By MATT OTTE
Special to The Gazette
A half-century ago this spring P.J. Jacobs High School was in the middle of a three-year reign as track and field champions of the Wisconsin Valley Conference.
The Panthers had won the 1949 title in front of 1,500 people at Goerke Park by upsetting Wisconsin Rapids, 86-70. The Stevens Point Journal on May 14 reported that Stevens Point "dethroned Wisconsin Rapids as Valley champion for the first time in over a decade."
Feeding off their 1949 success, the 1950 Panthers, 50 years ago, not only repeated as Valley champions (75-6/7 to 73-5/14) before 2,000 fans at Goerke but also, as reported in the May 10 Journal, accomplished this rare feat:
"It marked the first time in years - if not in the history of the conference - that one school has won the 'big three' of football, basketball and track" in the Valley. Stevens Point was undefeated in football in the fall of the 1949-50 school year and also ranked No. 1 in the state in basketball the following March while winning Valley honors. John Roberts was the track and field coach in those years as well as football coach.
There were several heroes on that 1950 track team in the Valley meet. Running the 880 for the first time all season, Dick Cable took first in 2:08.8. Cable also tied for first at 5-foot-7 in the high jump. Bill Cook took first in the high hurdles (15.7) and also finished third in the lows. Nubbs Miller beat teammate Rhody Marquard in the broad jump, winning with a leap of 19-10. Brother Jerry Miller won a section of the 440 in 56.5.
Notable among other 1950 point-winners were these runners-up: Johnny Kardach in the 100, Bill Higgins in the low hurdles, Dave Hurlbut in the shot put, Marquard in the broad jump and the 880 relay foursome of Nubbs Miller, Kardach, Marquard and Ronnie Turzinski.
The outstanding individual in that meet was Jerry Witt of Marshfield, winning the 100 (10-flat to tie the record) and 200 (20.55 for a new record) and tying for fourth in the high jump.
Later in the spring at the WIAA state meet in Madison, Cook and the relay team captured fourths to give the Panthers four points.
Starring on the 1949 championship team were these Valley titlists: Don Marquard (21-2 in the broad jump for a Valley record and 10-flat in the 100 to tie the record); Cable (2:09.7 in the 880 and tied for third in the high jump); Bob Worzalla (42-3-1/2 in the shot and second in the discus), and the 880 relay of Nubbs Miller, Turzinski, Kardach and Don Marquard.
Miller also got seconds in the 100 and broad jump, Kardach was runner-up in the 200, freshman Bob Razner was second in the mile, Cook was second in the high hurdles and Higgins took seconds in the low hurdles and high jump as well as third in the high hurdles.
That year at the state meet only Marquard was able to score points for the Panthers. He finished fourth in the broad jump.
Roberts coached the Panthers to a third straight Valley title in 1951. They easily out-distanced Rapids that time, 92-64. Rhody Marquard broke brother Don's broad jump record by leaping 21-4-3/4 while Razner shattered the mile mark with a time of 4:41.6. Other first that year came from Cable in both the high (15.7) and low (25.9) hurdles, Kardach in both the 100 (10.25) and shot (44-9), Turzinski in the 200 (21.4), Joe Sanks in the 880 (2:06) and the relay team of Marquard, Bill Drifka, Turzinski and Kardach (1:37.5). Cable went 5-11 in the high jump but Charley Gurtler of Rapids forced the Panther ace to take second by blasting the Valley record as he soared 6-2. Marquard also had a second in the 100.
An extra highlight of the 1951 season was Razner becoming Stevens Point's first individual champion of the then 58-year-old state meet. He won the mile in 4:40. Cable was third in the high hurdles and fifth in the high jump in that meet. With nine points, the Panthers finished seventh in the state, their best showing ever to that point.
Razner would give Point its second individual state title in 1952 when he successfully defended his mile championship in 4:35.6. But Stevens Point settled for third in the Valley that year behind Rapids and Wausau. It was third again in 1953, then in 1954 came another championship season. Duane Donavan was now the coach, having taken over in 1952. Jimmy Turzinski gave the Panthers their third individual state title in 1954 when he won the 200 in 20.4.
A year later, 1955, produced the greatest year of all in Stevens Point track and field history. Donovan's team not only won the Valley again but also tied for the state championship with Milwaukee King. Don Ryskoski won the pole vault (12 feet) to give the Panthers their fourth individual title. (The 1955 season is a story for 50 years ago in 2005.)
The rest of the decade of the 1950s saw no more Valley championships, the best showing being runner-up in 1958 by 1-1/2 points to Marshfield. One year earlier, 1957, John Jakusz raised Point's state titles to five by winning the 440 (53.3 on an inundated track). A year later a freshman named Rick Reichardt qualified for state in the broad jump. He finished sixth in that 1958 season, just shy of scoring. But he qualified three more times in subsequent years, finally winning the event in 1961 (22-5-1/2) after taking third and second the two previous seasons. Then there would be no more individual state winners for more than 20 years. Keith Hanson became the seventh Panther state winner in 1982, taking the 3,200 in 9:02.72. The most recent winners, Nos. 8 and 9, were Eric Lind in the high jump (6-9) and Jim Kickland in the pole vault (14-0), both in 1985.
Prior to 1949, track and field was a hit-and-miss sport at P.J. Jacobs. The Panthers were third in the Valley meet in 1948 with 33 points behind perennial champion Rapids and Wausau. Jack Negaard (21.2 in the 200) and Bud Nelson (21-1 in the broad jump) set records that year.
Point also was third (22-1/2) behind Rapids and Wausau in 1947 and also third (37-1/2) behind the same two in 1946 when Bob Kluck was first in the high hurdles and tied for first in the high jump. Point was fourth in the Valley behind Rapids-Wausau-Rhinelander in 1945 when Ed Klasinski won the shot put.
Stevens Point had a few entries but scored no state meet points from 1945 to 1948. There were no state meets in 1943 and 1944 because of the war. And for 10 more years going backward into the 1930s, WIAA records don't mention Stevens Point.
The Panthers did score at the state meet in both 1932 and 1931. They had 11 people in Madison in 1932 when Charles Sparhawk was second in the discus and fourth in the shot and Ray Nugent tied for fourth in the pole vault for a total of 4-3/4 points. And they had seven people at state in 1931 when they scored four points on Nugent's second in the pole vault and Lyman Scribner's fourth in the mile.
The 1931 season, incidentally, appears to be one of the few times (if not the only time) in the Valley's history until 1949 that Point was a contender for conference honors. The May 13 Journal that year in previewing the meet noted: "It has been years since the Pointers (meaning the high school, not the college) have had even an outside chance at the title." Sparhawk, Nugent and Scribner all won their specialties in 1931 (Sparhawk got a second, too, in the shot) but Point settled for second place. Oddly enough, it wasn't Rapids but Merrill which took the title that year, 33-31, as Rapids and Wausau tied for third.
It appears that the first time the Panthers scored points in the state meet was in 1926. The WIAA's premier attraction was more than 30 years old by that time. The Panthers sent seven boys to Madison. Kenneth Fishleigh tied for third in the pole vault and Forrest McDonald was fourth in the javelin for a total of 1-3/5 points. WIAA records show nothing for Stevens Point from 1894 (first state meet) to 1925 or from 1927 to 1930 or 1934 to 1942.
That doesn't mean there wasn't some activity in the sport here during at least some of those years. But the big high school sport in the spring at Stevens Point - at least in the 30s and 40s - was baseball. Track and field, of course, is big now at SPASH and has been almost all of the years since those great championship accomplishments from 1949 to 1955.