There are some photos that stand out so much that I need to show them off. This picture is one of them.
This photo was taken for the May 28, 1953 issue of The Romeo Observer Press. It displays two runners at the finish line at the Tri-County track meet, which took place the week prior. The caption reveals that the "best action picture" occurred during the second heat of the 440-yard run.
The runner on the left is Paul Broecker of Lapeer High School, and the other is Marshall Pridmore of Oxford High School. What makes this worthy of attention is Paul's facial expression as if he's about to fall as he crosses the finish line. I'm glad he won the race because we wouldn't have this incredibly funny moment without it.
In addition, I want to point out that their first names aren't mentioned in the caption seen below.
It was fortunate that whoever wrote it included the cities they're from. When this picture was first uploaded to our online catalog, my volunteer looked up yearbooks from both Lapeer and Oxford High Schools to get those names. She was able to do this with ease through websites like Internet Archive.
The "Griffin of Romeo" was Robert Griffin - a sophmore at Romeo High School at the time. We were able to discover this through early Romeo High School yearbooks. He appears in the 1954 one as a junior. The "Wilsoe of Rochester" is Gilroy Witsoe - a junior at Rochester High School in 1953. The Rochester Hills Public Library houses the school's digitized yearbooks, and it includes the one from that year. It also lists him as part of the track team.
This is why one needs to do some sleuthing when the documents don't provide the full story, and this picture perfect moment is a great example.
To learn more about high school track in Romeo, you can contact the Romeo Community Archives at rca@romemodistrictlibrary.org or call (586) 690-4890. If you want to search for articles on that topic, you can find the Romeo newspapers like The Romeo Observer on the Suburban Library Cooperative's Local History Digital Collection website.
Images and sources courtesy of the Romeo Community Archives; Melvin E. and Joan D. Bleich Collection, The Romeo Observer Press, May 28, 1953, p.II-3; 1954 Romeo High School Yearbook; Rochester Hills Public Library; and Internet Archive