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Posted by HenryJames on June 29th, 2009 under Uncategorized
Texas track and field signee Marquise Goodwin set the national high school record in the long jump on Saturday. He was competing in both the junior and senior long jump at the U.S. Championships. He won the junior event on his second jump, and then he passed on his final four attempts to rest for the senior event two hours later. He used only three jumps and finished fifth.
His jump of 26’ 10” broke the previous record of 26’ 9 1/4″ set in 1989. Twenty years is a long time for a high school record to stand.
A couple of weeks ago I was in California. The Sacramento Bee had an article on the Golden West Invitational track meet, one of the premier high school meets in the country. It was at this meet thirty years ago that Michael Carter of Dallas Jefferson set what I think is the greatest high school track and field record ever.
On his final throw as a high schooler he put the shot 81’ 3 ½”. He broke the previous record by more than ten feet and his own previou record set on an earlier throw by over four feet. I’m not sure anyone has come within five feet of his record since.
The Bee quoted a couple of people who have been involved with the meet over the years, and they both still gushed over what they witnessed. Bob Jarvis has announced the meet for 42 years, and he says Carter’s performance was the greatest prep feat ever.
“It was so explosive, so dynamic, so exquisite, to shatter his record by 4 feet, 3 1/2 inches, a 6 percent increase – that’s incredible,” Jarvis said. “It’s still the most amazing thing I’ve ever seen.”
GWI president Arni Kogh said, “It’s inhuman what he did. It wasn’t just Carter against a national field that day. It was Carter vs. Isaac Newton. He defied gravity.”
Youtube has some video of his five throws that day. The footage is grainy and has no sound, but you can see Carter’s speed and explosiveness. And you can tell by his body language that he knows the nailed that last throw.
Carter of course was an All American football player at SMU and was an All Pro player with the 49ers. He won seven NCAA titles in college and went on to win the silver medal in the shot at the 1984 Olympics. Keep in mind that he did all this playing football part of the year. If he concentrated full time on the shot, no telling what he could have accomplished.
The Wood Shed said:
June 29th, 2009 at 6:38 am
Shot Put? Really? That’s how bored we are?
On a realted note, I shot my pud over 82′ while in high school.
The Wood Shed said:
June 29th, 2009 at 6:38 am
*related. I can spell.
PatronSaint said:
June 29th, 2009 at 7:29 am
That was one typo from being a top rate comment.
KilgoreTrout said:
June 29th, 2009 at 7:40 am
How about a video of Johnny Lam Jones running the anchor of the 4X400 relay at the Texas High school state meet? I have heard the leaders were on the middle of the 1st turn when he got the baton. I think it was around 1979 but heard this was one of the most impressive anchor legs ever run.
Dave
Bill Little said:
June 29th, 2009 at 7:41 am
GWI president Arni Kogh said, “It’s inhuman what he did. It wasn’t just Carter against a national field that day. It was Carter vs. Isaac Newton. He defied gravity.”
Sometimes we love the athletes who compete in the field events of the track and field competitions, because they seem to defy what it means to be human and in doing so remind us of our own humanity. And so it was with Michael Carter of Jefferson High School in the city of Dallas in the Great State we have called “Texas” ever since Sam Houston vanquished mighty Santa Anna and the Mexican army at the Battle of San Jacinto.
And that’s almost what he did there that day. On the fields of competition at the Golden West Invitation at Folsom High School out West in that California city known to locals and out-of-staters alike as Sacramento, Michael Carter shattered Mr. Newton’s laws and taught us all what it means to compete completely and to be utterly human.
There is no person on Earth more human than Mack Brown, who has always said that football, like shot put, is both a cruel mistress and a tender lover. And so it was that Michael Carter’s majestic toss of the metal orb called a “shot” taught us all a valuable lesson about winning despite the odds that are stacked against those who would compete as human beings.
Art Vandelay said:
June 29th, 2009 at 8:04 am
HenryJames,
I for one appreciate the Track & Field post. My dad was a two time SWC champion for the Horns back in the late ’50’s, and I…. well I knew where all the good bars were in the ‘80’s.
I saw Marquise compete in a couple of meets here in Dallas this year. He is the most exciting HS track athlete I’ve seen since Roy Martin (Dallas Roosevelt).
Regarding Michael Carter, that mark is the world record in that age group. I believe when he competed at the Texas Relays in high school he threw the shot completely out of the pit. Also, his daughter Michelle (Texas-ex) finished first at the U.S. Outdoor Track and Field National Championships this past weekend.
