This year marks the 50th anniversary of John F.
Kennedy’s 50-mile hike challenge. A limited number of individuals took up that challenge. Fewer still completed it in less than the required 20 hours.
Let us relive one group’s experience in honor of all those champions of physical fitness who endeavored to complete that most taxing feat.
President Kennedy confirmed his commitment to improving the nation’s fitness after his election by publishing “The Soft American” in Sports Illustrated. He followed that up by discovering an executive order from Theodore Roosevelt challenging U.S. Marine off cers to finish 50 miles in 20 hours. The president thought it to be a good gauge of a person’s fi tnessand wondered out loud about the condition of the White House staft . Press Secretary Pierre Salinger deftly sidestepped that issue. Attorney General Robert Kennedy accepted the test and completed the full distance through snow and slush.
However, the real brunt of the 50-mile hike was with the public at-large. Early in 1963, many Americans took the hike as a challenge from their president. High schools, in particular, embraced the challenge.
Nonetheless, most school administrations did not accept the responsibility of 50 miles. They reasoned that the 50-mile hike was fine for mature Marines, but they preferred a25-mile hike for their high school students. Still, President Kennedy put his signature on a “Certifi cate of Completion” for those students up to the task.
Coach Jack Detos Cook, head cross-country and track coach at Tranquillity Union High School in California, refused to scale down. “You do not say no to the president and neither should you cut in half what the president asks of you. Let it be known that Tranquillity High School in Tranquillity, Calif., will not only tackle the 50-mile hike but will have the highest percentage of fi nishers in the Central California Valley.”
Coach Cook, who was born in Golden City, Mo., was not bragging. He had the resume to back up his words. His success as a track coach, setting a national interscholastichigh school (Tranquillity High) record of 79 consecutive dual-meet wins, led him to Allan Hancock Jr. College. After four very successful years, he went on to coach at University of Nevada-Reno for 21 years with even greater success. He was inducted into the University of Nevada-Reno Hall of Fame in 1989.
Right oft, Coach Cook set out a schedule of drills to ensure those taking up the 50-mile challenge would succeed. He scheduled the 50-mile hike for the fi rst Saturday in May, giving the hikers fi ve weeks to practice. Besides the exercises the hikers went through every day, they had to run-walk a set number of miles every other day. He left nothing to chance. Coach Cook worked with the hikers concerning every detail,from footwear to diet.
When that Saturday came, 67 hikers boarded school buses at 1 a.m.
The buses took them 49.5 miles from the high school. Hours later when the weary but happy hikers made it back to Tranquillity High School, they fi nished the 50 miles by going twice around the school’s quarter-mile track. Coach Cook had carefully planned the route from Mercy Hot Springs to Tranquillity. Two school buses carried the hiker’s extra pair of running shoes and an extra clothes.
One bus stayed close to the faster hikers. Any hiker who developed blisters (rare, due to Coach Cook’s preparation) or just could not go any farther was taken by car to ride in one of the buses.
At 3 a.m. the students and some coaches set oft to test their fitness. Seven hoursand 33 minutes later, Albert Rios crossed the fi nish line.
Rosie Rios completed the family sweep by being the first girl to finish. In all, 49 finished the 50-mile hike.
Coach Cook’s prediction was right: 73 percent of the hikers fi nished the hike, thanks to his detail to preparation. Coach Cook was the only one of the coaches to finish. He was 45 years old.
Those students who tackled John F. Kennedy’s 50-mile hike have lifelong memories connected with it. If you happen to know one of them, ask him or her about it. They remember it, 50 years later.
ROSS SANCHEZ WAS A SENIOR AT TRANQUILLITY UNION HIGH SCHOOL WHEN THE HIKE DESCRIBED OCCURRED. HE IS A RETIRED TEACHER AND COACH WHO MOVED TO ROGERS SIX YEARS AGO.
Opinion, Pages 11 on 07/21/2013