One of the things that I find very useful for history – especially while looking at track and field history – is looking at the past and allowing it to educate us on how we got to where we are now, how things changed and what we can learn from the past. Most recently, a very important point has been raised that we may have significantly less money to play around with than we used to…quite a bit less money. How that’s going to play out is anybody’s guess right now. Just a little over a week ago, USA Track and Field president Vin Lananna (who is also the head coach at the University of Virginia) tweeted: “All NCAA track and field coaches should be thinking and planning a fiscally responsible way to conduct our sport. Our student athletes are counting on us.”

What does that mean? We might not have that answer yet but I can tell you about how college track teams used to set up their schedules in the past when they had much less money to spend than they do now.

This is the Track and Field History Podcast with Jesse Squire. Subscribe and catch all the latest episodes on Apple Podcasts, Spotify and Anchor. Got anything you’d like to hear on the show? Shoot us an email trackhistorypod@gmail.com or tweet at @tracksuperfan.