Other notable Longhorn results from the U.S. National Championships:
- Sanya Richards won the 400 meters
- Trey Hardee won the decathlon
- Andra Manson tied for second in the high jump
- Leo Manzano placed second in the 1,500 meters.
- Marshevet Hooker finished third in the 100 meters
I’m sure I’m leaving many others out, but the Horns will be well represented at the World Championships in Berlin in August.
Distant Memory said:
June 29th, 2009 at 8:18 am
Long ago I talked to former Longhorn defensive tackle Lance Wilson about Carter. Wilson won either one or two state titles in the shot at Pflugerville and I think his best was a little over 64′.
Lance was invited to the GWI and mentioned that for all the jumping and throwing events there was a flag marking the meet and national records. When he got to the shot ring he was absolutely was positive Carter’s record of 81′ was a mistake. Think Lance threw 67′+ at that meet and wasn’t within 10′ of Carter’s best.
Do have one question about Goodwin. Just how good a football player is he? Speed doesn’t always translate to the ability to play football. When I grew up in Dallas SMU signed (or bought) James Collier from Seagoville and Mitchell Bennett from Bonham. They had clocked times of 9.3 and 9.1 (100 yards), were highly regarded recruits, but never played in football. Flowers was a great high school sprinter that never seemed as explosive in football.
Goodwin seems to be have a great future running track and if he is truly that great he could be make some very good money running track in the near future. Never seen him play football so just curious how legit are his abilities.
HenryJames said:
June 29th, 2009 at 8:34 am
I’m not sure how good Goodwin is in football. He’s obviously fast, but I have no idea whether he can catch, is elusive or can run routes.
HenryJames said:
June 29th, 2009 at 8:41 am
Kilgore,
I’ve heard about that run, but I’ve never seen footage. The only footage I can find on Youtube is of Jones returning a kickoff 103 yards for a td against SMU.
Art,
Roy Martin is (for me) how all other high school sprinters are measured.
Art Vandelay said:
June 29th, 2009 at 9:07 am
HenryJames,
I remember seeing Robot take the baton in the 4×100 at the state meet or Texas Relays (can’t remember which one) in 7th place and blasting past all the other teams to win the race. Crowd of 50,000+ went crazy.
Dallas Morning News did a story on Roy last June:
Former phenom Roy Martin couldn’t outrun hard times
8straight said:
June 29th, 2009 at 9:29 am
Lam’s last leg of the mile relay at the state meet in 1976 was definitely one of the greatest feats I have seen. The leader on the anchor leg had the first turn made (maybe 80 yards?) when Lam got the baton. Lam took the baton and sucked the air right out of Memorial Stadium. It was like the other guys were standing still.
Montrell Flowers said:
June 29th, 2009 at 9:36 am
What does catching the ball or route running have to do with playing wide receiver?
Bob in Houston said:
June 29th, 2009 at 9:57 am
I’ve mentioned several times over the years when I was covering a football practice and Fred Akers had the team run a lap at the finish. There was a crowd of players plodding along, and all of a sudden here comes Lam. He was jogging, but he looked like he was floating compared to everyone else.
Vasherized said:
June 29th, 2009 at 10:06 am
Michael Carter’s impressive feats still come in second to Lamar’s javelin toss in Revenge of the Nerds.
Sorry.
Gerry’s on record that Goodwin has football skills, not just a track guy. He makes solid cuts and has good hands.
Nordberg said:
June 29th, 2009 at 10:52 am
The Tri Lambs cheated in order to take full advantage of Lamar’s limp-wristed throwing style. Doesn’t count.
srr50 said:
June 29th, 2009 at 11:50 am
After Michael finished his event at the Texas Relays, he went on and on about the facility, the campus and the town and how it made him comfortable for the competition.
Someone asked him that if he liked the surroundings so much, why was he going to play football at SMU?
Carter justed smiled and said, “No comment.”
RansomStoddard said:
June 29th, 2009 at 12:18 pm
Marquise is a great athlete but very small. Also, the previous record was 26′ 4 3/4″.
HenryJames said:
June 29th, 2009 at 12:25 pm
TexasSports says it was 26′ 9 1/4″.
Art Vandelay said:
June 29th, 2009 at 12:48 pm
The “Bible” of the sport says 26-9 1/4.
Marquise is probably small by football standards. I personally think he should concentrate solely on track….. of course Greg Davis could use his creativity and create a play where he could leap from the 9 yard line into the end zone.
Tony Jefferey said:
June 29th, 2009 at 12:57 pm
I bet that Marquise fellow would be good at the end around.
