WALLACE D. WILLIAMS Olympic Marathon Runner 1988 Seoul Olympics

Wallace Williams representing the Virgin Islands in the 1984 IAAF World Cross-Country Championships…Meadowlands, New Jersey USA…Photo by: Mike Kuczanski

I went to Durham School when it was in what had to be the second Durham school building for first grade, then to Our Lady of Perpetual Help School through eighth grade then back to Durham for three years and then to Campbellsville High for my senior year. Don Shaw was our Cross-Country coach, Woody Barwick coached track and field.

I am excited about the construction of the track at the Durham school.

We, The Virgin Islands, have a track team in the IAAF World Championships in Daegu, South Korea in 2011 for which I am responsible and unfortunately couldn’t be home for the reunion that year and dedication of the track.

I am interested in assisting with the continued development of the track and proposed to the Durham Reunion Organizing Committee that we start by doing a run/walk this in 2013 and perhaps to make it a fundraiser for the facility with future run/walks.

Note:

1] back in the 60's there was a dirt track in the exact spot the track you now have. Durham student/athletes John Able, Joe Rowe, Owen Russell Johnson, John Henry Anderson will remember it well. I used to run behind John Able on it, the guy was amazing, he actually ran around the thing with 5 pound ankle weights on each leg.

2] what was perhaps the first road race in Campbellsville history took place at Durham and it started just a few meters from the track in 1961. It was a May Day celebration. The distance was two miles on Roberts Road it went out to Mr. Jeanie Smith's house on Roberts Road. Clem Haskins who must have been a sophomore at DHS won it. I think Owen Russell was in it too. I remember Lonnie Johnson and I following the race on our bikes.

3] As I recall, the closest thing we had to a track and field meet was May Day…I remember we had high jump. I want to believe it was Jimmy Scott who was the best jumper. Then there was the road race. Coach John Whiting was the organizer for that. It started right about where the creek crosses the road. There was no track team and even though I was a star on the OLPH basketball team, I wasn’t good enough for the Durham teams so I was the team manager/statistician for my years there, an experience that would prepare for what I do up to today.

4] During my senior year at CHS, we didn’t have a track and I wasn’t good enough for the basketball team there either. I did do cross-country. Coach Don Shaw was our coach. For some reason we only had one meet and it was on the Golf Course on Hodgenville Road. Needless to say it was a proud moment when Coach Shaw authorized my purple and gold letter jacket with the bar and xc on the letter.

5] My track career as a runner began in 1964 when one day in PE CHS taught by Coach Shaw, we had to run a 440…Coach Woody Barwick who was the track coach saw my time and just like that I’m slated to come out for track. The meet I remember was the conference meet at Fort Knox. I can’t remember if I ran the 440 but I do remember running the 4 x 440 and having cinders thrown in my face by Butch Beard from Breckenridge County HS and Mr. 1965 Basketball for Kentucky.

Needless to say, these were inspirational times for all of us. Without doubt sports and particularly for me, basketball and track and field laid the groundwork for my life’s experience. Our sports heroes were our classmates…our hometown guys…guys like Chick Taylor, Joe Rowe, Paul Haskins, Clem Haskins and Charles Graves among others who stared in both sports at Taylor Count HS. Mikey Brown CHS who like won the state track and field championship single handed and my team mate and Sprinter Danny Ballenger among others.

Kentucky High School Track and Field Championship 1st Place Mile Relay 1964 medal won by Taylor County High School boys team…this one belongs to Joe Rowe, my classmate at Durham before he transferred to Taylor County…we were so excited for the guys…he let me hold on to it over 57 years ago…I will return it to him soon…

The experience then prepared me for what I could never have known…

That I would sit out a year after high school and help my ill grandmother while working a full-time job in Louisville…

Through the inspiration of Clem among others, particularly my uncles George Spaulding and Clarence Spaulding Jr. who were on the pioneer Durham basketball team…and those other great Durham athletes…I ultimately honed my basketball skills on the Louisville playgrounds…one of my playground league coaches was Fred Stoner, Muhamad Ali’s first trainer…on one day get to team up with Wes Unseld, one of his brothers Reggie, Russell Golden, my buddy Leonard Sweeney and others at Freedom Hall in a scrimmage against a Kentucky HS All-star team…walk-on for cross-country and basketball at Bellarmine College under Coach Jim Spaulding…one night our varsity played Centre College and on the team was my classmate from Durham, James Arthur Davis…we were both considered to be nerds at Durham, for sure he was…so now we are playing college ball,,,to become a four year Vietnam era veteran while continuing to hone my basketball skills on base and squadron teams Amarillo and Reese Air Force Bases…after the Air Force walk-on at nationally ranked Northeastern Illinois Univ. and become leading scorer with who would become NBA veteran referee Danny Crawford…hit the pro/am circuit for little while…one day having a scrimmage with Chicago playground legend Billy Harris under basketball pioneer the great John McClendon…team- up with Sonny Parker (father of Jabarie Parker), Mickey Johnson …experience the generosity from the guys in the NBA (Clem, Butch and Garfield Smith) the free tickets to games in Chicago Stadium when they were in town…

There are many other youngsters to inspire, the sports of basketball and track and field is a great tools. When the new track and field facility at Durham School helps to produce one male and one female productive citizen, it will have paid for itself.

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