John Poston - FSU's First Great Sprinter

By Jim Joanos

Last month the Florida State Men's Track and Filed Team won its second consecutive national NCAA Outdoor Track and Field Championship. Watching the CBS telecast as it took place was especially exciting for this old track and field fan.

Of particular interest, was how FSU attained this latest championship. It was all done on the track and mostly by sprinters. FSU had four first place finishes: Walter Dix in the 100 and 200 meter dashes; the 4 X 100 relay team made up of Dix, Greg Bolden, Michael Ray Garvin, and Charles Clark; and Ricardo Chambers in the 400 meter run. In the process, Walter Dix established himself as the current sprint king of college track and field.

As a result of FSU's recent running success, the school is now looked upon as a haven for sprinters. However, although FSU has never before attained the level of competition that it now has, there have been some pretty good sprinters in the school's earlier history. They include former national champions Walter McCoy, in the 600 yard run in 1978, Mike Roberson, in the 200 meter dash in 1980, Danny Smith, in the 60 yard indoor hurdles in 1974 and 75, and Philip Riley, in the 1995 indoor 55 meter hurdles.

As a youngster, I was fortunate to have seen FSU's first great collegiate sprinter run. His name was John Poston.

Florida State began its men's track and field program in 1949. Two seasons later, Poston joined the team. Poston had not participated in varsity athletics as a high school student in Jacksonville. He became a track athlete as a result of his military experiences.

When Poston graduated from high school he joined the Army and became a paratrooper. Paratrooper training required a lot of running. Consequently, Poston got into pretty good shape. During the last six months of his duty while serving with the 11th Airborne Division in Japan, Poston's attention was drawn to a notice on his unit's bulletin board. The notice stated that each regiment of the division would organize a track and field team and compete with each other. Poston signed up. Consequently, at the age of 20, Poston ran in his first track meet. In that all-meet held in Japan, he won both the 100 and 220 yard dashes.

Two months later, Poston completed his military tour and went home to Jacksonville where he enrolled in Jacksonville Junior College. In the spring of 1949, a professor at the junior college organized a track team that would hold informal meets usually on Tuesdays or Wednesdays. Poston became a regular participant.

Poston graduated from JJC in 1950 and enrolled at FSU. In the spring of 1951, he tried out for the track team. Dr. Kenneth Miller, FSU's head track coach, became his first true coach. With Miller's guidance, Poston rapidly improved as a sprinter. During that season, Poston set FSU school records in the 100 yard dash, the 220 yard dash, and was a member of the record setting mile relay team. Poston led the team in scoring for the year.

The 1952 season began with the Southern Conference Indoor Games. The Southern Conference would become the Atlantic Coast Conference the following year. This was the first indoor track meet ever for FSU. None of the FSU team members had any experience running on an indoor track as most had never even seen one. Despite that, FSU with Poston running a leg, took second place behind Alabama in the mile relay with a time of 3:29.9 to set FSU's first school indoor mile relay track record. During the remainder of the year, Poston set new records in the 100 and 220 and was a member again of a new record setting mile relay team. His 9.6 seconds in the 100 and his 20.8 in the 220 would remain the records at FSU for 13 years and 8 years respectively. In addition, his 100 time was the second fastest recorded in the U.S. that year and his 220 time was the third fastest. Poston again led the team in scoring over the year. The 1952 team won the first ever FSU team victories over NCAA Division I schools by beating Georgia, Georgia Tech, and Miami. It was fantastic, for a program in only its fourth year of competition.

Poston last represented FSU at the National Intercollegiate Championships in Abilene, Texas, in 1952, where he finished third in the 100 and fourth in the 220. He was invited to other national meets but there was no money, either in the FSU athletic budget or his own pocket to enable him to participate.

Johnny Poston now lives in Las Vegas, Nevada. He continues to be a very staunch FSU track and field fan and supporter. He keeps up with the team's latest accomplishments. I am confident that he was very happy last month when FSU won that second national championship.