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8Amarillo Daily Now* Tuesday Morning, May 9. 1961ifimiiH£=Laz b u (i diePanhandleTrack 11 is! oryBv JIM SIMSDe-iy Nr^'S Sp^-^s v*y VffDOUBT WAS CAST on the old adage about75 students strong, created Panhandle sports history by bringing the Panhandle to bring back a state titie. Its a big i.the Texas Panhandle its first track championship last Saturday, that dream come true THE LONGHORNS OF COACH Bobby Crooks, a former track A qi aRTET OF SPEED MERCHANTS, Freddie Savage, R. L.star at SMU, compiled 40 points to win the state Class B crown with porter gill Hardage and Odis Bradshaw, brought Lazbuddie all10.4.MPorter's athletic career was threatened last summer when he sustained a cracked elbow. Describing the mishap, he said, 1 was. - • .v • , v' 1 .. . ' •; -H ' ... .• . .■ ’ tit. •* A_ _ ’ star at EMI. compiled 4« points to win xne state v tass d nwn «•»«» porter. BUS naroage ana ucus m»nlt;t«, * _ . . the switch to letcounting more than quantity, the little farm community of Lai- a four man point-making crew. Lueders was second. 10 points back i}s points. The foursome took the 44ft yard relay title in^T5 aru ro)e3t^ it* ujfh mv hanH anH the M fell on myLonghornsbuddie just removed it, cLazbuddie is undoubtedly one of the hardest places to locate in ------- — - — - .the area and the finder’s not sure of whal he’s found once he gets 0f success during his track career, said “Ithere Surrounded by plowed fields, the small Panhandle town lies 440 m state as a junior would always be my bc^ot, «»«*.22 miles east of Farwell in Parmer County. It boasts a population last Saturday, 1 11 have to admit i was wrong.” of 100 and has a city limits which measure a mile long and a block * i’ve always had two boyhood dreams.” Crooks continued. One , ** ‘ ’ was to te football coach at Memphis and win the district title. ThatL 2_____ „V,» liira Kut T .a; hud die High School, some one is done But my other one was to be the first track coach in ^...... _ ______ record with 3.24.7 in the mile relay but finished the bed down. 1 releasedCrookthought winning the teams had beaten the txmghorn★ ★ ★* * *★ ★ ★★ ★ ★. -t . .cuius fgjpu viiv, Asked whether he thought he would miss football. Porter said.fl.ua n«u n r^fhv-1 a! lt;mard took '*1 was afraid I would but 1 knew I was mm to play if I had to,„Xuc Brrn« na. 2* ■lt; - - - % r - «*» •«« * - «*» -tmlh5 of . viewer *•» r,«o, t-me 49.8. !■TSfthe enU„ ««ASKED HOW THE TEAM FEL1 AT THE MEET, ’-a,na«.re- ^ wgs jjstecj m (he class B all-regional second team. nHfw-i Wa were al! nrcttv nervous in Uic preliminaries, VVe wereso semi that « UM' third m our heat m the sprint (440 yard PORTER IS THE ONI.V MEMBER of the not .^restedrelay Friday. We felt a lot better Saturday. We were lined up sixth in a football or track- coHese scholarshtp. i want to be a .letin staggered position in the finals and led most of the way.A group of 25 I.azbuddie enthusiasts followed their team to Austin. Bradshaw said. “They followed us everywhere and made us want to win a little more ”Lazbuddies biggest disappointment was in the finals of the 120-yard high hurdles, Jimmy Seaton, a junior, was battling for the lead when he tripped and fell on his last hurdle,“Seaton had moved up from fourth to second place and wasmoving up on the leader,” Crooks said.PORTER CHIPPED IN. “THE AUSTIN PAPER said he had sec-w-ranped up, I think he would have won itand go to a training school” he said. “I’ve flown a lot but I’ve never ridden in a jet Crooks reported that Texas Tech and SMU had shown interest in the Lazbuddie tracksters. Crooks, an SMU graduate, was asked if he was responsible for SMU’s interest.Cracking a grin, he admitted, “A little bit. McAdoo Keaton, the SMU track coach, talked with me about a couple of the boys.”Crooks won the state 440 as a junior at Memphis with 0:51 ft in 1949 and finished second in state the next season. He anchored SMU’s Southwest Conference winning mile relay team as a junior in 1953. Running with three sophomores in 1954, he was a member. - — • 4 H ... JL Aona piace wrappeo up. i innih ne wvuju n - • eh•The hoys’ attitude was real fine,” Crooks added, “When I picked of the mne relay team which repeated as champions and shattered Seaton up'after he hit that hurdle. I told him ’That's okay. Jimmy the conference record.v™, h-v P another vear *n COACHING THREE YEARS AT A Shamrock grade school, he“Seaton told me! T don’t care about next year, I didn't want to just completed his third year of coaching. . Uer ^n the d‘st^hurt the team’s chances for the title.* ” Crooks added with a chuckle, when most of this group was sophomore^ The n^He asked me if he could borrow ten dollars. He wanted to buy district and regional and this year we took all three Lazbuddiewon regional by a 82-39 margin over Rule.As for Lazbuddie’s fans. Crooks said, “Everybody was up in thethat hurdle, take it home and burn it.”Lazbuddie made the finals in every event entered at the stateMr. • I » * ft 1 1 # * f' i I— _ ft t .Ud^OUOOlC mnuc UlV liaais m rvri. uvruv . A u ___meet. Bradshaw qualified for the finals of the 220 and expressed sn about the team. } tup.e. .own ielt;e .or. . *- * . lt;:__,t.-4 4^11 u oi'rt U fPCD \ Pnhis disappointment when coach Crooks scratched him to save him for the relays.SAVAGE. ASKED WHETHER HE THOUGHT any of the relays. a at -ate AaboutPilot 0wav aroundpression but you could tell they were pleased. We received severaltelegrams and were very pleased with them Me even got one from Bob Frost of Happy, one of the teams in our district, wishing usgood luck That sure made us feel good,Lazbuddie concluded a successful snorts season by winning threnof four conference crowns The longhorns wmn the football till#Champions and Their Hardl azbuddie track coach Bob Crooks, left, posed vith his Class B state track champions ^lund an impressive arrav ot trophies and plaques non by the team in the past two seasons. Standing nest to Brooks, left to right, are Freddie Savage. Odis Bradshaw. Bill Hardage and R. L. Porter. The foursome won the state 440 yardrelav, finished second in the mile relay while Hardage was fourth in the 44) ard run. | —-------------ay aruunii —^ ?Savage had posted a 9.8 in the 100-yard dash this year but failed with a 7-2 record and won the district baseball crown last weekto qualify for state. Explaining why. Porter said, “Freddie won by beating Nazareth. Lazbuddie won the round-robtn in asset^a.lthe preliminaries in 10.3. But in the finals, the starting block slipped but lost to Bovina in the playoffs.Jensen ReioinsSox
Newspaper Details
Amarillo Daily News
Amarillo, Texas, US
Tue, May 09, 1961
Page 8
Full Page
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USA 10 May 2022
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