Making Tracks

A person can't duck into the locker room these days without hearing someone ask, "How do you like the new track?" Besides being fun to run on - softer and faster than the 50-year-old cinder course it replaces 0 the new $190,000 outdoor rubber track, a gift in large part from Dusty Rohde '39, who was quite the sprinter in his day, is something- to talk about.

The same people are out running on it every day. Aside from the undergraduate athletes, there is a large squad of perennial athletes - a dean or two, financial aid and admission officers, several varieties of coach, doctors from the Medical School, and a few alumni hangers-on. Instead of commenting on the weather as they pound around the oval or huddle afterward in the sauna, they tout the virtues of "Rubaturf': "Soft, isn't it?" "Sure is easy on the old legs." "Drains well, doesn't it?" "Beats running in Leverone." "Bet we get some good meets here now."'

Track Coach Ken Weinbel calls the eight-lane, 400-meter track "one of the finest in the East" and says the College hopes to host events like the NCAA track and field championships before long. The brick-red surface is all natural rubber, and its porous construction eliminates the drainage problems of rubber asphalt and polyurethane tracks.

A female friend, out jogging after work, was accosted during her eighth lap by an alumnus her father's age. "How do you like the new track?" he asked. "Great," she said. "Why isn't it green?" he demanded.