The following is a reprint of a human interest article written by Munro Kezer  (? A Fort Collins  newspaper?) -- around the  last week of August 1928.  Frank Wykoff made many side trips on his  way back from the Olympics, and  Fort Collins, Colorado  was on on his schedule of trips

OLYMPIC STAR SCINTILLATES

ON TRACK HERE ...

By Munro Kezer    

Boyhood dreams of sprint fame.  Satisfied ambition of defeating Charley  Paddock. National championship.  "Lucky Shoes."  Muddling Olympic  coaches.  Rainy Dutch weather.  Disastrous long spikes.  Berlin and  Paris.  Airplane flight to London.  Defeat of (Percy) Williams, Canadian ace.  Plans for the 1932 Olympics.  And a visit with the "girl friend" in Fort Collins.

That's a bit of the panorama flashing thru an hour and a half on the track at Colorado Field with Frank Wykoff, national amateur 100-yard champion of the United States, one of America's most colorful athletes.

Wykoff has been visiting in Fort Collins for a week as the guest of Lucille Brentman at the home of her parents, 1501 South College Avenue.  For a week he has been enjoying the beauties of Fort Collins and adjacent mountains.

Saturday, the lure of the spikes not donned since leaving London, was heard, and he suited up to take a few starts with Harry Neider, Lemkin  sprinter of the next three seasons.  About 20, former high school boys and other who had learned that we was to work out were on hand at Colorado Field shortly after 3 o'clock Saturday afternoon.

Wykoff had little difficulty convincing the bystanders that he had the stuff for the sprint champion.  Running much like Albers of Denver university but with more spring and more drive than the former Holyoke lad, he gave an indication of what he might be expected to do when in shape.

Only once did he let himself go.  Running a 50-yard dash against Harry Neider, he opened up a piston-like drive which cut a three-yard gap between himself and the Lambkin runner.  Lambkin fans know  that anyone who can beat Neider three yards in a 50-yard dash is no poor sprinter.

True Neider isn't in shape.  He hadn't run since the national high school meet at Chicago in June.  But neither was Wykoff in condition. He had not been in a suit since running on the American 440 yard  relay team in London shortly after the Olympics.  Since then he has gained 15 pounds, considerable extra weight for the curly headed blond  to carry.  He weighs 160 pounds now and weighed slightly under 145 at  the time of the Olympics.

The two boys, both high school graduates this year, worked out together  for nearly an hour and a half while Wykoff showed a few of the starting and warming up tricks he had developed for himself or picked up from Paddock, (Charley) Borah, and other coast sprint stars.

In between starts and exercises, and in the locker rooms, Wykoff  told me one tale after another of the interesting incidents in the multitude of which he has been a major participant.  He is interested in retaining his 100 yard championship won in the Boston Olympic trials.  But his great  interests lie further ahead.

In 1932 the Olympics will be held in Los Angeles, on a fast track, in the climate in which he has done the most of his running.  Winning in that meet lies at the back of every thought as to his handling of his future track work. He plans to lighten up for a year or so on his work so as to insure  his being able to work into great condition for the next Olympics.

Long spikes to which he was unaccustomed and a soft track spoiled his running in the 100 meters at Amsterdam, Wykoff believes.  However, he doesn't offer that as an alibi.  He made no attempt to detract from the glory of his conquerors.  He has simply tried to analyze the causes which helped defeat him in the Olympics.

Nine pairs of shoes were carried to Amsterdam by Wykoff.  One, his  "lucky pair" were broken in by another runner in this country.  He lost his  first race in them but never lost another while wearing them.  They were the spikes which carried him thru to victory in the Boston trials.

Accustomed to short spikes, Lawson Robertson, head Olympic coach sought to have him change to long spikes, which were worn by the majority  of sprinters.  Wykoff stuck to the "lucky shoes" with their short spikes during the preliminaries, but in the finals yielded to Robertson's entreaties, and donned a long spike pair.  He found he couldn't handle himself as well,... (sorry portions of this paragraph were broken away and crumbled due to age ) ...

When the American team arrived, the Olympic track had not yet been laid. The track as constructed would have been solid and fast if dry,  Wykoff said.  But it rained every day making the track soggy.  American sprinters used to hard tracks cut the track up badly, and found it hard to get the full benefit of the power they had developed.

Percy Williams of Canada (?sorry portions of this paragraph were broken  away and crumbled  due to age ) ... of both sprints at the (?) ...  was just made for that (?) ... to Wykoff.  The ... (?Williams) weighed but 123 pounds. After running, his tracks could hardly be seen, while lanes of American runners were heavily gouged.

In London shortly after, it was a different story.  Wykoff ran lead-off in the 440-yard relay with William also running leadoff.  Wykoff had a safe margin over the Canadian when he gave up the baton.

Press dispatches minimized the feat by saying Williams was out of shape.  A glance at Wykoff's itinerary would spoil the alibi.  He broke training immediately after the Olympic games, going to Berlin where he visited the shows.  He visited points along the Rhine, stayed several days in Paris seeing the sights, and the shows, then flew to London by plane and ran the next day in the relay in which he defeated Williams. 

Perhaps his greatest thrill came, however, when he first ran against  Charley Paddock in the coast Olympic trials June 16 this year (1928).  Wykoff tells that when he was in the sixth grade he saw Paddock run and decided then that he would run until he could defeat Paddock if he had to "Wait until Paddock was an old man."

With Paddock, Wykoff, and Lombardi, coast star who had beaten Wykoff earlier in the season,, entered in the coast trials, it was heralded as the "Race of the Century."  Wykoff was leading Paddock by three yards in the 1000-meter dash at the 50-meter mark and finished a good two yards to the good.

Paddock claimed Wykoff  had jumped the gun.  However, officials at the meet said it was a remarkably even start.  Moving pictures developed a few days later showed Wykoff had not only not jumped, but also that he was  the last of the field to get away.  He demonstrated that it was no fluke by beating Paddock worse in the 200 meter than he had in the 100 meter dash. Lombardi finished third in both races.

That day marked the satisfaction of his dreams of sixth grade days.  But he went on to Boston to three times equal the world's record in the 100 meters and to establish himself as America's fastest at that distance.  He did not compete in the 200 meters explaining that he does not intend to run that distance much until he is older and able to stand up under the strain of the longer sprint without injury to his prospects.  He thinks that Paddock will retire as a result of his decisive defeats in Amsterdam.

Frank Wykoff is (?) - interested in his track.  Despite his unusual successes he is looking to the future, not to his accomplishments to date.  He leaves Fort Collins this morning for his home in Glendale, Calif. warmly enthusiastic over Fort Collins and vicinity.  He received a telegram every morning of his stay in Fort Collins from the coast where business men of Glendale are planning a gigantic welcome for the unspoiled, high school conqueror of America's best sprinters.

END