Today marks the 55th running of the Jack 15, the oldest road race in the Midwest, and the initiation of the Jack 15 15ers Club.
It was created by race co-directors Paul Ekern and Dave Graves to recognize those who have run the 15.2-mile race from White to Brookings 15 times. The five being honored today are Wally Klawiter, Randy Fischer, Owen Hotvet, Scott Jamison and Bob Bartling. They will receive their award after the completion of the Jack 15 road race at 11 a.m. at the Campanile on SDSU’s campus.
Scott Jamison
Jamison plans on competing in his 30th Jack 15. He will receive a 30-year pin.
“I certainly plan to be there unless my legs fall off,” he joked. “I am in lousy shape and have a really sore knee, so I hope I don’t hold up the race too much.”
Jamison, who is now 60 years old, ran in his first Jack 15 in 1983 at the age of 26 and has only missed five races since. Jamison lives near Madison and is employed at DAKOTACARE in Sioux Falls.
His favorite memories of the Jack 15 road race are associated with running many of the races with five or six friends.
“We didn’t have a lot of conversation but we helped each other along on the tough days,” he said. “There are a lot of the names from the past that I don’t see much anymore, so I miss that.”
Jamison said that proximity has something to do with competing in so many of the Jack 15 road races.
“I can simply get there easier than some other people can, but mainly it was the history and the uniqueness of the race,” he said. “I’m kind of a streak guy, so once I got started, it became an annual goal and a habit. I don’t run many races any more but I always try to make it to the Jack 15 and the Twin Cities Marathon each year. It gives me a running goal to look forward to and keeps me trying to train.”
He said that the long history, the unique distance and the effort of the Prairie Striders Running Club inspire him to run the race.
Randy Fischer
Fischer, an SDSU graduate and former Jackrabbit track and field and cross country athlete, is in his 11th year as the head track and field/cross country coach at Mount Marty College in Yankton.
He has competed in 21 Jack 15 road races with the first being in 1974 at the age of 17. He will receive a 20-year pin. He has not competed in the Jack 15 since 1997. He finished in the top 10 in all 21 races and was runner-up an amazing 12 times. His worst finish was ninth on two occasions. He ranks as the 10th best ever to run the race with a time of 1:19:23 (5:13 pace).
His favorite memories of the Jack 15 were getting to run with so many great runners like Dick Beardsley and watching Rod DeHaven finish the Jack 15 at age 10.
He said that just coming back to run the race knowing there was going to be great competition and making many friends along the way with great competition and people you meet made the Jack 15 an attraction for him.
Bob Bartling
Bartling, of Brookings, is now 91 years old and has competed in 38 Jack 15 road races. He is now a volunteer at the SDSU Briggs Library.
“Our Prairie Striders Running Club has met all of the necessary requirements to be classified as a Special Collection Sports Library within the top notch campus Briggs Library,” said Bartling. “Tours are conducted mornings and afternoons Monday through Friday. They are free and the average tour is 80 minutes.”
He will receive a 35-year pin. His last race was at the age of 89 in 2015, which he ran with his son Dave. His introduction to the Jack 15 was in 1969 at the age of 42. He had streaks of 11, six and five (twice) consecutive years of running the Jack 15 road race.
He said the long history of the dozens of well-organized Jack 15 races by the Prairie Striders Running Club attracted him to the race.
“I have talked with many runners and most of them feel it becomes a goal race and they really haven’t become a runner until they have completed one,” he said.
He said that he was standing in a line at the Jack 15 registration in the middle 1970s with Bruce Miller when a lady walked up to Bruce and said “why in the world would you want to run from White to Brookings?”
“Bruce didn’t bat an eye,” said Bartling. “He said ‘what else could possibility be better on a morning like this than to run the Jack 15.’ It wasn’t a question answer, it was a declaration. I still haven’t forgotten his answer.”
As you would assume, with his close connection to the race, Bartling has multiple favorite memories that he ranked. They are:
No. 1: 1968 – The famous relay put together by Dr. Hilton Briggs. Each of the 15 relay men ran 1 mile. The team was composed of SDSU professors and legislators. Hay bales were on the tractor-drawn flatbed for the runners to lie on and sit on. The relay was started at the same time as the Jack 15 race. On the starting line were Ron Daws (winner of four Jack 15s) and Dr. Briggs.
Those two were in front almost to the first corner (800 yards) but Hilton was beginning to fade. He was never short of a competitive streak and it was never more in plain view than that morning.
No. 2: 1969 – The dual from start to almost the finish between Ron Daws and Loren Kambestad. It was a study of contrasts: Olympian Daws versus Kambestad, a Bristol High School sophomore. Kambestad sat on Daw’s shoulder from the starting line to the Highway 14 Bypass (less than a mile from the finish).
After the race, Daws was heard to ask “Who in the world is that little kid?”
No. 3: 1971 – The starting line excitement when the starting gun misfired. Lyle Derscheid (as usual) was there with his two very little dogs. They were well trained and used to running with groups of runners. Lyle was looking for a good effort and time as he had trained on a regular basis beginning in March for the June test (when the race once was held).
The club starting pistol misfired on every try and so one of the owners of a nearby pickup grabbed his shotgun and handed it to the starter. It fired big time. The two dogs went in two different ways and those ways were not south (toward Brookings). Lyle took off and yelled at wife Bonnie to try to round them up and meet him at the halfway corner. She got the job done and Lyle set a PR by 11 minutes.
Hotvet, Klawiter
Hotvet and Klawiter didn’t respond to requests for comments.
Hotvet, of Sioux Falls, will receive a 25-year pin. He competed in 27 Jack 15 road races from 1976 to 2012. He had a stretch of 15 consecutive races. Klawiter, also of Sioux Falls, will receive a 15-year pin. He competed in 18 Jack 15 road races from 1972 to 1999.
Courtesy photo: What's a Jack 15 without Bob Bartling? The 89-year-old master Brookings runner finished the 2015 race in a walking time of 4 hours, 4 minutes, 52 seconds, just edging his son, Dave, shown at right. Bob overcame a stumble at Mile 6 and cramps at Mile 12 to finish his 38th Jack 15, easily making him the career leader in Jack 15 finishes. His first Jack 15 was in 1969.
