| Quentin Brelsford won the 1946 NCAA Cross Country Championship while racing for Ohio Wesleyan University. He nearly repeated in 1947, but his 15 yard lead was lost when he slipped and fell on the snow-covered surface around a turn a quarter mile from the finish, though he did finish third. At the NCAA Track and Field Championships, Quentin was third in the mile in 1946, fifth in the mile in 1947, and third in the 5,000 meters in 1948. While at Ohio Wesleyan, he won dozens of cross country and track races and was named All-Ohio numerous times. He finished sixth in the 1948 Olympic Trials 5,000 meters. Brelsford was three-time Michigan state champ in 1936, 1937 and 1938 at Birmingham High School in the half mile. His 1:55.4 for 880 yards, when converted to 800 meters, is still his school record nearly 80 years later. During World War II Quentin enlisted in the Air Force, studied aircraft engine repair under Charles Lindbergh and served on bases in Morocco and Italy. He won the 1944 Allied Olympics 800 meters in Rome, Italy. While stationed in Rome his squadron had a personal audience with Pope Pius XII. His known personal best times include: 880 yards – 1:55.4; Mile – 4:16.3; 5,000 meters – 15:14.7 and 4-miles cross country – 20:22.9. Quentin was inducted into the Ohio Wesleyan Hall of Fame in 1965. He lives in Mt. Dora, Florida, where his wife, Betty, of 66 years passed away in 2012. The 97 year old was gracious to allow me to spend nearly three hours with him in his home recording this interview and viewing his collegiate yearbooks and other mementos in April, 2017. |
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| GCR: | When we look back at an athlete’s career, highlights usually include championships and records. Is your 1946 NCAA Cross Country Championship at the top of your list of personal achievements in distance running? |
| QB | I think so. Yes. I’ve got lots of awards from organizations around the state of Michigan for that win. |
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| GCR: | Since you were known as a half mile specialist who had moved up to the mile, what did you do to be able to handle the four-mile cross country distance? |
| QB | It wasn’t too difficult because I was used to all of that kind of running and it all worked out fine in college. They ran our home cross country meets in the halftime of the football games. We would come in with a big crowd and there were always photographers and writers and that was a tradition to have the finish at the halftime at Ohio Wesleyan. It was just at our school. |
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| GCR: | Did you win most of those races? |
| QB | Yes, I did win a lot of them. We ran against schools like Akron, Baldwin-Wallace, Ohio U. and Bowling Green. I don’t remember any particular names of guys that were close to me. I seemed to have an ability to extend long races. |
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| GCR: | Two years ago when I interviewed Curt Stone, the outstanding Penn State runner who finished in second place about ten yards behind you, he noted that he had some misfortune as he and his teammate Gerry Karver waited for another teammate, Horace Ashenfelter, to get back on course after a wrong turn and then that he mistakenly wore spikes that were tough to run on during the last mile which had a long stretch of macadam road. Have you heard any of this story about Curt Stone’s race, and what do you recall from this race? |
| QB | During the first two miles my stomach was upset from the tension and I had nausea. But I was close to the leaders and aimed to finish in the top five. Two of the runners were out in front and I was close. Curt Stone was one and the other was Jerry Thompson of Texas. I caught up at about three miles and we ran together. We finished on a cinder type track so some of us were wearing spikes. I put on a sprint and got away. Toward the finish I was in the lead and no one was really up with me. It worked out fine. |
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| GCR: | The next year you came close to defending your title, but apparently you slipped in the snow on a turn about a quarter mile from the finish and your 15 yard lead turned into a third place finish by the time you scrambled to your feet and got going again. How disappointing was it to have your own misfortune in that race? |
| QB | It is a race I might have won, but the snowy turn got me. At least I got up and finished okay in third place. We came in tenth place as a team. |
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| GCR: | Let’s chat a bit about your three NCAA track championship races. First, in 1946 the mile was a tight race as Bob Rehberg from Illinois won in 4:15.2, Don Wold of Washington was second in 4:16.0 and you were third in 4:16.3. How did that race develop, was it tactical, did you lead and how did it play out on the last lap? |
| QB | I was generally leading in most of my races and the other runners would catch up with me. |
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| GCR: | The next year Gerry Karver of Penn State won, with Rehberg second, Bill Mack of Drake in third, Wisconsin’s Don Gehrmann in fourth and you in fifth place. That is a strong field and Gehrmann ended up as the top U.S. miler from 1948 to 1951. What do you recall of that race? |
| QB | They were good runners. I don’t remember too much about that race except it was my usual run out front and then trying to hold off the guys who finished fast. |
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| GCR: | Your senior year in 1948 you moved up to the 5,000 meters and finished third in 15:14.7 behind Jerry Thompson of Texas in 15:04.5 and Horace Ashenfelter in 15:08.5. Did you like moving up to 5,000 meters? |
| QB | I did like it. To me it was a much easier going race. There were no sprints involved. It was another race where I was in the lead and they caught me. I had strength and they had speed. |
