Word: pattons
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Dates: during 1940-1949
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Dusty Victory. Mel Patton was born in Los Angeles, and like most great runners, had no speedsters in his family. His father, a power company lineman, was stocky and unstreamlined...
Quiet, dark-haired Jim Pursell, a onetime relay runner at U.S.C., was too wise to monkey with Patton's basic style of running. After one look at him, he decided that what the kid needed most was time to develop. Pursell kept him on the "B" squad as long as he dared (until Mel ran a 10.2 against Manual Arts High one day). Then the coach began to rub OR some polish...
...Float. At University High field, he taught Patton how to "float." The idea was, to explode off the blocks and drive like mad for 50 yards. Then he was to shift gears, i.e., relax while maintaining maximum speed (the way Patton describes it: "You just settle down and go along for the ride...
...When Patton first noticed that he was tense and tight before a race, Pursell reassured him: "If a runner is perfectly composed and at ease, he's no champion." Pursell was Patton's idol. When the coach suggested that Mel not dance ("It takes the tone out of your legs"), Mel didn't. He forsook swimming and lolling on the beach because Pursell advised him to. Pursell, no man to grab credit, told Patton that everything he knew about track he learned from Dean Cromwell...
Pursell wanted Patton to go to U.S.C. In 1945, already a polished sprinter, Mel Patton enrolled there. He had just finished a two-year hitch in the Navy without ever running a race, and hadn't shaken off his G.I. legs. He reported to Coach Cromwell...