Once Upon a Time in the Vest

Sunday, September 14, 2014

Vol. 4 No. 65 Jack Bacheler Still Setting Records

Part of our job here at Once Upon a Time in the Vest is keeping you posted on what people who once set records on the track are doing in the present.  Here is one of those stories, brought to our attention by Bruce Kritzler.   The subject is Jack Bacheler former Miami of Ohio, Florida Track Club and US Olympian (Marathon, 1972, 9th place 2hr 17 min 38.2)  .
Jack and Frank Shorter

Jeff Galloway, Steve Prefontaine, Jack Bacheler

This picture sparked the following question from Phil Scott in Englewood , OH.


George: Interesting article about Jack ! I could not help noticing in the picture of Jack, 
Pre & Galloway that Pre is wearing Adidas other two Nike???:)



George Brose irathermediate@gmail.com

9:28 AM (6 hours ago)
to pdscott
Phil, thanks for pointing that out.  This is probably around 1972.  I think Pre wore Adidas at Munich.  
Don't know about Bacheler and Galloway.   The shoe business was in transition then with Nike coming
 on the scene, we'd have to review pictures of these guys from 72 to 76 to try to follow the transition.  
Probably some pictures would be deceptive as they may have just been 'trying out the new shoes'.   
I'll write my friend Rick Lower at Nike to see what he has to say


George-


Hi!
Phil’s question is a good one, and a story that I use all the time to reinforce Nike’s mission of making 
athletes better. As you know, Pre was uncompromising in every way, and that extended to his 
footwear. Bowerman worked very hard to get Pre into his handmade shoes, and Phil did the same 
with the imported Tiger product. Both products were simply not good enough for him, and he really 
helped pushed BRS to get better. He didn’t start regularly using our product until 73’. Adidas spikes  at 
that time were so superior to ours, that no one would risk switching. Training shoe selection depended 
on how important cushioning was to you. The Adidas shoes were much better constructed regarding 
fit/upper comfort, but lacked cushioning for high mileage. Our product lacked the crafted construction, but had better cushioning. Pre, being more of a middle distance guys was more suited to Adidas product.

It’s ironic that now we dominate with our spikes, and still struggle with hard core runners preferring 
our training product.

Looking at the photo, I’m guessing it might have been taken at the 72’ pre-Olympic camp in Maine. 
At that time there was early Nike product being used by top athletes. The Obori flat was our first legit 
racing product. Also, Galloway was a close friend of Geoff Hollister, so he probably was a pipeline for 
early footwear on the Florida TC guys.

Take care!


Rick
Jack at Miami of Ohio

This article appeared October 23, 2013 on the North Carolina State University website.

