DELAWARE SPORTS IN THE 1960S

With an increase in leisure time in the 1960s Delawareans took to the playing fields. Slow pitch softball, which had been unheard of in Delaware in 1960, had five leagues and 700 players in Wilmington alone by 1963. By the end of the decade there were 3000. Between 1958 and 1961 twenty-eight swimming pools were built in New Castle County, nearly doubling the state number and swimming was suddenly Delaware’s second most popular participant sport. Foreshadowing the coming running boom the first Caesar Rodney half-marathon in 1964 attracted 48 racers, twelve from Delaware. Two-time Olympian Browning Ross won in 1:07.24. In 1968 Delaware staged its first state-wide bowling tournament – previously competitions had been divided between lower Delaware and Wilmington - and 1550 kegelers entered.

There was more to do and less to watch in Delaware in the 1960s than ever before. It was the first decade in nearly 100 years with no minor league baseball. Only basketball’s Blue Bombers and an occasional football game offered a pro ticket in Delaware in the 1960s. 

Fans could watch the first Delaware state high school tournament games. There had been high school playoffs in Delaware before, in the loosely regulated Delaware Interscholastic Athletic Association in the 1920s for instance, but it wasn’t until the formation of the Delaware Secondary School Athletic Association, 68 members strong, in 1966 that Delaware got true statewide competition. The first state tournament in any sport was boys basketball, in 1967. Before a sellout crowd in the University of Delaware Fieldhouse Mt. Pleasant High School bumped cold-shooting Brandywine 49-38 to become the first Delaware high school state champion.

The 1960s were still glory days for horse racing in Delaware, albeit their last. Delaware Park and Brandywine Raceway gave the state a thoroughbred-standardbred daily double unsurpassed in America. Delaware pioneered Sunday racing in the country and in 1969 the tiny state was supporting four harness tracks. There was racing 11 months a year.

The 1960s could rightly be called the Decade of Women in Delaware sports. Margaret Varner, an El Paso native teaching in Delaware, won an unprecedented four consecutive national squash singles championships in 1960-63. She was also a member of the United States Wightman Cup tennis team and a two-time national champion in badminton. Gretchen Vosters Spruance was winning the first of 20 consecutive women’s Delaware state tennis championships. Rosemary Miller won trap-shooting’s greatest prize in the Grand American in 1968. Rita Justice was on the women’s pro bowling tour; Patsy Hahn on the LPGA tour. All these women were the best ever in their sports in Delaware.   

But the most significant happening for women’s sports occurred quietly on October 8, 1969. Behind the infirmary on the University of Delaware campus in Newark a group of women played the first intercollegiate women’s game in Delaware - almost 80 years to the day after the college’s first football game. The “Blue Chicks” or “Delaware Co-Eds” as the women’s field hockey team was clumsily called, beat Salisbury State 4-1 in that historic contest. There was enough money - $1500 - to fund only three sports and 768 university women selected basketball, swimming and field hockey as the first triumvirate. That hockey field, barren, unlined and sandwiched in the corner of the campus at Academy Street and Park Place was the Madison Square Garden of the women’s three venues. In Hartshorn Gym the pool was too shallow for diving so the first swim meets had to be held away. And for basketball the court ended abruptly in a brick wall under the baskets. The windows were welded shut so the players would roast during practices and games. It was of no concern to the fans however - there weren’t any bleachers for anyone to sit in anyway. The coaches, of course, worked for free.

From this deprived beginning the University of Delaware developed a strong women’s athletic program featuring 11 sports - with winning lifetime records in all. Their success filtered down through the high schools in Delaware and encouraged women to continue competing after graduation. Women were now commonplace in Delaware sports.

FIRST STATE SPORTS HERO OF THE DECADE: KELSO

 “Once upon a time,” wrote Joe Hirsch of the Daily Racing Form, “there was a horse named Kelso. But only once.” Delaware may never have had any ties to a Kentucky Derby winner but it can claim kinship with Kelso, the only horse who could ride in a posse with Man O’War and Secretariat.

Kelso was bred by Allaire du Pont, originally of Pennsylvania’s Main Line and former resident of Granogue. Although Mrs. du Pont, widow of Richard du Pont, moved to her Woodstock Farm in Chesapeake City, Maryland, where Kelso was stabled, she always considered herself a Wilmingtonian. Kelso was a grandson of Triple Crown winner Count Fleet and the son of Mrs. du Pont’s mare, Maid of Flight. He was named for Mrs. du Pont’s friend Kelso Alsop of Adams Dam Road in northern Delaware when he was foaled in 1957. Cosmically, in the racing sense, Kelso Alsop was co-owner of a party organizing firm known as Secretariat Limited.