AT&T said:
June 29th, 2009 at 1:59 pm
The second “T” stands for telegraph, as in “Jeezus, that end around play was telegraphed from a mile away.”
The General said:
June 29th, 2009 at 2:51 pm
Lamar’s javellin was thoroughly vetted by the governing body, the Unofficial Pan Hellenic Collegiate Games Adminstration and Gerrymandering Board of Engineers. Doperbo’s claims are false and frankly speaking, actionable by the Sacred Brotherhood of Lambda Lambda Lambda and Lamar Latrell.
Hal L. Burton said:
June 29th, 2009 at 3:35 pm
I really like Doperbo and I respect his many points of view. You guys never seem to take him seriously enough and just keep him around for some comic relief. He is probably pounding his fist right about now and cursing BC bloggers and contemplating on resigning.
Lamb, Sheep or Goat said:
June 29th, 2009 at 3:40 pm
I loooooove Doperbo….he’s so ba-a-a-a-a-ad. I want a Doperbo tie clip souveneir.
Hal L.Burton said:
June 29th, 2009 at 4:00 pm
I love this blog and I love it even more when The Barkers fight amongst themselves. At least I know democracy is at work here. Rarely does this blog speak with one collective voice-but many voices-coming in from every different direction.I don’t know what to expect. Now I’ve got my employess reading this blog throughout the day when they should be busy working. I know they are reading this blog because its got them laughing loudly throughout the day. Thank you for providing some interesting sports articles for all of us hardcore sports fans.
Cal Ripken Jr. said:
June 29th, 2009 at 6:26 pm
“Records were meant to be broken”
Good luck with that.
El Douche said:
June 29th, 2009 at 6:38 pm
My friend Al Bundy once scored 4 touchdowns for Polk High School in the All-City (Chicagoland) Championship game. It remains one of the greatest feats I have ever seen.
glenn said:
June 29th, 2009 at 8:20 pm
i watched a number of practices at the stadium while lam was playing.
one day i got there early and many of the players were on the old track that used to circle the field. i spotted lam running alone with nobody very near but was disappointed that he was just kind of shuffling along. with that kind of speed i was hoping to see him blaze a little bit. then he blew past several players who were running hard and i realized that lam was such a great runner that he could really motor and not look like he was trying that hard.
related note: i recall a troubled kid back then who got the opportunity to swipe one of the players’ watches. the kid was pretty athletic, so he grabbed it and took off running.
it was lam’s watch. like i said, the kid didn’t have it together.
KilgoreTrout said:
June 30th, 2009 at 8:48 am
I didn’t see the 1976 4X400. My dad and I drove down to Austin the next day to see the 4A finals (no 5A at the time). He had run it the night before and everyone was still buzzing about it. I did see him run a fair number of races while he was at UT. He was the smoothest sprinter I had ever seen. His head remained totally flat while running and he seemed effortless. No wasted motion. I think the 200 M was his best race.
On Michael Carter, I knew a guy who was buddies with him and he told me he would shoot people with a BB gun around the SMU campus. He apparently thought it was funny. This guy was a shot putter and as most of them did at the time was injecting steroids. Don’t know that Carter did, I think he was just a freak of nature and a jerk.
Dave
Beaten Dead Horse said:
June 30th, 2009 at 9:25 am
I went to that state track meet to see the Memphis Cyclones who had a chance to win state. I followed track closely and I’d heard the buzz about this skinny kid from Lampasas. It appeared to me that he started about 70 or so yards behind the leader. Never has the cliche “reel them in” been more appropriate.
Distant Memory said:
June 30th, 2009 at 9:33 am
Vasherized,
Good skills are find, but it just seems very, very few of the elite sprinters truly make it on the football field. Maybe it is the issue of added weight, being able to change direction, or becoming too dependent on their speed in high school. Don’t really know.
Lam is the only one that I can think of off hand that has made it at Texas in both and if this kid could truly be a great track athlete I would rather see him be just that than good to average in both.
Hack Wilson said:
June 30th, 2009 at 9:53 am
You guys know nothing about unbreakable records.
Huckleberry said:
June 30th, 2009 at 10:33 am
Hack, you broke your own record more than 50 years after you died. Greatest feat in baseball history.
The Calloused Palm said:
June 30th, 2009 at 12:55 pm
In the winter of ‘79, in the upstairs bathroom, I set a record that will never be broken. Unfortunately, it was ruled unofficial as I was aided by S.I.’s bikini-clad Christie Brinkley..
