QUESTIONING THE SPEED OF FRANK WYKOFF ...

The year 1928 was earliest published account of this incredible  harbinger that followed Frank Wykoff to almost every race -- where officials had to shake their stop watch to make sure it was working right, and then decided their must be something  wrong with their timer -- because no one could run as fast as Frank was running considering that he was only a high school student.

Later, Frank Wykoff gained both experience and acclaim, however those clocking his races constantly decided their clocks must be wrong -- even when Wykoff was ahead by yards of the best sprinters of that era:

1.  The clocks must be off according to this 1927 article written by a frustrated sports writer  concerning Frank Wykoff's speed that Paddock defended and explained in the article the ways of those of the A.A.U. and C.I.F.  determine a  record of acceptable official time:

2.  Wykoff set a World Mark at the California State Championship in 1927, but was denied that mark simply because there was an alleged "Slight Wind" upon Frank's back at that moment.  The C.I.F.  threw out the mark.

3.   Occidental meet May,  1930  Frank Wykoff  had to prove twice that he set a new World record.   The first time was at Occidental College in May, 1930.

4.  N.C.A.A. Chicago Meet - June 7, 1930   While there were questions about if Frank Wykoff really set a New World Record in Los Angeles, he was determined to prove  beyond a shadow of a doubt there was nothing wrong with their clocks at the Occidental meet on May 11, 1930: and repeated his performance in Chicago. Now, there was no question, after all, this was the N.C.A.A.  judging his performance.

In November, 1930 his World Record in the 100 yard dash - 9.4s was made official. 

________________

This webmaster found an article in Frank Wykoff's book of memories that a columnist only known to this writer as "Don,"  (newspaper?)   wrote a column entitled ..."Now I'll Tell One" that described his own frustration with officials clocks dating back to the Spring of 1928 ...

______________

Reprint: (newspaper?) - Spring, 1928

NOW I'LL TELL ONE

by DON

Well, well -- again we picked a winner.  Following Frank Wykoff's sensational race last week.  When the slowest watch on the field caught the local flyer in 9.5 seconds for the century, this writer said the downtown scribes would yell "slow timers."

Far be it from this writer to expect a full columns of comeback to that one -- but that's what happened.

One of the more or less distinguished downtown sports editors accuses us of everything but mayhem in an article which tell just exactly why Frank Wykoff can't run the 100 (yard dash)  in less than 10 flat.

As a matter of fact, the ravings expressed in this metropolitan writer's words bespeak a total ignorance of track, the facts in the case and what have you. He being one of our closest acquaintances among the downtown scribbling fraternity, we design to snicker. We know just how much he knows about track.

He quotes a Glendale sports editor as saying thus and so -- well, since are are the only sports editor here, we get the blame.  The language he used was dulcet -- it wasn't that we said  but in much better king's English than our own words.

Quoting from the article, we find -- "Now any sane person knows that a young high school boy could not run 100 yards in 9.4 seconds."  Certainly he couldn't.  Lindbergh couldn't fly to Paris -- Fulton couldn't make his steamboat percolate -- Edison was a boob when he invented the phonograph -- so's your old man!

Quoting some more -- "Any veteran trackman will bet you dollars to doughnuts he will run over that time (10 flat) more often than he will run faster."  Boy, bring on your dollars, here's one one editor that will bet every (?).

Granting all this writer said about "bush league" timers -- which most is true, not doubt -- what is the answer to that race last year in the Coast League meet.  Remember?  Six A. A. U. timers especially imported.  Remember how three watches caught Wykoff  in 9.6 seconds, two in 9.5 seconds, and one in 9.9 seconds?  Remember they called the time 9.8 because "It is impossible for a high school  boy to run that fast?"  Remember that a few minutes later the 9.9 watch was four seconds off in the 880 and they threw his out?

What would Wykoff's time have been if that bum ticker had been left in the A.A.U. vaults in Los Angeles?

This same writer asserts that Wykoff is "a terrifically fast starter." He is perhaps faster off his marks than any other man in the game.  He gets his big play out of the first fifteen yards, but then when the old stamina begins to tell - baloney and horse feather!

It seems to us that Frank Wykoff ran the 220 in the state meet at Modesto last year in 21 seconds flat.  Among the timers of the race was Dink Templeton of Stanford.  The record is now recognized, so we are told, as the world's prep 220.  What's he mean, "stamina"?

As a parting crack we might say that if we picked as many losers in big fistic battles as our esteemed critic, we'd crawl into a hole and pull it after us.