Petaluma High has history of track and field success

Petaluma High School has a long tradition of track and field excellence and contributions to the sport.

Track and field was one of the first sports introduced to Petaluma High School in 1915, where it existed as one of three sports options along with basketball and baseball.

According to Petaluma High track coach Doug Johnson, the old Petaluma high track was half a mile long (and also served as the fairgrounds racetrack) until it was rebuilt in the late 1940s around Durst Field, named after the school superintendent at the time.

Petaluma did not field a women’s team until 1972, when Title IX integrated cross country and track.

Petaluma’s first North Coast Section champion was Blair Hart in 1917. The state meet did not come into existence until 1921. Hart was able to clear 10-1 at the Berkeley meet, which included most Northern California teams. For those modern track athletes that scoff at this mark, consider how different track and field was in those days, with cinder tracks, sawdust pits and bamboo poles before modern materials such as carbon fibers, rubberized tracks and electronic timing.

The state meet was initiated in 1921, and Petaluma promptly produced its first State champion in Les Schwobeda, who won the 880-yard run in 1:59.2, and the following year took the mile in 4:40.0.

The 1920s were a sort of golden era for Petaluma track and field, as coaches Rathbone, Crow and Waltz produced champions Fred Ellsworth in the 1924 NCS 200 (22.9), Beckford Young in the state javelin (171-1) and shot put (49-2) in 1925 and the shot put (49-0) in 1926, while Eric White took the NCS mile in 1925 (4:52.2) and 1927 (4:39.0) and Jack Akers won the state javelin in 1927 (174-4).

The 1930s may belong to perhaps Petaluma’s greatest track and field creation, Tom Moore. Not only did Moore win the 1932 NCS 120 high hurdles and 220 low hurdles (15.7 and 24.5), and 1932 state 110 high hurdles in 14.4, but he went on to run at UC Berkeley, where he tied the world record in the 120 high hurdles (14.2) and was the national champion in the 400-meter hurdles. He would certainly have qualified for the 1936 Berlin Olympics in both the 120 and the 440-yard hurdles, but he contracted pneumonia prior to the trials and missed his date with Jesse Owens and dramatic war and race relations history.

Moore’s track and field accomplishments did not end there. He went on to found one of the great international track and field meets, the Modesto Relays, in 1942, and was a friend and mentor to many outstanding athletes as well as a tireless track and field promoter until his death in 2004. He was named to the Track and Field Hall of Fame in 1988, and the Modesto Relays was renamed the “Tom Moore Relays.” Not bad for a simple Petaluma kid.

To finish the 1930s story, Ken Battaglia was crowned NCS champ in the 220 (22.2) in 1936 and in the 100 and 220 (10.2 and 22.2) in 1937.

Coming up: The modern era.