Coach Herb McKenley was very impressed with the Penn Relays team, as he said they performed extremely well in conditions that they were not accustomed to. The team was celebrated by hundreds of schoolboys and schoolgirls as they returned to the island.

Published Wednesday, April 28, 1965

Big welcome for schools' athletes

HUNDREDS OF schoolboys and schoolgirls, KSAC Commissioner Eustace Bird and headmasters Douglas Forrest and Wesley Powell all joined forces to give the Kingston College (KC) and Excelsior School relay teams a tumultuous welcome home from the Penn Relays yesterday afternoon.

As the athletes came down the ramp of the P AA airliner at 1:35 p.m., a resounding roar and deafening school cheers rang out from the Palisadoes Airport’s waving gallery where the huge crowd, which also included old boys, had gathered to welcome home the all-conquering young athletes who had brought off three spectacular victories in the United States high-school meet.

The KC team of Lennox Miller, Rupert Hoilette, Jimmy Grant, Gregory Ramsay and Tony Keyes had pulled off victories in the 4×110 and 4×440 relays, while Excelsior’s Neville Myton romped the mile in his fastest time ever, 4:17.1. Excelsior’s mile relay team of Neville Myton, Maurice Myton, Trevor Angus and Frederick Lyons, badly hampered by an injury to Angus who was spiked in both heats and final, finished fourth.

In congratulating the athletes, Commissioner Bird said: “All Jamaica is proud of you, boys. You gave your country a great boost and it was also a fine thing that you were able to make this trip, for the experience you gained is certain to benefit your athletic careers."

KC skipper Lennox Miller, replying on behalf of both teams, said they were all thankful for the assistance that had been given so that the teams could compete, and he was very happy that they had lived up to the expectations.

Impressed

Government athletic coach Herb McKenley, who accompanied the teams, said that the performances were excellent, more so as they had been achieved under adverse and unaccustomed conditions. The weather, he said, was cold, the mile relay was not run in lanes and the track was heavy and dusty.

At one stage in the mile relay, he said, it appeared that KC would have been beaten by White Plains, but Miller ran an excellent third leg and then Hoilette streaked away on a “fabulous 48.2 last leg” to edge the American team by one-tenth of a second.

Hollette’s 48.2 in the heavy track would have been about 46.7 at the stadium, said McKenley.

McKenley said Excelsior were expected to finish second, but Angus’s inexperience and the jostling for positions that went on resulted in his being spiked twice and losing a lot of ground which not even two fine legs by the Myton brothers could regain.

He said that the Americans were so impressed by the performances that many were amazed at the form of athletes so young, and many colleges were offering them scholarships.

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