Running into the history books: Looking back at the 1973 state champion track team at WHS

On Thursday, June 1, the Williamsburg track and field team will make their annual trip to Lexington to compete in the Kentucky High School Athletic Association’s Class A state championship meet at the University of Kentucky. It will mark 50 years since a group of Yellow Jackets made the same trip in 1973, and came home with what is still the school’s only state team title.

“We should have won it two years in a row,” said John Jeffries, who placed second in the quarter-mile and half-mile races for the state championship squad. “We actually had a better team my junior year, but we had some bad luck with getting people qualified to go to state.”

In addition to Jeffries’ runner-up finishes in 1973, his Yellow Jacket teammate, Sean Mitchell, placed first in the mile. Fellow teammate Larry Hamblin came in first in the high jump event. Other contributing team members included Gary Barton, Mike Smith and Gary Carr.

In the end, Williamsburg’s 4×4 relay team had to secure a top five finish in order to give them the state title, which they did. What followed was a celebration that lasted several days, and included the whole community.

“After we won, we went to a steak house in Lexington,” Barton recalls. “We sat the trophy in the middle of the table, and we just celebrated there. We headed back home, and we didn’t really know what to expect.”

“They met us on the edge of town with fire trucks and police cars, and we did a parade through town. It was a good experience.”

“It was a big deal,” said Jeffries. “We rode through town and up to the football field. Everyone came up there – the superintendent, the principal, and our coach all made speeches. The next day, we had a big celebration in the gym. The whole town was thrilled.”

Barton said that most everyone knew earlier that season that something special could transpire. “We ran in a big meet at Bullitt Central earlier that month,” he explained. “I remember that it was Derby Day, and Secretariat won the Derby. We were running against a bunch of bigger schools, but we had all done really well against some stiff competition. At that point, it started looking like we were going to be pretty good.”

From there, the Jackets won conference and regional titles. Barton largely contributed the success to the team’s coach, saying, “Coach Faulkner was a really good coach, and he had us peaking at the right time.”

Jeffries and Barton both agree that it doesn’t seem like 50 years has already gone by since their state championship victory, but time tends to pass quickly. Almost as quickly as what they ran on the track in Lexington that late-spring day in 1973.

Jeffries, Barton and their teammates will be recognized for their history-making achievement at this year’s Class A state championship meet on June 1.