Be that as it may, Frank Wykoff, Souhtern California's newest bid for recognition as the "Fastest Human", is the son of a Glendale plumber.
If it is true that all plumbers are as slow as is commonly supposed, the 18-year-old Glendale High School youth, who defeated Charley Paddock in two races during the Southwest Olympic finals here June 16, owes none of his speed to heredity or home environment.
My dad used to be fast, Frank explained in an interview. "You see, in his younger days he played baseball at Norwalk, Iowa, and used to beat all the farmer boys in picnic and school footraces. He had no organized competition however, so I cannot say just how fast he really was."
Frank is a simple, home-loving boy who will become 19 years of age on October 29.
He did not expect to beat Paddock. "I never really felt that I was yet developed sufficiently to beat as great a runner as he, " Frank told me. "When I was in the sixth grade of grammar school I resolved that sorne day I would beat Paddock. I don't know why I made that resolution. I guess it was because I had been beating all the boys of my size and age and I looked upon Paddock as my hero. I dreamed of someday being in a race with him, and of heating him.
"Well, when that day came last Saturday I knew that I was right. I had had plenty of sleep for two weeks before the race and I knew that I would be right up there with Paddock. But I wasn't cocky enough to think that I, a mere kid, could be the first to heat Paddock on a Southern California track since 1916. And I was not sure of beating him until I hit the tape. I knew I was ahead of him, but you know what Paddock's finish is like.
"My chief aim in that race was to prove that I could beat Lombardi. I had always beaten Frank until the state high school meet at Selma and I knew that I could do it again. I felt that I had not been given a square deal at Selma, because, without trying to alibi, it is a fact that although Lombardi was set back a yard for one false start, he was ahead of me the second time before I was out of my holes.
"That defeat made me resolve to beat Lombardi here June 16. He was my meat and I am glad that I got him. I am also glad that Frank ran so great a race that he almost beat Paddock at 200 meters. That is Lombardi's best race, I think, next to the quarter mile. He would be a great quarter miler."
Frank's mother, a kindly lady of middle age, whose eyes gleam with pride in her young son, declared that she never thought Frank would beat Paddock. "Before that 100 meters race I was terribly nervous," she said. "The main ambition I had for Frank was to see him beat Lombardi. When he did that, and beat Paddock, too, well, I just can't find words to express my happiness. After that the 200 meters didn't matter. I didn't care what Frank did in the second race."
Wykoff believes that he is of Dutch and English ancestry. His father, Clifford Wykoff, and his mother, Nellie Bagg Wykoff, were born in Iowa. A great-great grandmother on his father's side came from Holland, and his father believes that the name, Wykoff, is Dutch. "But my Uncle Bill says he thinks it is Russian," Frank added.
Frank's mother comes from good old Massachusetts stock, and declares that she is of English ancestry.
Frank was born in Des Moines in 1909. He was a second child, an older sister having died here during the influenza epidemic of nine years ago.
At the age of 4 Frank was taken by his parents fo Omaha, where the family lived four years. Then they went to Littleton, Colo., where Frank lived for two years the happy, care-free life of a barefoot country boy. "I did no running in Colorado," Frank said. "The first race I ever ran was in Omaha when I was 6 years old. My father worked for the gas company and there was a picnic of this organization, during which they held the usual footraces. I was taller than my opponents, so I gave them a handicap in a 50-yard dash. I won the race and 50 cents, so I suppose that makes me a professional.
"When we moved to Glendale I entered the fourth grade of Ceritus Grammar School. While there I took up running again, and could beat every boy in school with the exception of Charley Steelman, a bigger boy in the sixth grade.
"I spent the fifth and part of the sixth grades at Broadway Grammar School, and while there I turned the tables on Steelman. I was then able to beat all the boys with no trouble at all. It was then that I resolved someday to beat Paddock.
"One day I ran into a race with an unknown lad who stayed right with me all the way. I beat him, but it was mighty close. He was none other than Russ Slocum. l went all the way through the rest of grammar school with Russ and we have been teammates at Glendale High. He was the second Glendale High representative in that June 16 race. He ran fifth.
"We had a Glendale city grammar school meet and the best I could get in the 100-yard dash was third. The race was won by Tommy Muff.
"From Broadway I went to Wilson Avenue Intermediate School and attended the seventh and eighth grades there. I beat Muff regularly while there, Slocum having gone to school in Eagle Rock. Slocum was running 11 seconds flat then. I guess that was about my time, too.
"When I entered Glandale High as a freshman I bumped into Slocum again. I was able to beat Russ, but a varsity runner named Purdy took us both down the line regularly."
In his sophomore year Frank underwent an operation for hernia and was out of competition until the later meets of the year. He also suffered a broken left ankle and water on the knee when he and a companion fell off a fence while watching a big oil fire in Long Beach. The other lad fell on top of Frank's leg, breaking it in two places. That was only four years ago. To this day he cannot bend his leg normally. But he certainly can shake it.
Copyright© 1959, Track & Field News