Who needs a bus?!

... or, how to win the state track meet with just one great athlete! (Or two.)

Nebraska track & field has a long history of dynamic individuals carrying small schools to glory. State championship trophies have been hoisted by one-man teams, two-man teams, and one-man teams with an asterisk (to signify help from a relay or that the one-person scored enough to win without the other points produced by teammates).

State Track Meet crowds in Lincoln, Kearney (like this one in 1964), and Omaha have been treated over the years to amazing one-athlete efforts.

These examples counterpoint my post about my love of district track championship teams. Documenting district titles is important to my project because those wins take team depth and can be won by schools that don’t have the statewide star power on their rosters to win state titles. This is the mirror topic: teams of one or two stars that can win state titles and then ride home in a compact car with plenty of room for the big trophy.

We will run through the list in a minute, but first, we should talk about the state meet rules changes that affect the possibility of a single athlete claiming a team title all by himself or herself. From the early days of the state meet until 1946, Nebraska only placed and scored four competitors in each event. Mathematically, that made a one-man championship easier from a couple of angles, including that champions were often crowned with scores only in the teens.

From 1947 to 1972, they only scored five places. There were still winners in the teens and twenties. From 1973 to 2006, it was six places, and in 2007, the state moved to eight places.

Also, at some point in the state track timeline, the rules were changed to allow an athlete to compete in just four events instead of the earlier five.

The list of true one-man teams is short, but we can extend it by looking at some who were one-man teams with a bit of help. Some anchored a relay. Others scored enough on their own to win the meet but had teammates who helped extend the margin.

So let’s run through the one-man teams, with a couple of two-man teams thrown in for variety, and finish with a kicker!

Ed Schaff- DeWitt- 1930*

Nebraska’s first one-man team gets an asterisk. DeWitt’s Ed Schaff won the 220, finished second in the discus, and third in the shot put. He merits a mark because he also anchored the winning 880 relay, and obviously, three other Panthers were necessary for that feat. Schaff’s 220 win over K. Brown of Farimont was key in DeWitt’s 15-14 title win over the Tigers, but without the relay, the Blue & Gold wouldn’t have the big trophy.