Wendy Ray remembers Hayward golden era
By Tom AdamsEUGENE, Or. - Another chapter of Hayward Field history unfolds tomorrow (July 3) when the U.S. Olympic Trials continue. It's also a chance for track fans to remember the early Hayward Field mystique. KVAL's Tom Adams talked with a local broadcast veteran who had a front row seat to that era-- as it unfolded. He was part of a highly successful morning radio team in Eugene.
But Wendy Ray had another job. He had the best seat in the old house, the old Hayward, as the public address announcer during some classic Oregon track & field moments.
"It's all different since it changed," says Ray, looking across 18th Avenue toward remodeled Hayward Field. 16 years since retirement, the memories are still fresh... the passion for track and field still strong for the "Voice of Hayward Field." Ray tells KVAL, "My approach to P-A was to say as little as possible, and that of course has gone by the boards." Tom Adams asked, "Looking back Wendy, at what point did you realize hey, there's some kind of special mystique going on at Hayward? When did you sense that?" Ray says it was during a special meet at Hayward in the 1960's to benefit an injured athlete on the Oregon team. He explains four or five guys had all run sub-four minute miles and, "I like to call it a scream, the Hayward Field scream. It was a high pitched, volume thing that I never heard anywhere else."
Then there's the guy simply called "Pre". Ray says Steve Prefontaine was the ultimate competitor. "I'm a competitor fan. I'm a race fan, not a record fan--and that's what he had. He did not want to lose ever. It's hard to describe what talent and effect he had on everybody, but everybody felt it."
Ray says the return of the Olympic Trials is great for Eugene and the U-O, but he hopes people won't forget those great times that laid the foundation for success now.
"I'd like to think that I had some part in developing the Eugene/Hayward Field interest." Wendy Ray was P.A. announcer at Hayward from the early 1960's to about the mid-70's. |
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October 7, 2008
- Eugene, Oregon
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