Entomologist is State Fair’s giant pumpkin king

Date posted: October 23, 2013
bacheler with the pumpkin(Natalie Hampton photo)Entomologist Jack Bacheler raised the State Fair's champion pumpkin, weighing 799.6 lbs.
As an Extension entomologist at N.C. State University, Dr. Jack Bacheler helps folks grow crops without giving up too much to insects that feast on plants. This year, Bacheler himself has a gardening success story – he is the proud producer of the State Fair’s biggest pumpkin.
Bacheler’s pumpkin, raised in the backyard of his Clayton home, tipped the scales at 799.6 lbs. Since the start of the State Fairon Oct. 17, he has spent a little time in the Exposition Building with the winning pumpkins, telling his story and sharing tips with others. On a recent morning, folks posed for photos and asked Bacheler lots of questions about his pumpkin.
For three years, Bacheler tried his hand at growing big pumpkins, but the first two years he didn’t have much success. Groundhogs attacked his pumpkins, so this year he protected the pumpkins with reinforced fencing.
Bacheler says there is much information available on the Internet on growing big pumpkins. And though the biggest pumpkin raised in the state was over 1,000 pounds, states like Ohio regularly produce pumpkins in the 1,500-pound range.
Bacheler started the pumpkin seeds indoors and transplanted young plants into the garden in May. By late June, the first female flowers were pollinated, and then the real work of raising the pumpkins began. July through September, Bacheler said he spent about an hour and a half every evening tending his pumpkins.
“It made it impossible to even go on vacation,” he said.
Water and fertilizer are keys to producing a big pumpkin, Bacheler said. He used a drip irrigation system to feed the pumpkins with water, fertilizer and pesticides. Starting with good genetic stock also helps – Bacheler said he paid $40 for two seeds from a parent pumpkin weighing 1,500 pounds.
“Pest management is a problem. Insects are my kind of things, so they were easier to deal with. But plant diseases are harder to manage,” he said.
The pumpkin was harvested by a small Bobcat that lifted the pumpkin by straps wrapped around it. Once it was raised, it was placed on a pallet so it could be moved by a forklift.
Before its debut at the State Fair, Bacheler’s pumpkin was weighed at the Yadkin Valley Pumpkin Festival. Getting it weighed early is important because pumpkins will lose weight as they dry, he said.
Bacheler isn’t the first person from the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences to be named a pumpkin king. Wallace Simmons, 4-H agent in Wayne County, is a perennial big pumpkin champion. When he lived in the North Carolina mountains where pumpkins thrive in cooler temperatures, Simmons was a regular winner at the fair. Since moving to eastern North Carolina, he has continued to produce large pumpkins, just not as large as before.
What will happen to the great pumpkin? Bacheler isn’t sure. Simmons has sold some in the past, but he retains the seeds which are for sale at the fair for $1 each.
And Bacheler said he isn’t sure whether he’ll try to raise another champion pumpkin. Despite the time that the pumpkin required, it has left him pondering, “I wonder what I could do next year?”
–Natalie Hampton
pumpkins at the fair
(Natalie Hampton photo)
Bacheler’s prize pumpkin sits atop the display at in the State Fair’s Expo Building.
From: Ernie Cunliffe
I like to make pumpkin bread and wonder how many loaves I could get out of Jack's huge pumpkin?

Ernie,

Ernie,  never being put off by a challenging question, here's what I came up with.

I assume a twenty percent loss in weight when making pumpkin puree, so you are down to 639 pounds of puree
A basic recipe calls for a 15 oz can of puree , and that makes 3 loaves of pumpkin bread or 3x 639 equalling 1917 loaves.
Knowing you are a child of parents who survived the Great Depression and your mom probably didn't let anything go to waste she would have needed the following to complete the recipe for 1917 loaves of pumpkin bread.

2556 eggs
625 cups sugar
2,226.5 cups of self rising flour
1278 teaspoons of baking soda
958.5 tsp salt
639 cups of vegetable oil
639 tsp of cinnamon and nutmeg
319 tsp cloves
159 tsp ginger
She could probably get 6 loaves at a time in her oven at 50 minutes each, 
So total baking time would be about 265 hours.
I'm not going to consider clean up time or rest breaks.
George


Lucky for me I use a no egg recipe and either 2   15 oz or 1   29 oz can of pumpkin .    My wife can not
eat eggs so I have developed a no egg recipe.  I also use applesauce as part of the vegetable oil to cut
down on the fat,  ie my recipe adjusted uses 1/2  cup applesauce and 3/4 cup canola oil instead of the
1  1/4 original recipe oil requirement.  To further complicate things we live at 6,500 feet and thus my
adjustments over the years have arrived at a good recipe rather than the usual one found in cook books.

Do you like pumpkin bread?    Too much causes a lot of gas when I over do it.

Liked your effort as that certainly took quite a bit of time. Ernie

12:57 PM (17 hours ago)

Ernie,  I'll let you do all the math for your recipe.  I'm exhausted.  But anything that gives me more gas,
 I like.  It stimulates  boring conversations with people I sometimes don't care to be around.  
Your surly old friend, 

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