“Around the Oval’’
By BOB LEDDY (TAFWA)
R.I. Track & Field Foundation
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7 Jan. – – One record was set while Lyndon B. Johnson occupied the White House; another during the post-Vietnam War era of the mid-70s. Still another mark was established at the dawn of girls’ participation in indoor track. Each of these state indoor standards have remained unsurpassed in those time frames (50, 40 and 30 years, respectively); each set by track greats who have since been inducted into the R.I. Interscholastic League Hall of Fame.
Charles Ajootian, of Classical High, set the R.I. state indoor shot put mark of 62 feet, 5.50 inches (19.03 meters) on Feb. 22, 1965. A decade later, high jumper Tim Walker, of Rogers High, cleared the bar at 7-1.50 (2.17) on March 10, 1975. And on March 17, 1985, Hope High’s Pam Hughes went 19-3.25 (5.87) in her record-setting long jump.
Track records are, of course, made to be broken. But these indoor marks are still being chased in 2015. Ajootian, Walker and Hughes remember their glory moments:
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Charlie Ajootian: “Virtually perfect form’’
It was on the afternoon of Feb. 22, 1965 that Classical High School student/athlete Charles Ajootian put the shot a winning distance of 62 feet, 5.50 inches (10.03 meters). The meet was the Brown Invitational, and it was held back then at the Howe-Waughtel Fieldhouse on the Moses Brown School campus. Ajootian was one of coaching legend Al Morro’s cadre of weight men.
“I do remember the [record] throw,’’ said Ajootian, a semi-retired attorney living in New Hampshire. “It was the only time in my throwing career that I had virtually perfect form. I remember thinking as I was in the middle of the throw: ‘I want to kiss this one goodbye’. Of course, I had no idea that that ‘goodbye’ would last 50 years.’’
After high school, Ajootian went to Harvard, where put the shot and concentrated on the weight throw event. In 1969 he won the 35-pound weight throw at the NCAA Indoor Division I championship. He was the 1969 Penn Relays hammer champion.
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Tim Walker: “There was real intensity’’
Walker was a gangly 5-foot-11 high jumper on the Rogers High squad, coached by the legendary Charlie Gibbons. At the Eastern States Championship, held at Princeton’s Jadwin Gym, Walker – then a senior – took the high jump in tough competition with a leap of 7 feet, 1.50 inches (2.17). He is one of three prep high jumpers in state track history to reach the 2.13-meter plateau. (Hope High’s Erik Clinton cleared 7 indoors, and South Kingstown’s Dave Arundel holds the R.I. outdoor standard at 7-1 (2.16).
“I had done 7-1/2,’’ said Walker, now a Pasadena, Calif. resident. “I used to go in at 6-8, and 6-10. I remember I missed that first jump [at 7-1.50]. Then, I flew over the bar with real intensity. You don’t know [of a clearance] until you’re up over the bar. Mechanics are for practices. You don’t think about that as you’re competing. You get off the ground with speed. You finish the jump, and then you’ll know what happened. It was a big head trip, jumping a foot over my head,’’ he said. “My focus was that I was shorter than everyone else.’’
Of his longstanding record jump, Walker said, “I’m not shocked [it lasted], but I am surprised.’’
Walker, a graduate of the University of Southern California (USC), is Executive Director of Pupil Services and Special Education for the Riverside Unified School District. One of his daughters, Alexis, is a member of the UCLA track squad. Her current best high jump mark is 5-11.50 (1.82).
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Pam Hughes: “I just went for it’’
The long jump event was years away from being included at the State Indoor Championships. But at the National Scholastic Championship meet – held at the same Princeton site where Tim Walker competed 10 years earlier – Hope High’s Pam Hughes made history. She got off a jump of 19 feet, 3.25 inches (5.87), a record that, while having been approached, has never been eclipsed.
“I still find it hard to believe that it has stood this long,’’ said Hughes. “That day is one I will never forget. I could not get my mark, and fouled the first two jumps. The last and final jump, I just went for it. I remember running as fast as I could, hit the board and soared!
“I remember waiting for them to say that I fouled again, but those words never came. When they announced that I had jumped 19-3.25 I jumped up and screamed. It was a great feeling. I left there the national long jump champion. I am humbled and proud of that accomplishment.’’
Hughes is a longtime probation and parole officer for the state Department of Corrections. Her daughter, Destiny Hughes-Barnes, is a junior on the Hope track team.