National Track & Field Hall of Fame Q&A: John Powell

In advance of the National Track & Field Hall of Fame induction ceremony on December 7 at USATF Night of Legends, USATF interviewed Class of 2019 inductees on their athletic careers and legacies.

Today’s feature: John Powell

How did you get started in track and field and when did you first realize you'd be good at it?

It was after I got cut from the baseball team and I had nothing to do for the rest of the spring. The track coach saw me moping around because I was the last guy cut and he said, "Why don't you try the shot put?" After a few weeks training I set the school record. My name got in the school paper and I liked the recognition. Then I transferred to a different high school, Mira Loma. I went out for track and played basketball. I ran all the wind sprints in basketball and was in great shape for track season. Al Baeta was the coach, and everybody ran. He said we were going to do a 440, and I asked if I could throw the shot after that running workout.
 
In my junior year he handed me a discus, and I wasn't really sure what that was. He had gone to a coaching clinic and saw Al Oerter present and the one thing he picked up was to sprint ahead of the discus. That was my only coaching. My first meet I threw 151, which was pretty good for a first meet, sprinting ahead of the discus. I got some excellent, helpful coaching from some of the others there and then threw 120 at the next meet!
 
Coach Baeta was very inspirational. He had gotten the job at American River College and I went there. My first meet I threw 119 feet and then I pulled my hamstring. I taped it up and threw a 10-foot PR at my next meet. By the end of the year I was at 140 and the school record was 146. The next year I went up to 156 and coach told me I was in the top 10 in the country.
 
Then I went to San Jose State. I wanted to go to a California track school. I applied to UCLA and was accepted. I called the coach and said I would like to throw for them. He said he didn't want me anywhere near the track. That helped me with my decision. After seeing Tommie Smith and Lee Evans run at San Jose State in front of a huge crowd, I thought I would like to go there because there was a lot of excitement about track and field and I could pretend they were cheering for us throwers.
 
The first throwing coach I had was Ted Banks. He was there for one season and went on to become one of the winningest coaches in history at UTEP. Bud Winter was a great coach, but he was preoccupied with the sprinters for good reason, so Fred Hayden and I competed against each other without much coaching and at the end of the year were the fourth and fifth longest college throwers. In 1969 San Jose State won the NCAA meet and I was fourth in the discus. I decided to do it another year. The next season I was third in the AAU meet and since Jay Silvester turned it down, I ended up on the U.S. team for a meet against the Soviet Union.
 
I thought maybe I could make the Olympic team in 1972, and in Eugene the qualifying was tough. They had three flights, and each flight got two throws and then the third throw they went all the way through in a row. After the first two throws, I was in 12th place, and they were going to take 12 to the finals the next day. My third attempt went 203, and there were only three of us who met the qualifying distance. I was the first thrower in the final and I threw 205-something and made the team.
 
What stands out in your mind about the world record you set at Long Beach?

I had had a competition the day before in San Jose against Mac Wilkins and it was a nice windy day and I thought I hit one and that was it. It went 218 and that gave me the win. The next day, Tom Jennings of the Pacific Coast Club said I had to go to a meet in Long Beach. I said I didn't want to go because I was tired. I had worked a shift because I was a cop, but I said I would go. I flew down in the morning and I was tired. I was leaning against a fence and got kicked in the foot by Fortune Gordien. He said, "World record today, Powell?" I said, "I'll tell you what, a nap is what I'm gonna do."
 
My first throw went out like a frozen rope to 205, a lot of power on it. I used my legs and timed it a little better on the fourth one and it went a world record 226 and hit an asphalt access road and the discus was damaged so bad it could never be thrown again. The technique was there.
 
I went back to work and when I got off at 2, the papers said, 'Powell Sets World Record'. So, I remember setting a world record and then working my shift as a cop.
 
How did you balance competing and working as a policeman at that time?
 
At the time it was excellent because my wife was on me to get a job. We had a child and San Jose had their police work four ten-hour days. You could accomplish a lot in those days before going to work and after. Those were the days when being a cop was fun. You had hours of boredom and then moments of stark terror. It was a good job and I loved it for the seven years I did it.
 
What was the biggest factor in your longevity at the elite level of the sport? You were at the top for 15 plus years.
 
Running. With Coach Baeta we ran. When I was coaching and still competing, we all ran. Every workout we would finish with three 200s, slow, medium and then fast. That came from Bud Winter. We warmed up like that at San Jose State. With Coach Baeta our warmup was four laps, a mile. I kept doing it throughout my career. We did it at Stanford when I was coaching. I remember at the World Championships when I was 40 and Carol Cady was there with me, and we ran a 200 and ran by Jurgen Schult and Luis Delis, who looked at us like "wow" and I was thinking they thought I was really fast, haha. Sprinting contributed the most to my longevity.
 
What were your highest moments in the sport, and did you have any really low points?
 
The low point first. The first World Championships in 1983 when I didn't qualify. Two days before qualifying I had thrown over 220 in practice. Qualification was at 9 am and I'm not normally a morning person. I couldn't get it together to throw 193. I just couldn't figure it out. That was the low point.
 
When 1987 in Rome came around, I would go out every morning at 7 and throw so I would be acclimated to throwing early in the morning. I was 40 and I thought I could make the top eight. If I threw 65 meters, I thought I could make the final. Like they do with many championship meets, they had replaced the ring in Rome with a brand new one. The previous one I had thrown in was excellent, and I went to check out the new one. It hadn't cured yet and when you scraped your foot on it, sand would come up. It also had a crown, wasn't flat, it had a one-inch crown on it. On the night of the competition, it had rained, and the ring was wet. I watched all the other throwers in their throwing shoes, and they were slipping. I had a pair of Asics running shoes with a black sole and I had practiced with them the day before and knew it would be a good sole for that wet ring. I threw my first throw in those shoes and it was the leading throw at 66.22. I ended up being second, and that was a highlight.
 
Besides coaching, hosting camps and producing videos, what else have you been involved in since you stopped competing?
 
Bowling! On May 4, 2016, the same day of the month I set the world record at Long Beach, my partner and I each bowled a 300 game in a match, which tied a record with a 600 total. In Southern Nevada that has only been done twice and it's a pretty rare thing. You can't bowl more than 300.
 
What was your reaction when you heard you had been selected to the Hall of Fame?
 
I said let's wait until December 6th to see if I still make it! I couldn't believe it, but I said I didn't know what I would do to screw it up, but I had time. That was my reaction. I told my wife not to tell anyone because it might not happen [extended laughter].