Linfield Athletics Hall of Fame
NAIA National Champions
Keith Lazelle, Carl Shaw, Stew Minors, Randy Carter are selected to the Linfield Athletics Hall of Fame for their contributions in the sport of track and field.
They were the four members of the Linfield mile relay team, each running 440 yards, that won the 1976 NAIA championship in 3 minutes, 11.16 seconds at Arkadelphia, Arkansas.
All four were seniors, reaching the height of their careers in their final meet and bringing Linfield its first and still-only national championship in a men's running event. (the Wildcats won five national field event titles in the '90s.)
Their best time, mathematically converted to the current 1,600 meters distance of the race, remains Linfield's school record at 3:09.40.
John Knight, coach of the 1976 Linfield team, vividly remembers the national mile relay final. "We were in fifth place when Carl Shaw got the baton for the last leg. He passed everybody, including teams from Texas Southern and Prairie View (the favorites) and ran his anchor leg in 44.9 to win it."
"I have coached 48 national champions during my career," Knight said, "and this group still inspires me."
In other events, Carter long jumped 23 feet, 11 3/4 inches in 1975 , which has remained the Linfield school record for 30 years, and Carl Shaw still holds the 400-meter record of 46.24 seconds (converted from his time for 440 yards in 1976).
Lazelle, the lead-off runner, came to Linfield from Yelm, Wash., and is now a renowned nature photographer on the Olympic Peninsula, headquartered near Quilcene.
Minors graduated from Benson High in Portland and "blossomed in college," Knight said. He is now a telecommunications official in Bermuda and is married to the minister of health.
Carter, member of a military family, had been recruited for Linfield's football team from Fort Walton Beach, Fla. He died of cancer several years ago.
Shaw came to Linfield from Inglewood, Calif., and was a pre-medical major and "a fantastic leader," Knight said. He resides in Spokane, Wash.
"We had good competition to make the team with six or seven capable guys," Knight said. "Carter and Minors selected themselves in runoffs among teammates. They beat some very talented athletes, like Taly Mundo, the Hawaii state 440 record holder, Chris Knutson and Gary Smith.
"We had fantastic inter-team discipline and the athletes worked very hard every day to get to where they wanted to get to. Things came together for them. They won the conference and district championships before nationals," Knight said.
The same team reached the national finals two years before but dropped the baton. In 1976, "they did the right things at the right time," coach Knight said.
