Anchors Aweigh! Navy Wins NCAA Team Title

Celebrating A Century of NCAA Track & Field Championships

Anchors Aweigh! Navy Wins NCAA Team Title

As today is Veterans Day, we focus on the 75th anniversary of the only service academy to win a team title at the NCAA Outdoor Track & Field Championships – Navy, in 1945.

World War II brought a lot of changes to the United States and that included the NCAA Outdoor Championships in 1944 and 1945, when Navy personnel were not allowed to be away from campus longer than 48 hours. NCAA meets in both years were thus held on one day instead of the then-normal two days.

Marquette Stadium in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, played host to the NCAA meet in each of those years and fuel rationing meant that many programs were unable to send athletes. In fact, even Navy didn’t send anyone in 1944, despite winning its first IC4A crown with a meet-record score.

The 1945 Navy team, however, was even better and proved it by beating defending NCAA champion Illinois in the meet’s closest-then tabulation by just 3⅕ points (If you’re wondering how a team got one-fifth of a point: There were several ties in field events on the 10-8-6-4-2-1 scale).

The Midshipmen had three champions – John Van Velzer in the 100 yards (10.1), Bill Kash in the 440 yards (49.8) and Robert Patton in the javelin (191-1). Patton led a 1-3-5 finish that would eventually only be surpassed by 1-2-3 sweeps in 1964 (Oregon) and 2019 (Mississippi State). Frank Kelley, who was third in the javelin, also scored in the pole vault, tying for fifth.

Not scoring any points for the Middies might have been the team’s best athlete, then known as Clyde L. Scott, who missed the NCAA meet for academic issues. Scott finished the year with the world’s second-fastest time in the 220 hurdles and three years later won the NCAA 110 hurdles title for Arkansas, gaining the name “Smackover” for his hometown in the same state.

Navy then had a famous athlete as its head coach – Earl Thomson, who won the 120-yard hurdles for Dartmouth in the very first NCAA Championships in 1921 in a world record after winning Olympic gold the previous year in Antwerp, Belgium.

posted: November 11, 2020
1921-2021
The NCAA's First Championships

The NCAA and collegiate track & field will mark a momentous milestone in the spring of 2021 -- the 100th anniversary of the NCAA Championships and with that, the NCAA Track & Field Championships. In June 1921, the University of Chicago hosted the first track & field championships in NCAA history.

This point can’t be emphasized enough: Not only was the event the first for NCAA track & field, but the first championships for any sport under the sponsorship of the NCAA.

To celebrate, over each of the next 365 days, the U.S. Track & Field and Cross Country Coaches Association (USTFCCCA) will celebrate moments, student-athletes, and coaches that have made a century’s worth of championships special. From humble beginnings to important historical milestones to the modern-day, collegiate track & field has evolved with the American society.

The 2021 edition of the NCAA Division I Outdoor Track & Field Championships begin with preliminary round action on May 27-29 in Jacksonville, Fla., and College Station, Texas. The championships final site and culmination of the celebration is slated for June 9-12, 2021 at the newly rebuilt Hayward Field in Eugene, Ore.

Memorable Moments
McLaughlin Had No Hurdling Competition
June 9, 2018

In 2018, Sydney McLaughlin set a 400H collegiate record in May and then posted the largest margin of victory in NCAA DI meet history one month later.

Fosbury Flopped To High Jump Glory

Dick Fosbury, creator of the “Fosbury Flop,” won back-to-back high jump titles at the NCAA Outdoor Championships in 1968 and 1969 with meet records in both years.

X-Man Reigned At 2006 NCAA Meet

Xavier Carter won four national titles at the 2006 NCAA Division I Outdoor Track & Field Championships, completing the only 100-400 sweep and helping the title-winning 4×100 and 4×400 relay teams.