LJ track: Sundlun tells stories

Tracy Sundlun, who coached Janice Wiser in 1974

when she won both sprints in the CIF State Meet

in Bakersfield, looks at photos of Janice (left in the

photo he's holding) and others. He was the coach

of the La Jolla Track Club, an AAU entity.

(Photo by Ed Piper)

By Ed Piper

Tracy Sundlun went into a reverie about his days traveling through the Pacific Northwest with retired NBA great Wilt Chamberlain, the formation of the SLO Track Club and La Jolla Track Club--and much, much more.

How did we get here? We wouldn't have had La Jolla senior Janice Wiser, who seemingly popped out of nowhere (she came from Washington, D.C.), dominating the sprints at the 1974 CIF San Diego Section meet, and a week later the CIF State Meet in Bakersfield.

Wiser finished the state meet second in the team standings as a one-girl team from LJHS. (The Vikings, under Coach Chuck Boyer, didn't yet have a girls team. Janice had to work out with the boys.)

"It wasn't that I selected the girls in the state meet," recalled Sundlun, a wunderkind among coaches, a savant who began coaching before he matriculated in college at Georgetown.

"(From the La Jolla Track Club, an AAU club) we had the athletes enter for their high schools. It wasn't about being greedy. We didn't think of the state title."

Janice won the 100 and 220. Another girl ran the 440, which Wiser also had trained in. "If I hadn't spread the chance to run in the state meet around, she would have won the state meet," he said, smiling.

But Sundlun's involvement went way beyond coaching Janice Wiser. Wiser went off to run at SDSU right after her one year at La Jolla High, and Tracy continued his activities with the La Jolla Track Club.

Janice Wiser (2, second from left) ran the 220-yard

as La Jolla Track Club broke the U.S. record

for the sprint medley at the San Diego Indoor Games

at SD Sports Arena Feb. 17, 1974. Kathy Lawson

(4, center) points upward after running a 110

right after Janice's opening sprint. Far right is

Patty Van Wolvelaere, who held off Mary Decker

in the 440 at the finish.

(from Tracy Sundlun's collection)

"In 1974, after Janice moved on, Wilt became the club sponsor. We changed the name to Wilt's Wonder Women. Essentially, Chamberlain funded the program. He signed over the check he received from Sports Illustrated for announcing his retirement from basketball (through an exclusive in the magazine)."

Sundlun, of average height, must have been quite a sight alongside the former NBA center, who measured 7'1" and weighed 275 in his playing days. That later went up to 350 pounds as he played professional volleyball in the short-lived International Volleyball Association.

Wilt also dabbled in track, in which, Sundlun maintains, he competed in multiple events besides the triple jump. His athleticism enabled him to score 100 points in an NBA game, the only player to do that. During halftime, it was reported, he would amaze teammates by eating entire meals, including several fruit pies to top it off, before heading back out to play the second half.

The track coach, Sundlun, said on their motorhoming trip through the Pacific Northwest in 1973, everyone knew and was drawn to the magnetic personality of Chamberlain. "I'm completely lost (driving the motorhome) in the hinterlands. Wilt is asleep in the back of the motorhome. We come to a (draw)bridge that is up because a boat is passing through. There's a knock on the door. 'Is Wilt Chamberlain here?' I said, 'Do I look like Wilt?' How they knew Wilt was in the motorhome..."

Sundlun helped introduce the track world to chiro-

practic at a clinic at Mira Costa College in early 1974

with these elite athletes. Dr. Leroy Perry held down shot

put world-recordholder Al Feuerbach's (far right, standing)

arm. He couldn't lift it. Then Perry "fixed" his arm, and

Al could lift it. 500 attendees watched in awe.

(Tracy Sundlun)