Record resonates 50 years later
Relay team reflects on magical time
At a linoleum-laden diner attached to a hotel in Delaware, Jerry Richey made the bold, outof-character claim he still remembers to this day.
Coach, we’re going to break the world record today.
Jim Banner, then the head coach of Pitt track and field, went back to his breakfast. Banner didn’t want his indoor distance medley relay team thinking about records on Feb. 27, 1971. Winning at the Delaware Invitational would be difficult enough. But Richey, Michael Schurko, Smittie Brown and Ken Silay did more than win.
Fifty years ago, the Panthers clocked an indoor distance medley relay time of 9 minutes, 39.7 seconds, setting an American and world record. Thanks in large part to Richey’s fourminute mile, Pitt’s relay team outpaced William & Mary’s 1970 record by three seconds.
Pitt’s time, if adjusted for today’s metric distance, also remains a school record. Officially, Pitt’s showing of 9:39.03 in 2007 sits atop the charts. But in 1984, track and field moved from English units (quarter-mile, halfmile, etc.) to metric units (400 meters, 800 meters, etc.). In total, the indoor medley relay’s pre-1984 distance of 2.5 miles is 24 yards longer than the current 4,000 meters. Pitt’s 1971 time, adjusted to a slightly shorter track, would be roughly 9:36.2.
On a national scale, Pitt’s 1971 adjusted number would have won every national championship through the switch to the metric system. The distance medley relay wasn’t run at the NCAAs from 1986-93, and in 1994, Arkansas’ indoor distance medley relay crossed in 9:30.07.
Calculations and decimal points aside, the Panthers set a world record five decades ago. That’s all that matters to Richey, Schurko, Silay and Brown.
“We knew the potential was there,” Brown said. “If we ran some of our best times, we knew we would break the world record.”
Pitt’s pursuit began years before that day at Delaware, in the Pittsburgh area no less. All four members of the indoor distance relay team grew up in Western Pennsylvania. Silay went to Avalon High School. Brown grew up in Coraopolis. Schurko starred at Bethel Park, while Richey rivaled him at North Allegheny.
Richey arrived at Pitt and met high expectations from the jump. As a freshman in 1968, the 19year-old became Pitt’s first athlete to run a sub-four-minute mile, clocking in with a 3:58.6 at Franklin Field in Philadelphia. Richey later competed in the 1968 Olympic Trials and won the indoor 2-mile at the 1970 NCAA championships. Richey was ideal to run the closing mile on Pitt’s relay team.
Out of the gates, Banner turned to Silay. A sophomore at the time of the record, Silay never ran cross country before coming to Pitt. He competed in the 880-yard run at Avalon, but it was his WPIAL football acumen that made him cut out to lead the relay.
“The only pressure in that spot was fighting your way out,” said Silay, a running back in his day. “And I liked the contact.”
It showed at the Delaware Invitational as Silay jockeyed Pitt into prime position. After the starting pistol went off around 3 p.m., echoing while a capacity crowd of 4,000 waited with bated breath, Silay ran stride for stride with the Panthers competition of the day: Manhattan College. Silay clocked a time of 1:54.5, while the Jaspers’ John Lovett came in at 1:54.2.
After his half-mile push, Silay handed the baton to Brown, Banner’s choice for the quarter-mile dash.
Brown always believed the Panthers could set a record that day. Silay admittedly wasn’t
aware of the time to beat, figuring his teammates shielded the sophomore from any unnecessary pressure. Schurko also said his focus was just beating Manhattan. But Brown acknowledged that he thought about the record a night earlier. He visualized how the race would go and set a lofty goal for himself.
Brown wanted to clock in at under 48 seconds. Still to this day, 50 years later, the Coraopolis native is a little annoyed with himself that he finished the relay’s quarter-mile in 48.2 seconds. On top of that, after the record was sealed, Pitt gifted each runner a plaque denoting their personal time. Brown laughed that it’s a constant reminder of his “disappointing” 48.2-second time.