Before he reached the racetrack Kelso was gelded, a genetic tragedy that inspired the Red Smith line, “the unkindest cut since Kelso.” His juvenile campaign produced one minor win and a pair of seconds. He was not a contender for the traditional Triple Crown events and was put in training with Carl Hanford, who it was written, “made a good horse great.” Kelso came on to win eight of nine starts as a 3-year old and was named Horse of the Year. The magnificent gelding went on to win that most coveted of all racing awards every year from 1960 through 1964. 

Before being forced from the track at age nine by a hairline fracture of the right ankle Kelso won at everything from six furlongs to two miles, on grass, in slop six inches thick and often burdened with top weights up to 136 pounds. In almost half of his victories - he had 39 in 63 starts - Kelso set or equalled track records.

At distances greater than a mile and a half he was probably the greatest race horse who ever lived. No horse ever beat him at two miles; he won the Jockey Club Gold Cup a that distance an unthinkable five straight times. Nearing eight, in his last big race at the 1964 International, Kelso romped home in 2:23.4 on grass - the fastest any horse had ever run on this continent.

Kelso banked only a small fraction of his record lifetime earnings of $1,977,896 in Delaware. He raced at Delaware Park only once, as an eight-year old in the 1965 Diamond Handicap. Kelso thundered home 3 1/4 lengths ahead that day. He had his own mail box for fan letters and received the social calls of respectful grooms and jockeys. Episcopal bishop of Delaware, Arthur McKinstry, was his private chaplain.

In retirement Kelso was lovingly cared for and ridden regularly on fox hunts by Mrs. du Pont. The old champion died in 1983 at the age of 26, one week after a rare public appearance at Belmont Park to lead the field onto the track for the 65th running of the Gold Cup, his former private showcase.

Hanford retired in 1968 and became a steward at Delaware Park where his daughter was a trainer. When he was inducted into the National Museum of Racing and Hall of Fame he said, “I’m here because of one horse and one horse only. I had a few stakes horses before, but they didn’t compare with Kelso.” 

THE STREAK

Bill Billings came to Middletown High School in 1962, taking over a football program that had struggled to a 14-54-3 record in its first nine years. Billings arrived from Edenton High School in North Carolina where he put together 77 wins and three ties in 95 games. On September 14 Billings’ Cavaliers, molded from a school of fewer than 500 students, got by Caesar Rodney in his first game, 19-6. Turn the calendar forward to 1967. Bill Billings was still dodging his first defeat at Middletown.

The unbeaten streak stretched through 53 games, although one game, a 52-6 thrashing of Smyrna, was disputed over an ineligible player. It was the longest such streak in Delaware history, the longest in America at the time. Only four of the games were decided by less than a touchdown. The average margin of victory was more than five touchdowns.

In 1966, with the streak at 44 games, Middletown tackled powerful Salesianum, previous holder of the record for consecutive wins with 29. The team from Wilmington outweighed the Cavaliers by 30 pounds a man and observers who knew about these things favored the Sallies by three touchdowns. Seating capacity at Middletown Stadium was 3,500; police estimated the crowd at 8,000. The Cavaliers scored a late fourth quarter touchdown to whip Salesianum 14-13. They were still streaking.

Middletown continued to try to upgrade its Diamond State Conference schedule by lining up larger schools. In 1967 proud Newark, themselves on a 24-game run under Bob Hoffman, ended the Middletown streak. Newark was the state’s winningest program at the time, having won 137 and lost only 32 in the previous 20 years. Middletown’s success would, however, continue under Billings. In 1971 the Cavaliers, then 91-4 under Coach Billings, reached the finals of the first Delaware state football tournament, losing a close 13-6 battle with big school Wilmington.

HARD COURTS: TERRY HASSALL

Before there was a Jimmy Connors or a John McEnroe there was Terry Hassall. A typical Hassall tennis match in the 1960s would be punctuated by a flying racket or pierced by a self-chastising scream. Fans never knew what to expect from the flamboyant Hassall. But one thing could always be counted on - Terry Hassall would leave the court a winner.

For the better part of a decade the P.S. du Pont High School product never lost a match in Delaware. After winning the state high school championship from 1964-66 Hassall compiled the finest men’s tennis record in the history of Delaware, including winning the Middle States singles title 10 times. An attacking serve-and-volleyer, he traveled the pro circuit a few times, playing the European tour, before settling in Pennsylvania as a teaching pro at the prestigious Merion Cricket Club in Philadelphia.

THE TEACHERS

Each grew up and starred in sports elsewhere but found in Delaware an ideal petri dish for their young athletes. One took local boys and girls and drilled and trained them into Olympians; the other attracted future Olympians from across the land. Between them they have brought as much international attention to the state as any transplant since E.I. du Pont.

