Friends keep Ruzicka running 60 years after record

by Nathan Arneal
Published 7/3/24

In 1964 Bill Ruzicka ran the 220-yard dash in 22.0 seconds at the Kearney Invite, and no one has run it faster in the succeeding 60 years.

Ruzicka

That time, which converts to a 21.9 second 200 meters, is North Bend Central’s oldest standing school record.

“I never had any idea it would last that long,” Ruzicka said this week. “That is amazing.”

During Old Settlers weekend, the NBHS Class of 1964 held its 60th reunion. Ruzicka, 79, was looking forward to seeing his oldest friends, but he was unable to make it. Instead, he was in the hospital.

In November he was diagnosed with two forms of cancer: leukemia and lymphoma. Six months of chemotherapy left him without an appetite and down 80 to 90 pounds.

Now, he’s onto the next phase of treatment, and it’s treating him much better. The appetite has returned.

“They told me the cancer isn’t what’s going to get me,” Ruzicka said. “It’s my age and my heart and my kidneys. He said, as far as the cancer, ‘We’ll control the cancer, but it’s going to put pressure on the other stuff.’”

Bill Ruzicka as an NBHS senior in 1964.

Last month he developed a case of pneumonia, and that pushed back one of his treatments, which interfered with plans to attend his class reunion. But that doesn’t mean he hasn’t been in touch with his old classmates. When they found out he was sick, the phone calls came in, from girls, from boys, from near and far, the Class of ‘64 called to check on the former track star.

“You find out that those classmates are the best support system there is,” Ruzicka said. “They call all the time. They’re giving you a reason for living.”

When Bill Ruzicka was a senior, the current North Bend Central high school building and track was still five years into the future. Football and track practices were held on the field north of the high school, which at the time was on the site of the west wing of the current elementary school.

The baseball field was in the same place it is now, with the outfield providing much of the football field.

“In football season, we didn’t have the sprays and the chemicals they do now, so that was full of sandburs,” Ruzicka said. “So when you hit your belly, you had lots of sandburs in your jersey, stomach and chest.”

A route approximately 440 yards was laid out for track practice. A typical workout, Ruzicka recalled, might include two 440s, three or four 220s and maybe four 100s.

But it wasn’t the track workouts that gave Ruzicka his speed. It was the farm.

“I think I was probably 10 or 11 years old when they had me behind the bailer,” he said. “I always attribute that as a lot of the reason that I had strong leg muscles.

“During the summer, we didn’t have time to go lift weights at the school. Where we got our workout was on the bailing racks and scooping corn and all that.”

Ruzicka liked track because being good was all up to the individual and how much work he put into it. But that doesn’t mean he didn’t enjoy the team aspect of track. The 1964 track team included freshman Jim Widhelm, who set a school record of 4:49.4 in the mile. Seniors Jerry Kammerer and Jerry Ruff were consistent scorers in the throws. Senior Jim Dodge and junior Ken Chromy formed a potent 1-2 punch in the hurdles.

“It’s amazing for all the taller Jim Dodge was, that he could run the highs and he never got killed,” Ruzicka said. “He’s a pretty short guy for that.”

The ‘64 Tigers would go on to place second to Wahoo in the Platte Valley Conference meet with Ruzicka winning the 100, 220, running on the winning 880 relay team and placing fifth in the broad jump.

The tracks they ran on were dirt or cinder, the residue left over from burning coal. The cinders were supposed to help keep the track dry in wet conditions, but they also sliced you up pretty good if you fell.

Read the full story in the print or e-edition.

<<Back to the front page