in colored sweatshirts
Jeff Hawley `75 (front row), Mark Birschbach `76 (back row).
TO MY SURPRISE, I won the first cross country race that I ever ran. It was the fall of 1971. I weighed 117 pounds, was 5’7”, and had a crazy amount of energy. We beat JFK Prep school that day and I lead the race from start to finish. From then on, I was hooked. Throughout my career as a high school runner I had many goals. But at the top of the list was breaking the school mile record before I graduated. My best mile time as a freshman was 4:59, so I had some work to do if I was ever going to go under 4:32. It came down to the last race of my high school days, the state meet in Milwaukee for private schools. I was bursting at the seams with nervous energy. After the starting gun, I shot to the front of the pack and ran the first 440 yards in 63 seconds — an insane pace. I kept up this pace for the second lap, crossing the halfway point in 2:08. At the time I was thinking, “This record is mine.” However, I slowed considerably during the final two laps — finishing third in the race — but achieving my goal of breaking the record by three seconds. Following the race, I imagined the record would not be broken for a very long time. The next year, one of my best Wayland friends ever — Mark Birschbach `76 — broke it by one tenth of a second. Coincidentally, it was during the last high school race of his illustrious Wayland running career.
Jeff Hawley `75
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Support the future of Wayland Academy Create a gift without affecting your current income Make a difference in the lives of future students For more information contact: Tyler J. Ratajczak Leadership Gift Officer 920.356.2120 ext. 282
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ALTHOUGH I ATTENDED Wayland for its educational opportunities, sports have and always will be very important to me. The sports teams I played on at Wayland were very special to me — the undefeated football team, the conference champion basketball team, and the conference champion track team. My memories of the coaches and players I played with are still vivid. I remember our first football game, an away and non-conference game with only few fans in attendance. At the conclusion of the game, our headmaster, Mr. Ray Patterson Jr. `40, came running onto the field to personally congratulate each member of our team. He even mentioned to me a pass I had almost intercepted. I thought it was remarkable that a headmaster could be that connected with his students. As the year wore on I observed how involved he was in all of our activities. Later I realized the importance of that involvement for my future success, as it was in Mr. Patterson’s success as president emeritus and honorary trustee at Wayland Academy and as the president of the Milwaukee Bucks and the Houston Rockets. Mr. Leo Schnur was my track coach and math/precalculus teacher, as well as the father of a classmate. Although I tried out for track as a high jumper, Mr. Schnur had known from the gymnasium plaques that my uncle, Don Fitchett `27, had held the Wayland hurdle record for about 25 years. So he determined he would develop my genetic capability into a hurdler. We truly learned that whatever hurdling genes I had were really recessive, and I learned what a hard workout the runners had. Both of us were glad when I went back to the high jump.
tratajczak@wayland.org
David Fitchett `57 Greetings Fall 2017
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