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| GCR: | You came close to representing the United States at the 1948 Olympics in London, but you finished in sixth place in the Olympic Trials. Since it was the first Olympics in 12 years due to World War II, were you really primed to try to make the Olympic team, especially since you had served in the Air Force for three and a half years during World War II? |
| QB | I had just finished college at Ohio Wesleyan and the Olympics were one of my goals. It was disappointing to not make the team. |
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| GCR: | What were you doing in training starting in high school and then as you transitioned to college running? |
| QB | My training was very, very specific. Coach Charles had me doing the right things. Another Coach was Lloyd Cooper in high school. Most of my sprinting and hard running was toward the end of the training. We ran on a non-slip cinder track. Of course we used short spikes. Coach moved me up in practice because in high school I was a half-miler and that’s a long ways from being a distance runner. So the coaches had a lot of training to develop my body both ways. I was also still peddling the local newspaper, even when I was in college, and running my route. |
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| GCR: | Was Coach Strimer at Ohio Wesleyan the one that moved you up in distance your freshman coach? |
| QB | Yes, that was Coach Robert Strimer as he thought I would be good at the mile. Coach George Gauthier was the head track coach and head football coach. He set a lot of my workouts my last three years there. He’s the one who actually trained me from being a good high school runner to being a college distance runner. For example, in 1946 he was the one who trained me to be the NCAA champion. I also set the mile record and the two-mile record at Ohio Wesleyan. I was close to nine minutes in the two-mile. |
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| GCR: | Would you relate the story of the one home cross country meet where you beat the entire field by a quarter mile? |
| QB | What happened was that I was first to cross a railroad track on my way back to Selby Stadium, while the other runners had to wait for a train to pass. |
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| GCR: | What are some of the other highlights of your collegiate racing career? |
| QB | I ran well in our conference championships. Those races seemed so easy. My sophomore year we went undefeated as a team in our dual track meets. I barely won the All-Ohio meet in the mile in a school record (of 4:17.6). My junior year when I won at Nationals I led our cross country team to an undefeated season and won all seven of our dual meets. We had some good runners with Jim Swomley, Dave Grube, Joe Hallissey and Bob Huffman. In track I won all but one regular season meet and was on the All-Ohio team. My senior year in cross country we won seven of our eight meets. |
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| GCR: | Did you have any specific nutrition plan that you followed? |
| QB | An interesting thing about my track career is that my wife was a violent cooker. She would cook high energy meals the night before the race so that the day of the race I would have energy waiting to be spent. She took good care of me like that and we would always have desserts like cake and ice cream or a little bit of pie. That’s not the nutrition of today, but she made sure that I had the proper food to eat for every race. |
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| GCR: | Let’s go back to your childhood when you got your start in the sport of running. Did you play lots of sports and get considerable physical activity in your youth before high school? |
| QB | We did. As a kid I peddled newspapers and I found out on foot I could do the circuit in town quicker than on a bicycle because I could cut through empty yards and through hedges. That got me running. |
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| GCR: | Did you live in an area that was more rural or in the city? |
| QB | We were in a residential area in Birmingham, Michigan. Because of the size of the family and the size of the yards we had I always kept busy. I’ve been cutting lawns since I was a kid. |
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| GCR: | Your older brother, Clayton, was State Champion in the half mile in high school. Did he inspire you and influence you to follow in his footsteps? |
| QB | Clayton was a good runner and went to the University of Michigan. My older brothers inspired me. I’ve got a wonderful picture of Clayton on the piano where he is in his U.S. Navy uniform. He was a lieutenant commander and was very active in the war in the Pacific Ocean. (Showing me a picture) This is Clayton and his wife. He was a handsome man. He was a submarine commander in World War II and had a lot of interesting incidents he told about his time in the Navy. My oldest brother is Harry and when he graduated from the University of Michigan he enlisted in the U.S. Navy. He worked on a lot of the legal work regarding patents and such for the atomic bomb. |
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| GCR: | Just like Clayton, you rose to the top as you won three Michigan State titles in the half mile in 1936 in 2:06.1, in 1937 in 2:03.0 and in 1938 in a very fast 1:57.6. Was it exciting to win those championships and did the high school girls like that? |
| QB | The girls did like that. It was thrilling to win those races. |
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| GCR: | You still hold the Birmingham Seaholm school record as your half mile time of 1:55.4 converted to 800 meters of 1:54.7 was tied by Treg Scott in 1982. Can you believe it has stood for nearly 80 years? |
| QB | I didn’t realize that. Oh my, it is amazing. There weren’t many high school runners back then who could run under two minutes for the half mile. I ran out in the lead and still have my newspaper clippings. |
