Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SATURDAY, April 14, 1990 TAG: 9004140334
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: B1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE:
DATELINE: LENGTH: Long
They're having a birthday bash two weeks from today.
The Cosmopolitan Club track meet will celebrate its 25th anniversary. President Bush, 1988 Olympian Florence Griffith Joyner and other dignitaries have been invited.
This is no ordinary track meet. Virginia High School League Executive Director Earl Gillespie says it might be the oldest continuous sanctioned track meet in Virginia.
Gillespie said he remembers sanctioning the Cosmo for the longest time, but he is not certain that the Peninsula Relays aren't as old or older. All such track meets must be approved by the VHSL, but there are no records of when the two events were first sanctioned.
For Cox Cable repairman Jessie Monroe, the Cosmo, as the event is called, has a special meaning.
"He was fixing our cable and noticed the medals in my house," says Harry Whiteside, who was one of the founding fathers and now is in charge of keeping the Cosmo going.
"His eyes lit up and he said, `I have one of those.' "
Monroe, who ran six years in junior and senior high, never set any records or won any championships at the Cosmo in the early to mid 1970s, but he got a lot more out of his participation than simply winning.
"I used to get excited about it. William Fleming won three championships while I was there and I looked forward to the Cosmo," Monroe said. "Kids from this area got up for the meet. You wanted your best to come out in that meet because you were performing in front of the local fans and your families."
Monroe has been back to watch the Cosmo a few times. And he said he hopes to be there April 28 at noon in the parade of athletes that will include present and past participants.
To this day, coaches at Fleming, Roanoke's perennial power, insist the Cosmo is a big meet for the Colonels. That's despite the fact that Fleming teams travel hundreds of miles to other meets in the spring.
Former Fleming track coach Sherley Stuart said the Cosmo is big because it is the only weekend opportunity for the school's athletes to be seen locally by their families and friends.
Whiteside, the current meet director, estimates that over the years about 15,000 youths have run in the Cosmo.
Providing that opportunity took a lot of work.
The Cosmo didn't have a smooth start.
"The year we decided to have the first meet," Whiteside said, "many of the schools had other commitments."
Four schools - Patrick Henry, William Fleming, Jefferson and Addison - fit the first Cosmo into their schedules in 1966. Jefferson and Addison now are closed.
Whiteside said he got the idea to ask the Cosmopolitan Club to sponsor the event because there were no other local track meets of note.
"Ed Rushton [Roanoke City schools' superintendent] thought it was great and it took off," Whiteside said.
When the first Cosmo was held at William Fleming, the club made it a big event. Patrick Henry athletic director Dave Osborne, who coached the Fleming track team in the 1960s, said the timers and judges, who were members of the sponsoring club, wore coats and ties.
"They had chicken dinners for the coaches and borrowed the same Bulova watches that had been used in the Penn Relays. They had to put the watches in a safe at night," said Osborne.
The Cosmo didn't step into the big time until three years later when it moved to the new all-weather track at Roanoke College. It had begun to grow in 1967 when more teams started to enter.
Although its inception came out of a need for a local event, the Cosmo's image had to be extracted from the shadow of its predecessor.
Before the Cosmo, there was the City-County, regarded as the biggest meet in the area.
"The City-County had been dropped for a year or two," Osborne said. "We found out the Cosmopolitan Club was interested in sponsoring a track meet. We went to a dinner meeting with them. They agreed to do it."
But as the Cosmo grew, the City-County refused to be forgotten.
Most of the same schools from Roanoke were participating in the new event as they had in the City County, and, early on, quite a few people still believed the Cosmo was the City-County. Indeed, when Lord Botetourt and Franklin County were invited to participate in the Cosmo in the 1970s, it became an issue.
"Some people objected because they thought it was the city-county championships. They thought it should be strictly [Roanoke] city-county schools," said Bob Sandy, who was then the coach at William Fleming.
"The coaches wanted to invite those two schools because they were close by."
Eventually, the interlopers were welcomed by all.
There never have been more than 10 senior high schools and six or seven junior highs in the meet. This year, nine high schools entered.
The boys' portion of the Cosmo has been a one-sided event. Fleming hasn't lost a boys' team championship since 1971. Sandy started the streak as Fleming coach after Addison, coached by Stuart, beat the Colonels. Oddly, Stuart moved to Fleming after Sandy.
"I didn't realize we'd start that kind of a streak," said Sandy. "I didn't have a crystal ball or anything."
The only blemish against Fleming after 1971 came when Salem tied the Colonels for the 1982 title. Sandy was the coach of that Spartans team. Fleming even won last year's event, though the Colonels were upset 12 days later by Cave Spring in the Roanoke Valley District. It was the first time Fleming had lost the RVD championship.
Girls' track teams came into the meet during the mid 1970s, and no team has dominated. Fleming and Salem have had the best overall performances over the years.
The junior highs have been a part of the Cosmo almost from the beginning, with good reason, Sandy said.
"We pushed for the junior high kids because they needed to come see the older kids run, see all the hoopla so that it might inspire them to run the next year in high school," said Sandy.
Whiteside said the Cosmo's record for entries is 859, set in 1977. Participation dropped to 698 the next year when Jefferson closed.
Marvin Lemon, 82, typifies the track interest that has come out of the Cosmo. He is not a member of the Cosmopolitan Club, yet he has been a judge or timer in all the meets.
"I knew Harry Whiteside and I guess he's the one who got hold of me," said Lemon, who ran high hurdles and was a high jumper for Duke University.
"He knew I had run track. I don't know how he knew, he just did. It's sort of fun to see the young people come along and develop," Lemon said.
Lemon ran track for Jefferson High in 1926-27, but he didn't go to Duke just to participate in athletics.
"There's not much difference in track today. Except the high jump. At that time, your feet had to go over the bar at the same time as your head. We couldn't use the modern techniques [of head first in the Fosbury Flop] and it made a difference."
Whiteside said the meet has gone on without major controversy.
"I can't remember a case when any athlete, coach or official hasn't shown good sportsmanship," said Whiteside. "I can never remember a protest."
There have been, Whiteside said, only three directors - Whiteside for the first 10 years, the late Bennie Irvin and, until this year, Hugh Key.
This doesn't mean the Cosmo is without problems. In recent years, people have complained that the meet was disorganized. And there is a problem of time - most of the workers have aged and there are few young people involved to keep the meet going another 25 years.
"I hope there will be someone to take over," said Whiteside. "But there is no one that I can see doing that now. That's a problem that we'll have to deal with someday."
Though President Bush gave an early refusal to participate, Sandy has renewed the attempt to get the nation's chief executive. He sent some information to Barbara Bush during her visit to the Roanoke Valley on Thursday.
He also is working to get another Olympian, Jackie Joyner-Kersey, if Florence Griffith Joyner can't visit, and he is inviting Kenya's Paul Ereng, the current world-record holder in the 800-meter run who attends Virginia.
Whiteside said he also hopes to line up a band to help the noontime parade. With or without the fanfare of special guests or a band, the Cosmo stands on its own as a monument that not everything is overcome by time.
by CNB