It seemed like a replay of a track meet in the 1970s last weekend at the Lone Star Conference meet at Elmer Gray Stadium. On the jury of appeals were former Texas A&M track coach Ted Nelson, former Texas Tech coach Corky Oglesby and former Texas Christian and North Texas coach John McKenzie.

Others in the stands were former Angelo State coach Clint Ramsey and Dean Slayton, the former head football coach at Howard Payne University who later was an assistant coach at Texas Tech.

Throw in former Abilene Christian University trackmen Les Vanover and Don Conder, Wildcat assistants Don W. Hood and Abe Brown and an aging sports writer, and it was like an old settler's reunion.

The one I spent more time with was Nelson, who is perhaps the best schoolboy track man I ever covered week after week. I credit the 1960 Andrews team for my love of the sport of track.

With Nelson running key legs, Andrews broke the national record in the 440-yard relay at the school's Mustang Relays, becoming the first high school athlete to run under 42 seconds. Later that night, they came back to run under 3:15 to break the national record in the mile relay, thanks to Nelson's great anchor and R.E. Merritt's fine lap earlier. They went on to win the state championship.

The next year, Nelson broke the 440 national record and tied the 220 record at the regional meet in Odessa, and he climaxed his great high school career by winning the 440, the 220 and anchoring the winning mile relay team, all in the span of 37 minutes. That was good enough to win the title again.

Nelson said that Andrews had a party recently for his track coach, Max Goldsmith, on his 85th birthday, and the place was packed. Goldsmith also was a key figure in getting me interested in the sport and to be called a Track Nut.

Abilene High trackmen in those years ran against the Mustangs, and it was usually close. Stands were almost full when they locked horns in several meets a year. It would make anyone a follower of the sports. Thanks, coach. Thanks, Ted.

n Wondering whatever happened to found former Sweetwater football standout Gabe Cherry back in his hometown helping run the Family RV Center with his brother Grant and his father Gil.

Gabe started the business a few years ago and it has been a challenge at times, but it is successful. He graduated from Texas Tech in 2004, some nine years after his high school graduation, but he says that's another story.

Coach W.T. Stapler and some fans from Sweetwater were talking at the Big Country Hall of Fame about how good an athlete Gabe was and what he meant to the team.

n J.J. Griffin, who played football at Madison Middle School and at Permian High School, graduated cum laude from Texas Tech in December. He was on the football squad at Cisco Junior College for two years as a wide receiver and had been on the Tech squad one year.

He has one year of eligibility left, and he is going to use it next year while he continues to work on his master's degree in exercise and sports science. He was no stranger to some of the Tech coaches as his dad Gary and Tech head coach Mike Leach were on the same staff at Valdosta State and Gary and Tech defensive coordinator Ruffin McNeil were together at Appalachian State.

J.J. has been awarded excellence in academics awards both years at Tech.

n Longtime Abilene Christian Bible professor Dr. Tony Ash may have been the only college teacher to have two major league Cy Young pitchers in his classes. And they both won the honor in the same year.

Roger Clemens was in Ash's class as a freshman at the University of Texas in the early 1980s. Clemens pitched the Longhorns to the College World Series title in 1983, and then went on to win more than 300 games in the majors. He won his first American League Cy Young in 1986 with the Boston Red Sox.

Ash earlier had Mike Scott in his freshman Bible class in the 1970s at Pepperdine University in California. Scott unveiled the forkball pitch on baseball, and in 1986 he won the National League Cy Young Award as the No. 1 starter for the Houston Astros.

The professor didn't say what grade each received.

n Former ACU decathlete Stephen Moore has resumed his training in an attempt to qualify for the 2008 U.S. Olympic Trials scheduled June 27 to July 6 in Eugene, Ore.

He was well on his way to qualifying after scoring 4,127 points the first day at the David Noble Relays in San Angelo a few weeks ago.

However, he pulled a hamstring muscle in the first event of the second day, the high hurdles, and that ended his competition. Moore is a former NCAA Division II and Pan American Games champion in the decathlon.

n End of quote: Peter Morris' new book "Didn't We Have Fun?" tells this about former major league pitcher Jim Kaat, now a broadcaster:

Kaat used an illegal homemade substance made of resin and turpentine to get a better grip on the baseball. An umpire saw the substance on his hand, approached the mound and said, "Lefty, you are putting a foreign substance on the ball. That's illegal."

Kaat replied, "That is not a foreign substance. It's made in North Carolina."

Bill Hart is a retired senior staff writer of the Reporter-News. Contact him by e-mail at hartbf@msn.com, by fax at (325) 854-2812 or by mail at 640 Arch St., Baird, TX 79504.