Ricky said:
June 30th, 2009 at 1:03 pm
Distant Memory, I think the bigger issue is that it is almost impossible to be an elite athlete in multiple sports these days. There are so many elite athletes that can devote all their time to a single discipline. A football player just doesn’t have enough time to recover from their bangs and bruises to get back an elite level of body control and technique needed to be competitive in track and field.
Plus I think most track guys would rather not get punked by a guy with a shot putter’s body running him down with almost elite sprinter’s speed.
Distant Memory said:
July 1st, 2009 at 12:28 pm
Ricky, It hasn’t been possible for over 20+ years. I cite guys like Bennett and Collier at SMU during the 80’s, Phea at UH, Tatum at TCU, Flowers at UT, and the sprinter/receiver that recently went to OU.
Going nationally, Capel played two years at UF and quit and Holliday at LSU is more a fast guy returning kicks and running reverses than a football player.
Four guys I can think of that have done it on a high level are Lam (who was an absolute freak when you consider he didn’t even have a track to practice on in high school), Carter as a nose tackle and shot putter, Rod Woodson as a cornerback and hurdler, and Eric Metcalf .
Two friends who are college track coaches feel Goodwin is one of two elite track talents that have come out of the state in the last five years. First was Robert Griffin who both believe could be running pro right now and one believes could have been on the level of Edwin Moses if he had done just track. Griffin choose to do both at Baylor and while he might make the NFL as a quarterback if it is doubtful he gets near the world class level he could have reached in track.
Goodwin is a guy who I have been told that if he focused on track has the ability to score in three individual events on the national level for Texas. You add three or four more elite track talents for UT and you have a legitimate chance at a national title. The more time away from the track the less likely it is he can compete at that level nationally which is a shame.
HenryJames said:
July 1st, 2009 at 12:37 pm
I have no doubt that Griffin would have been a future world record holder in the 400 hurdles if he concentrated solely on track. He still might if football doesn’t work out.
Distant Memory said:
July 1st, 2009 at 1:34 pm
HJ, Both friends believe that if Griffin wanted to today he would need to make one phone call and be the centerpiece of the US’ 12/30 project.
Their big concern is that according to them he is not spending the time refining the technical aspects of the race. Both feel that the biggest thing that impedes young sprinters (or in this case hurdlers) from improving is the lack of time spent on the technical side of their race. It is no longer raw ability, but efficiency and endurance. Those are something that can’t be faked.
Problem is that Robert wants to be an NFL quarterback and Briles has told him he can make him one. I don’t see that happening as the kid just hasn’t shown great arm strength and goodness knows the NFL is not exactly enthralled with athletic quarterbacks out of offenses like Briles.
Don’t blame the kid, but it does make me wonder when we see other countries bring their best to the World Games and the Olympics.
Art Vandelay said:
July 1st, 2009 at 1:48 pm
Distant Memory,
Let’s not forget Bullet Bob Hayes. He is the exception, and worthy of Post all to himself.
Distant Memory said:
July 1st, 2009 at 1:55 pm
Vandelay, Thanks for help and a stupid and obvious oversight on my part. Not only did he compete at the highest level in track, but was responsible for creation of a new type of secondary coverage just to stop him.
I won’t go as far as equate his impact in the NFL with Alcinder and outlawing the dunk in college, but Bob’s impact is too often overlooked by even Cowboy fans who purely look at numbers and not the impact the player had on the game.
Vasherized said:
July 1st, 2009 at 3:00 pm
Larry B. Scott aka Lamar Latrell. King of Track.
“I’ll tell you a story,” Scott says. “I was so sick that day. I couldn’t do anything. But Jeff said, ‘Just come out here and throw the javelin, and you’ll be done.’ So I did, and I think it took only three takes, and it was done.”
Scott is thankful for a quality camera crew that day.
“Those were the days when you didn’t have a TV screen right there to see if the shot worked out,” Scott says. “You just had to guess. That’s where the lighting guys and the crew come in to play so much.”
Today, Scott continues to act, but is also passing along lessons he has learned to aspiring young actors in Los Angeles.
“You’ve got to get pimped, and then you’ve got to pimp,” Scott says.
I hear that.
Art Vandelay said:
July 2nd, 2009 at 5:59 am
HenryJames,
Make sure you have your Porkey’s YouTude clips ready for the next Vasherized Post.
Vasherized said:
July 2nd, 2009 at 6:14 am
YouTude. I like that.
And it’s Animal House, not Porky’s.
O.0 Mr. Vandelay.