With Jim Moyes we have published the definitive history of the state finals for all divisions and classes: The Fleet Feet of Spring: Michigan’s High School State Championships in Track & Field (available on Amazon). That’s where all the great stories are, as well as a complete listing of every state champion since 1895.
However, I realized a few years ago that I needed to go deeper in order to have the stats I need to do a professional job announcing the D1 Finals. For instance, a few years ago when Malachi Mosley of East Kentwood won the 400, I couldn’t be sure if he was the first-ever 9th grader to do so. Lots of times I’d like to announce that an athlete has achieved some historic milestone, but we simply didn’t have the facts and numbers to do so.
Years of research later, we now have something. Every week or so I’ll be publishing another boys event, now that the boys stats are mostly done. I am at work on the girls events primarily now, but that may take a long time as well.
Is it “complete”? It’s as complete as possible. Our goal is to show the top 8 in each event each year, with full names, schools, grades and mark, along with key marks in qualifying rounds. Yet some of that information is impossible to find.
For many years, results and newspaper reports did not give first names. We’ve dug through newspapers, yearbooks and census reports to find them, a process that still continues. For grades or year in school we’ve leaned heavily on yearbooks.
And then there’s missing marks. For a ridiculous number of years, results traditionally only showed the winning mark. Officials might have taken more times/marks, but they weren’t thought important enough to save. Not until 1967 were the performances for all placers listed in official results.
And top 8? Impossible to find for the years when they only kept track of the top 3 (1895-99), or top 4 (1900-29), or top 5 (1930-34), or top 6 (1935-61), or top 7 (1962-64). Top 8 only became a thing in 1965. And don’t even get us going on 1979-81, when the state inexplicably went back to doing only top 6.
Consider this a work in progress. And if you have access to any results or resources that can help us fill the gaps, please let us know.
Most importantly, it is your donations to our non-profit that make this work possible. Can you help support Michtrack?
BOYS EVENTS