natural abilities on the track continued to flourish. In 1958 and 1959 he was All-American in cross country. In the 1960 Big Eight Conference, Mills won an individual title in cross country. The following year, Mills again became the conference champion in the two mile race; coming in with a time of a little over nine minutes.
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