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West Coast Relays
Started April 30, 1927, the West Coast Relays grew to one of the premier track and field events in the United States. Held in Fresno's Ratcliffe Stadium, it was the site of thirty-six world records and many national and collegiate records. It became the home of the debut of some of the Central Valley's best known athletes; Bob Mathias, Dutch Warmerdam, Rafer Johnson, Tommie Smith and Henry Ellard. Participants included future stars of other sports; Jackie Robinson, O. J. Simpson, Willie Gault, and Bill Russell. The delay in replacing the outdated clay track at Ratcliffe Stadium damaged the meet and the event was discontinued after the 1982 edition. The meet was revived in 1991 as the Bob Mathias Fresno Relays and was held at Warmerdam Field at Fresno State. By 2006 the meet moved again to Buchanan High School in Clovis, California. The revived West Coast Relays since then has been an annual high school-only track and field meet. The Shuttle hurdle relay Shuttle hurdle rel ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Fresno
Fresno () is a major city in the San Joaquin Valley of California, United States. It is the county seat of Fresno County and the largest city in the greater Central Valley region. It covers about and had a population of 542,107 in 2020, making it the fifth-most populous city in California, the most populous inland city in California, and the 34th-most populous city in the nation. The Metro population of Fresno is 1,008,654 as of 2022. Named for the abundant ash trees lining the San Joaquin River, Fresno was founded in 1872 as a railway station of the Central Pacific Railroad before it was incorporated in 1885. It has since become an economic hub of Fresno County and the San Joaquin Valley, with much of the surrounding areas in the Metropolitan Fresno region predominantly tied to large-scale agricultural production. Fresno is near the geographic center of California, approximately north of Los Angeles, south of the state capital, Sacramento, and southeast of San Fran ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Ratcliffe Stadium
Ratcliffe Stadium is a collegiate athletic venue in the western United States, located on the campus of Fresno City College in Fresno, California. Opened in 1926, it was renamed in 1941 after their first football coach, Emory Ratcliffe. The stadium hosted the Raisin Bowl and was home to the Fresno State Bulldogs football team through 1979; they moved to their on-campus Bulldog Stadium in 1980. Ratcliffe also hosted the West Coast Relays, a major track and field competition. Today, local high school football games and various track and field events are still held there. The stadium has a seating capacity of 13,000, and it is located at 1101 E. University Avenue, along Blackstone Avenue. The football field has a conventional north-south alignment, at an elevation of above sea level. Historical events On June 2, 1964, Fresno Mayor Wallace D. Henderson marched with Martin Luther King Jr. and 1,000 persons from Fresno High School march Ratcliffe Stadium, where about 3,000 perso ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
California Central Valley
The Central Valley is a broad, elongated, flat valley that dominates the interior of California. It is wide and runs approximately from north-northwest to south-southeast, inland from and parallel to the Pacific coast of the state. It covers approximately , about 11% of California's land area. The valley is bounded by the Coast Ranges to the west and the Sierra Nevada to the east. The Central Valley is a region known for its agricultural productivity: it provides more than half of the fruits, vegetables, and nuts grown in the United States. More than of the valley are irrigated via reservoirs and canals. The valley hosts many cities, including the state capital Sacramento; as well as Redding, Chico, Stockton, Modesto, Merced, Fresno, Visalia, and Bakersfield. The Central Valley watershed comprises , or over a third of California. It consists of three main drainage systems: the Sacramento Valley in the north, which receives over of rain annually; the drier San Joaqui ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Bob Mathias
Robert Bruce Mathias (November 17, 1930 – September 2, 2006) was an American decathlete, two-time Olympic gold medalist in the event, a United States Marine Corps officer, actor and United States Congressman representing the state of California for four terms from 1967 to 1975. Early life and athletic career Mathias was born in Tulare, California. He attended Tulare Union High School, where he was a classmate and long time friend of Sim Iness, the 1952 Olympic discus gold medalist. While at Tulare Union in early 1948, Mathias took up the decathlon at the suggestion of his track coach, Virgil Jackson. During the summer following his high school graduation, he qualified for the United States Olympic team for the 1948 Summer Olympics held in London. In the Olympics, Mathias's naïveté about the decathlon was exposed. He was unaware of the rules in the shot put and nearly fouled out of the event. He almost failed in the high jump but was able to recover. Mathias overcame his di ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Dutch Warmerdam
Cornelius "Dutch" Warmerdam (June 22, 1915 – November 13, 2001) was an American pole vaulter who held the world record between 1940 and 1957. He missed the Olympics due to World War II, and retired from senior competitions in 1944, though he continued to vault into his sixties. He was inducted into the International Association of Athletics Federations Hall of Fame in 1974. Warmerdam was born in Long Beach, California, the son of Dutch emigrants Adrianus and Gertrude Warmerdam. He grew up in Hanford, California. Because of his ancestry he was more commonly known to both friends and, later, to the media as "Dutch". Warmerdam got his start in pole vaulting in his backyard using the limb of a peach tree and landing in a pit of piled up dirt. He was discovered by the local track coach and vaulted for Hanford High School until his graduation in 1932, after which he attended and vaulted for Fresno State College. Vaulting throughout his career with a bamboo pole, Warmerdam was th ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Rafer Johnson
