Plumbers Son, Continued from page 1

BORN IN DES MOINES (Iowa)

Frank was born in Des Moines in 1909.  He was a second child, an older sister  having died here during the influenza epidemic of nine years ago. She would be 22 now.  At the age of 4 Frank was taken by his parents to Omaha, where the family lived four years.  Then they went to Littleton, Colorado, where Frank for two years lived the happy, carefree life of a barefoot country boy.

"I did no running in Colorado," Frank said.  "The first race I ever ran was in Omaha when I was 6 years old.  My father worked for a gas  company and there was a picnic of this organization, during which they  held the usual footraces.  I was taller than my opponents, so I gave  them a handicap in a 50-yard dash.  I won the race and 50 cents, so I  suppose that makes me a professional.

"When we moved to Glendale, I entered the fourth grade of Ceritus Grammar School.  While there I took up running again and could beat every boy in school with the exception of Charley Steelman, a bigger  boy in the sixth grade.

"I spent the fifth and part of the sixth grades at Broadway Grammar  School, and while there I turned the tables on Steelman.  About that  time Steelman quit school, for good I think, and I was then able to beat all the boys with no trouble at all.  It was then that I resolved some day to beat Paddock.

"One day I ran into a race with an unknown lad who stayed right with me all the way.  I beat him, but it was mighty close.  He was none other  than Russ Slocum.

.

Russ Slocum & Frank Wykoff - 1927

Wykoff files

I went all through the rest of grammar school with Russ and we have  been teammates at Glendale High.  He was the second Glendale High representative in the 100-meter race on June 16 (1928).  He was fifth.

"We had a Glendale city grammar school meet and the best I could get in the 100 yard race was third.  The race was won by Tommy Muff, a brother of Elmer Muff who starred on the Glendale High    football team a few years ago.

"From Broadway, I went to the Wilson Avenue Intermediate school  and attended the seventh and eight grades there.  I beat Muff regularly while there.  Slocum having gone to a school in Eagle Rock.  Slocum was running 11 seconds flat then.  I guess that was about my time, too.

"I won many ribbons while at Wilson school (1922 - 1923).

Wykoff files

in one meet I (1923 season) one the 100 and the relay, and placed  second in the shot put

Wykoff files

"When I entered Glendale High as a freshman I bumped into Slocum again.  I was able to beat Russ, but a varsity runner named Purdy took us both down the line regularly."

In his sophomore year Frank underwent an operation for hernia and was out of competition until the later meets of the year.  He also suffered a broken left ankle and water on the left knee when he and a companion fell off a fence while watching a big oil fire in Long Beach (California).  The other lad fell on top of Frank's leg breaking it in two places.  That was only four years ago (1924).  To this day, he cannot bend his leg normally.  But he certainly can shake it.

SPEEDY AS WINGMAN

"Frank played Class C football for me when he was a freshman," (1924-25) Coach Hayhurst declared.  "He was one of the fastest ends I ever saw.  Slocum played football, too.  I saw that they had track  possibilities, so I yanked them off the gridiron.  They have been  off ever since and together with Dave Zaun have cleaned up about  everything in sight in high school sprint races.  Zaun could run  almost as fast as Slocum, sometimes faster."

Wykoff declared that he modeled his start after that of Paddock, being shown Paddock's starting form by Coach Hanson at Wilson Avenue School.

"I used to think that Paddock had great starting form," Frank said. "He has changed it since, and I don't think much of it.  I don't  see how a man who has being running for 15 years could get such  a sloppy start as Paddock had last Saturday.  I don't think so much of the flying finish either.  It is probably the best way for him to finish and maybe he gains by it. But I never could use it.  My form of  running is not like his.  He depends on leg drive to get his long stride.  I depend on a natural spring in my legs a good pull and leg speed.   I believe I have a long stride.

"Some coaches have tried to change my form of starting.  I have been told that I should stagger my start more -- that is, I should bring each foot down nearer the outside of my lane.  I have been digging my holes more nearly in a straight line than others and have been coming straight out, staggering my start just as  little as possible.  I feel that this straight-out start gives me more drive and that I can get under way faster.

I believe that I proved this theory last Saturday, and as long as I can get away as fast as that I shall  never let any coach change my style of start. I know that Coach Dean Cromwell (University of Southern California) will never change my style, although Tommy Davis has tried to do so.

PRAISES HIS COACH

"Coach (Norm) Hayhurst,

Coach Norm Hayhurst - 1928

Glendale High School - CA

Wykoff files

tells me to stick with my old form, which we both believe is best  for me. I owe nearly all my success to him.  No other coach has Given me any practical tips as yet, and I want Coach Hayhurst to   get all the credit that is due him."

Wykoff said that his greatest ambition of the moment is to place in the finals at Boston.  Eventually he hopes to win the 100 meters at Amsterdam.

"Before I start thinking of winning abroad, I want to make the team,"  he said.  "I realize the kind of competition that I am going up against.  I met (Jackson)   Scholz and (Chester) Bowman in a heat at Lincoln last  summer.  Scholz won  by a yard.  I thought I was second, but they gave  it to Bowman, who later won the final.  Only two men qualified.  I was really coasting along, saving myself  for the final. in which I hoped to  get a crack at  Charley Borah.

I could have run faster and was pretty blue when I learned that I had been eliminated.  I still hope to meet Borah some day.

I do not say that I can beat Borah, but I think that I might have given him a good race last Saturday (6-16-28 - Olympic trials)."

That is typical of Frank Wykoff.  He always thinks or hopes.  He is never positive that  he can show anybody up, unless it happens to be Frank Lombardi. He thinks that he "might" have given Borah a "good" race. About 45,00 who saw the race think so, too, with a few trimmings.

Frank is modest and polite; a gentlemen always as is Borah.  He is quiet and of friendly mien.  The day following his race (6-16-28) he spent in church.  He attended Sunday school and the morning church service.  In the afternoon he attended church service of his graduating class and later a Christian Endeavor meeting, of which he was chairman.  He attended services in the evening.

Girls?  The question brought a smile to Frank's lips but no blush to his cheeks.  "They're all nice girls," he evaded

"Any special one?"

Frank's mother (Nellie Bagg Wykoff) comes from good old Massachusetts  stock, and declares that she is of English descent.

School days?  Who does not know how it is?

END

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