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| GCR: | Did you run cross country in high school and what were some of the other top races you recall either for winning the Oakland County Championships, beating a tough competitor or running a fast time? |
| QB | We did have cross country but it was shorter, maybe a mile and a half or two miles and I did well at that. |
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| GCR: | You must have had a good team as you weren’t the only State Champ in track and field from your high school as Frank McCarthy won the high jump, Phil Carey won the 440 yard dash and he teamed with Clark Collins, Frank O’Donnell and Byron Colgrove to win the 880 yard relay. The school website says ‘Team State Champs 1936 and 1937.’ Did you enjoy the team atmosphere and do you remember anything that stands out from your teammates’ performances? |
| QB | Frank Whitney was our coach. I remember Frank and Phil. All of those names ring a bell. Coach Whitney was a good coach. I really enjoyed being on the team. |
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| GCR: | How did you decide to go to Ohio Wesleyan? |
| QB | Ohio Wesleyan contacted me and offered me a scholarship. I had gone to Michigan my freshman year, but it was too big and too tough. |
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| GCR: | Like many others you took a break from collegiate studies and athletics and served in World War II. Were you able to stay in good physical condition during those years and did you compete in any inter-service track meets? |
| QB | I did some running. I ran in the Allied Track and Field Olympics Meet in Rome, Italy in 1944 and I won the half mile there. They had minor track meets and I ran a bunch of them as well, but that was the big one in Rome. I think a famous general gave us the medals, but I would have to check my scrapbook as I kept a good scrapbook of my running years. |
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| GCR: | While in the Air Force you went to the St. Louis School of Aeronautics and received your graduation diploma for aircraft engine repair from Charles Lindbergh. How special was it to receive your diploma from the first man to fly across the Atlantic Ocean and did you interact much with Lt. Col Lindbergh? |
| QB | That is where I learned about aircraft engines because that was my specialty in World War II. Charles Lindbergh taught that class. He was a smart man. I’ve got a book about him flying the Atlantic. He lived an organized life. |
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| GCR: | When you served in the Air Force in Morocco what are some memories from that period? |
| QB | Bob Hoover was our squadron test pilot. After we finished working on airplanes he would test them to make sure they flew. Years later he used to put on air shows here in Florida in Kissimmee so I would go out and get a chance to meet with him and talk about the good old days in World War II. |
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| GCR: | You talked about running in Rome, but can anything top when you and your squadron met Pope Pius XII when he held an audience with your squadron? |
| QB | Our squadron chaplain got together about ten of us when we were based in Rome and we all went to the Vatican. I met the Pope, but I didn’t tell him I was Methodist (laughing). He spoke very good English. I wish I could have recorded it, but I don’t remember some of the things he talked about. Of course we did a lot of reminiscing and talking about World War II. He was rather husky and spoke well. Each of us got to chat with the Pope for a few minutes. It was a great, wonderful experience. He was very friendly and extremely cordial. I went to a lot of his services just to see what they were like. He would give a brief sermon in church in different languages because the English were there, the Italians were there, and so on. That way everybody could understand him. |
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| GCR: | Did you learn any other languages? |
| QB | I picked up Italian in Europe because I already spoke Spanish. I was in Italy for three years. The first year I was in Sicily, then half a year in Naples, half a year in Rome and a year in Pisa, Italy. That’s where the leaning tower is. It turns out it leans because the spot where it was built has no rock, just soil, so that is why it leans. |
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| GCR: | When we see film of servicemen returning from World War II, the reception by the American public always looks so outstanding. How was your trip home and how was it for you and your fellow troops to experience the welcome home in Boston as you and your shipmates were the first troops to reach the U.S.? |
| QB | On the way back from Europe there was a bad storm and it got noisy. We watched other ships in the convoy. We could look right under a ship in the waves. Ships would get on top of two waves and we could see under them. It was amazing. In Boston it was wonderful. The crowds were excited. It was wonderful being back in the homeland again and talking with everyone in English. |
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| GCR: | Within a couple of months after you returned from Europe you married Betty and went back to Ohio Wesleyan. Had you met your college sweetheart, Betty, your freshman year in college before the war? |
| QB | I met Betty my freshman year at Ohio Wesleyan and we started dating. Of course, we wrote back and forth frequently during the war. She wrote from home and I wrote to her. I married her when I got back. She also graduated from Ohio Wesleyan. She was an excellent student and after the war she stayed on at Ohio Wesleyan as secretary to the Dean of Women. |
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| GCR: | Other than academics and athletics, did you do any other interesting jobs or duties at Ohio Wesleyan? |