But Brown’s lap hardly cost the Panthers. The senior was right on par with Manhattan’s Al Logie, setting up Schurko for his ¾-mile run.
Of all his teammates, Schurko’s path to Pitt was the most circuitous. He actually spurned the Panthers in the
recruiting process, opting to run at Penn State. “That was certainly a mistake,” Schurko said.
Schurko was at Penn State for two years before getting into what he labeled “an incredible brouhaha” with then Nittany Lions head coach Harry Groves. Schurko developed an “acrimonious, bitter feud” with Groves, and the two got into a fistfight at Beaver Stadium. The scuffle — which was broken up by former Penn State football star Mike Reid, Schurko said — led to the runner’s suspension and eventual transfer.
Undeterred, Banner offered Schurko a scholarship, and the former Bethel Park standout returned to Pittsburgh for an unlikely union with Richey, his longtime rival. Turns out, the two developed a close friendship — and fittingly, it was Schurko handing off the baton to Richey for the final laps.
Schurko started his ¾-mile run behind Manhattan’s Joe Savage and missed out on catching him. Both clocked impressive
numbers as Savage posted a 2:55.8 and Schurko recorded a 2:57.3, leaving Richey about 10 yards behind Manhattan’s twotime All- American, Tom Donahue.
“The excitement was amazing,” said Ken Balkey, a Pitt runner and one of many along the track offering support. “Fans knew the record was within reach of both teams.”
Richey secured Schurko’s handoff and was off. He caught up to Donahue quickly, then tucked behind him for the first six laps on the 220-yard tartan surfaced track. Two laps remained. “I liked running from behind because it’s psychologically easier to sit on someone’s shoulder than break away from them from the front,” Richey explained. He made his surge before the seventh lap of eight.
From there, it was “a burn to the finish,” as Richey pulled away from Donahue. It was a team effort. But The New York
Times headline the next day told the story: “Pitt, Anchored by Richey’s 3:59.7 Mile, Sets Indoor Mark in Distance Relay.”
“That fact that we set that record is really on Jerry more than anybody else. There’s no question about that,” Schurko said. “All the performances prior to his sub-4-minute mile were good. But it was that burst of excellence from him that allowed us to set the record. ... It’s hard to break four minutes indoors. It was a tremendous feat.”
And they celebrated accordingly. First, they had two more events to run.
Then a five-hour bus ride from Delaware Field House to Oakland. Finally, the bubbly.
Richey and Schurko, both married, drank champagne with their wives at Schurko’s Highland Park apartment. Richey quipped that they didn’t have the money to regularly drink champagne at the time, but the occasion called for it. Schurko at one point threw his glass at his fireplace after a toast “like they did in the movies.”
Brown, meanwhile, wasn’t 21 years old yet. “But we threw some back anyway,” Brown said with a chuckle. “We were excited. We made news. We made Pitt proud.”
Pitt’s 1971 season didn’t end at the Delaware Invitational. Two weeks later, Richey, Schurko, Silay and Dorel Watley won the indoor distance medley relay with a time of 9:45.7 at the NCAA championships in Detroit.
But the highlight of Pitt’s 1971 campaign happened in Newark, Del., 50 years ago to the day Saturday. “It was a great day,” Brown said, one he, Richey, Silay and Schurko still talk about. The quartet, as well as Balkey and two-dozen former teammates, get together every year for a night in Pittsburgh.
They gather to remember Banner, their late coach. They reminisce about the record. And they share their stories — not just from 1971, but what has happened since. Richey moved to California. Schurko serves as an elected official in Indiana Township. Silay retired to Naples, Fla. And Brown lives in Harrisburg. But all four stay in touch.
“The amazing thing is, we’re all still alive and we’re all still close,” Brown said. “We’ve been in each others’ lives for the last 50 years. To me, that’s the better story.”