A look back at the Penn Relays throughout the years

The first Penn Relays was held in 1895, and it has taken place near Penn's campus nearly every year since

VALERI GUEVARRA Sports Reporter

The first Relays take place on April 21 on the site of Franklin Field, where it continues to be held today. There were about 5,000 attendees with nine 4x440-yard relay races on the schedule with two teams in each. The nine races were divided into three divisions: four high school relays, four for colleges, and one college championship. A wide spread of different colleges attended the Relays including Cornell, Columbia, Harvard, Lafayette, Lehigh, Rutgers, Swarthmore, City College of New York, and New York University. The first college team to win a Relays championship was Harvard.

Entries for the Relays quadruple, and more events are added — including the five-mile relay, which eventually becomes the four-mile relay. The two-mile relay follows the year after.

The major change for this year was the Relays' scope, as the University of Chicago became the first midwestern school. Over the next few years, more track events — and some field events — are added, including sprint events such as the 100-yard and 220-yard dash, and the 120-yard hurdles, as well as the high jump, pole vault, long jump, shot put, and hammer throw.

The meet becomes known as the Penn Relay Carnival, due to the meet's signature carnival-like tent. More changes continued through the next year when college and high school championship events at the Relays became known as the “Championship of America” races. At the time, the Relays were used as a sort of national championship, until the NCAA hosted their first official championship meet in 1921.

With Oxford University’s debut at the Relays, the meet went global. The English school was the first international team to compete and win a race: the four-mile relay. The year after, the meet also became a multi-day affair, spanning two days of competition instead of one — as it had in the years prior.

During the early and mid-1900s, the meet underwent more event additions and also proceeded to be held through the national crises of the Great Depression and World War II. In 1962, the first women’s events were held, starting with the 100y. The women’s Olympic development relay and the high school 440y relay followed in 1964.

The Relays switches to the metric system, causing the event schedule to begin to resemble today's operations. In addition, the following year, automatic timing was integrated into the meet, and the year after, more women’s events were added including the marathon and 20k road race. These events forced the meet to expand into a third day of competition, officially becoming the three-day meet it is now.

This years' Relays will be held April 27-29. Talent from all over the nation — and the world — will step foot upon the historic track at Franklin Field, hoping to prove their might in front of a packed crowd. For the first time, high school events will be held on Saturday, sandwiched between highlyanticipated Olympic Development races featuring athletes like Devon Allen and Ajeé Wilson. The celebrated 127-year-old carnival will be packed with giveaways, development camps, meet and greets, and more.