Rafer Lewis Johnson (August 18, 1934 – December 2, 2020) was an American decathlon, decathlete and film actor. He was the 1960 Olympic gold medalist in the decathlon, having won silver in 1956. He had previously won a gold in the 1955 Pan American Games. He was the USA team's flag bearer at the 1960 Olympics and lit the Olympic flame, Olympic cauldron at the 1984 Summer Olympics, Los Angeles Games in 1984. In 1968, Johnson, football player Rosey Grier, and journalist George Plimpton tackled Sirhan Sirhan moments after he had fatally shot Robert F. Kennedy. After he retired from athletics, Johnson turned to acting, sportscasting, and public service and was instrumental in creating the California Special Olympics. His acting career included appearances in ''The Sins of Rachel Cade'' (1961), the Elvis Presley film ''Wild in the Country'' (1961), ''Pirates of Tortuga'' (1961), ''None but the Brave'' (1965), two Tarzan films with Mike Henry (American football), Mike Henry, ''The La ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Tommie Smith
Tommie C. Smith (born June 6, 1944) is an American former track and field athlete and former wide receiver in the American Football League. At the 1968 Summer Olympics, Smith, aged 24, won the 200-meter sprint finals and gold medal in 19.83 seconds – the first time the 20-second barrier was broken officially. His Black Power salute with John Carlos atop the medal podium to protest racism and injustice against African-Americans in the United States caused controversy, as it was seen as politicizing the Olympic Games. It remains a symbolic moment in the history of the Black Power movement. Early life and career Tommie Smith was born on June 6, 1944, in Clarksville, Texas, the seventh of twelve children born to Richard and Dora Smith. He suffered from pneumonia as a child, but still grew to be an athletic youth. While attending Lemoore High School in Lemoore, California, Smith showed great potential, setting most of the school's track records, many of which remain. He won ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Henry Ellard
Henry Austin Ellard (born July 21, 1961) is an American former professional football player who was a wide receiver for the Los Angeles Rams (1983–1993), Washington Redskins (1994–1998), and the New England Patriots (1998) of the National Football League (NFL). Ellard also qualified for the Olympic trials in 1992 in the triple jump, although he injured his hamstring during the Trials and did not make the team. High school and college Ellard attended Hoover High School in Fresno, California. He won the CIF California State Championships in the triple jump in 1979 For college, Ellard stayed in town and attended Fresno State University from 1979 to 1982 where he set an NCAA record with 1,510 receiving yards in his final season. In Fresno State history, Ellard is tied for third in touchdown catches (25), fifth in receiving yards (2,947) and 11th in receptions (138). *1979: 9 catches for 136 yards with 3 TD *1980: 28 catches for 493 yards with 3 TD. *1981: 39 catche ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Jackie Robinson
Jack Roosevelt Robinson (January 31, 1919 – October 24, 1972) was an American professional baseball player who became the first African American to play in Major League Baseball (MLB) in the modern era. Robinson broke the baseball color line when he started at first base for the Brooklyn Dodgers on April 15, 1947. When the Dodgers signed Robinson, it heralded the end of racial segregation in professional baseball that had relegated black players to the Negro leagues since the 1880s. Robinson was inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1962. During his 10-year MLB career, Robinson won the inaugural Rookie of the Year Award in 1947, was an All-Star for six consecutive seasons from 1949 through 1954, and won the National League Most Valuable Player Award in 1949—the first black player so honored. Robinson played in six World Series and contributed to the Dodgers' 1955 World Series championship. In 1997, MLB retired his uniform number 42 across all major league tea ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Willie Gault
Willie James Gault (born September 5, 1960) is an American former professional football player who was a wide receiver in the National Football League (NFL) for 11 seasons with the Chicago Bears and Los Angeles Raiders. Considered one of the fastest NFL players of all-time, Gault was a member of the Bears team that won Super Bowl XX. He was also a member of the U.S. Olympic team that boycotted the 1980 Olympics. Gault played college football at the University of Tennessee from 1979 to 1982. He led the Vols in all-purpose yardage as a sophomore, junior and senior, and was named to the All-American team in 1982. He still holds numerous school kickoff return records.Individual Career Records , UTSports.com. Retrieved: August 8, 2013. Gault married his high school sweetheart, writer/author/actress Dain ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Bill Russell
William Felton Russell (February 12, 1934 – July 31, 2022) was an American professional basketball player who played as a center for the Boston Celtics of the National Basketball Association (NBA) from 1956 to 1969. A five-time NBA Most Valuable Player (MVP) and a 12-time NBA All-Star, he was the centerpiece of the Celtics dynasty that won 11 NBA championships during his 13-year career. Russell and Henri Richard of the National Hockey League are tied for the record of the most championships won by an athlete in a North American sports league. Russell is widely considered to be one of the greatest basketball players of all time. He led the San Francisco Dons to two consecutive NCAA championships in 1955 and 1956, and he captained the gold-medal winning U.S. national basketball team at the 1956 Summer Olympics. Despite his limitations on offense, as Russell averaged 15.1 points per game, his rebounding, defense, and leadership made him one of the dominant players of his e ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Fresno State
California State University, Fresno (Fresno State) is a public university in Fresno, California. It is one of 23 campuses in the California State University system. The university had a fall 2020 enrollment of 25,341 students. It offers bachelor's degrees in 60 areas of study, 45 master's degrees, 3 doctoral degrees, 12 certificates of advanced study, and 2 different teaching credentials. The university's facilities include an on-campus planetarium, on-campus raisin and wine grape vineyards, and a commercial winery where student-made wines have won over 300 awards since 1997. Members of Fresno State's nationally-ranked equestrian team have the option of housing their horses on campus, next to indoor and outdoor arenas. Fresno State has a Student Recreation Center and the third-largest library (by square footage) in the California State University system. The university is classified among "R2: Doctoral Universities – High research activity". Fresno is an Hispanic-serving in ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
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