Bob Mattson came to Wilmington in 1955 as a chemist for the Joseph Bancroft Co. At North Carolina State University he had been a four-time All-American swimmer, one-time holder of American and world records in both the breaststroke and individual medley. With the 1956 Olympics on the horizon he delayed his plunge into the everyday work world but failed in his quest. Had he had the training facilities he would one day give Delawareans Mattson may have been an Olympian himself.

In his spare time away from Bancroft, Mattson started a swim team. Soon his young charges numbered 400 and Mattson found himself spending as much time seeking out water for his burgeoning army as he did teaching. By 1963 he had reached a decision point in his life - maintain a comfortable life as a chemist or make swimming a full-time vocation. In Delaware it has always been easier to earn a living as a chemist than as a swimming coach but Mattson set out to build his own swimming facility.

Four years and many tens of thousands of dollars later the state-of-the-art Wilmington Aquatic School in New Castle was a reality. In 1968 Mattson developed his first Olympic swimmer, Dave Johnson. The most successful of his early pupils was Jenny Bartz who dominated Delaware and regional competitions until she departed for California in 1969 and then the 1972 Olympics. At Montreal in 1976 Wilmington Aquatic School member Steve Gregg brought home a silver medal.

Perhaps the best swimmer Mattson ever coached never made it to the Olympics. Jenni Franks was a 16-year old Mt. Pleasant High School All-American when she shattered the American record in the 400- meter individual medley. She tore through the Pan-American Games but failed at the 1976 Olympic Trials. Seeded first, she finished 11th. Shirley Babashoff won the event in a time four seconds - a swimming eternity - slower than Franks’ record.

Mattson once estimated that 10,000 people had gone under his tutelage at the Wilmington Aquatic School, aged three on up. He also helped several national teams prepare for major competitions. Despite his heavy teaching schedule Mattson found time to train himself, dominating Masters competitions for years. In 1994, besieged by economic reversals, Mattson was forced to move his Wilmington Aquatic Club to Alloway, New Jersey after 27 years. All in all Delaware has been well-served for having one less chemist.

Like Mattson, Ron Ludington was having trouble finding adequate facilitates for his students. The 1960 Olympic pairs medalist was seeking more ice time for his skaters while working in Indianapolis. The Wilmington Skating Club offered the additional hours, albeit after 10:30 p.m., and Ludington moved his small stable of pairs skaters and ice dancers to Delaware.

His first champions, ice dancers Judy Schwomeyer and Jim Sladky, came with him in the mid-1960s. In the next three decades Ludington-trained skaters would pile up more than three dozen national championships. Ron Ludington made Delaware a mecca for aspiring pairs skaters. 

In 1973 six of the 13-member United States Skating team were coached by Ludington. In 1976, with ice dancing now a part of Olympic competition, Susie Kelly and Andy Stroukoff of the Wilmington Skating Club represented the United States. They finished 17th of 17 couples. In pairs at the Innsbruck Olympics that year Alice Cook and William Fauver placed 11th.

At Sarajevo in 1984 Ludington’s most famous stars, Kitty and Peter Carruthers, won a silver medal in pairs skating - the first U.S. medal in the event since Ludington’s own 24 years earlier. Since then a Ludington team, while never duplicating the Carruthers’ success, has been at every Olympics. In 1988 at Calgary dancers Suzy Semanick and Scott Gregory finished sixth; in pairs Kim and Wayne Seybold skated to 10th.

In 1992 Ludington, now training his skaters at the University of Delaware, produced champions from the combustible “blue collar” team of Calla Urbanski and Rockie Marval. The story of Urbanski, a 31-year old Wilmington waitress who had skated 23 years, and Marval, a New Jersey trucker, captivated America but there was no storybook ending for the oft-feuding pair. They wound up 10th. At Lillihammer in 1994 the Delaware skating Olympians were Karen Courtland and Todd Reynolds.

It has been quite a legacy in exchange for a little ice time.

HOWARD SETS THE PACE

The 1962 Howard High School track team sported only six members but four - Lee Williams, Courtland Camper, Randy Brittingham and Spencer Henry - welded together into the fastest schoolboy 440-yard relay quartet in America that year. Flashing flawless baton passing the foursome won the Championship of America at the Penn Relays track and field carnival, the first conquering Delaware team ever at the meet, begun in 1894. The time for the Howard team was 43.0 seconds, equalling the fifth-fastest winning time at the Relays up to then.

George Johnson had seeded the 1962 team before retiring after 14 years at the helm of Howard track. The Bobcats seldom lost a meet in his tenure and during his last seven years there were seven state championships. Johnson’s Howard teams won six events at the Penn Relays, the nation’s oldest and largest track and field competition. Johnson, a track star at Howard and Indiana University, started the school’s cross country program and won 33 straight inter-school meets. There were state titles from 1956 thorugh 1959. When the state started a Track and Filed Hall of Fame in 1994 Johnson was a charter member.