| QB | I had a four by five speed graphic, so I was the official photographer for the yearbook. It was a big camera with loose lenses that you would snap in and out of the camera and you were ready to take pictures. It was flash also. The yearbook was called, ‘Le Bijou,’ and I did a lot of photography for them. I had a dark room at Ohio Wesleyan University and I made an enlarger so that I could enlarge some of the prints. But mostly they just used four by five glossy prints. I did my own developing. A picture in the yearbook says I am the ‘birdie’ that took most of the pictures in the yearbook. I had a photo lab in the basement of the house where Betty and I lived. |
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| GCR: | After you graduated from Ohio Wesleyan and competed at the 1948 Olympic Trials, did you train and race further or retire from competitive distance running and focus on your career and family? |
| QB | I already had a job lined up and went to work with the Ford Motor Company. I was with Ford International for several years. I was a Field Service Engineer for Ford in many countries. When I was working in South America I did some running down there. |
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| GCR: | Where in South America did you work and what did you do in your line of work? |
| QB | Ford moved me around a lot. I was first in Venezuela and we lived in the isthmus. We went through the Panama Canal several times and got free rides on Grace Line boats. Then they moved me to Colombia and we lived in Bogota for a few years. Next they moved me to Peru. Then they moved me to Chile. We have a lot of fond memories of all of those countries. My Spanish came in handy. I learned it in high school and college. I did a lot of training for mechanics. I took care of all kinds of lawsuits against Ford Motor Company. One lady crashed in her new Chrysler car and it was in a different county. So I went down there to the Police Department and got a copy of the accident report and it turned out she was arrested for drunken driving. I had a lot of things to do like that and I would write reports back to Chrysler about what happened with the accident and the lawsuit. |
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| GCR: | You mentioned you weren’t racing much, but were just running. Could you talk a bit more about that? |
| QB | I didn’t do much racing in South America. I did a lot of coaching so I kept pretty busy. I stayed fit. I ran in a few races but didn’t win any. |
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| GCR: | How rewarding and humbling was it to be inducted into the Ohio Wesleyan Athletics Hall of Fame in 1965? |
| QB | Oh yes, that was exciting. It was in the Ohio Wesleyan Magazine. |
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| GCR: | Your college was fairly small with less than two thousand students, so was it a big deal to be competing at the NCAA Championships against runners from big schools like Penn State and Texas? |
| QB | We did have a small school so that did add to it. |
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| GCR: | You gave back to the sport of track and field by officiating over one hundred meets for the Orlando Track Club. How enjoyable was it to do so and did being around these teenage athletes help to keep you young at heart? |
| QB | Oh it sure did. I usually officiated most of the running events because I wasn’t into the shot put or broad jump or high jump or any of those types of events. I was one of the timers at the finish line. |
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| GCR: | You may have been officiating there at Showalter Field in Winter Park when I ran the two-mile at the Florida State Championships my junior and senior years in high school in 1974 and 1975. |
| QB | I may have been there because I officiated a lot of meets at that time. |
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| GCR: | I know you are getting around a bit slower with your walker now, but do you do stretching and other exercises to stay as healthy as possible as you are now ninety-seven years old and closing in on a century of life? |
| QB | I have dumbbells by my couch that I use and stretching to keep my arms and shoulders strong. I love to swim. I used to swim in Lake Gertrude right across the street from my home. I’d dive off of the end of the dock. I’d swim and look down at the bottom and see water boiling up from the spring. No alligators bothered me. In about two weeks my son, David, and I are taking some of our cousins to the ocean to feel the nice ocean water and float around. |
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| GCR: | You have been exercising since you were a young kid ninety years ago. Is there any advice you would give to children to be active and succeed in running or other sports? |
| QB | Don’t relax too much unless you have to. Keep the exercise going. Climb trees and all sorts of stuff. I’ve kept my body going, especially in my older years so I don’t feel depreciated or inert. I’ve kept active all of my life. I started out on a small farm. Now I still cut the yard with my riding lawnmower and the lawn needs it again since we had some rain. |
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| GCR: | When you look back at your life from growing up in Ohio during the Depression, serving in World War II, the Eisenhower years, the Civil Rights movement, Nixon resigning, the Reagan years, automobiles and television and space flight and computers, the discipline of running and adversity you have faced, what would like to share with my readers that can help them to be more successful in life? |
| QB | There is the positivity of active years, whether you are young or old, you’ve got to keep active. I’ve given frequent lectures to Rotary Clubs as I’ve been in the Rotary for many years. I talk about how we moved into different countries at different times and what we had to do to get ahead. |
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