A Desire For An All-Star Meet Inspired Times News Relays

In 1976, Kingsport track enthusiast Rick Earnest and the track coaches at the Kingsport Relays had a dream. They wanted an all-star meet where the area’s best performances would compete on an invitational basis. They were looking for a vehicle to promote track and field in Upper East Tennessee and thought such a meet would serve their purposes well.

The coaches talked amongst themselves, then approached Times News Executive Sports Editor Ron Bliss with the idea. Would the Times News be willing to sponsor such a meet? Since the paper already sponsored a golf tournament, they thought the paper would be open to such an idea. 

The newspaper agreed and just 17 days later, on Thursday, April 22, 1976, the first Times News Relays was held at Sullivan Central High School, featuring the top six athletes in each event in Upper East Tennessee. 

From the beginning, it was a success. Nearly 1,000 fans turned out to witness that first meet. Morristown East’s Eddie Mills and Sullivan East’s Chuck Brown were the standouts. 

In 1977, with more time to plan the meet, a weekly track checklist began to keep up with qualifying efforts as the season went on, T-shirts were produced for the first time and all the coaches in Upper East Tennessee attempted to have their athletes qualify for the meet. 

A good field was on hand, including Sullivan East’s Brown, but cold weather held down the times and the crowd at Sullivan Central, but failed to dull the enthusiasm for the meet. 

In an effort to assure warmer weather, the meet was moved the next year from a week night to a Saturday afternoon, with the cooperation of the coaches, who cleared their schedules to avoid conflicts. 

In 1978, the Times News Relays were also expanded to include the best athletes in Southwest Virginia and for the first time, trophies were awarded for a team title and to the individual standouts in the meet. The result was the best Times News Relays meet ever. The weather was nice and 21 records were set in the meet, run at Colonial Heights Junior High School. It was to be run at the new Dobyns-Bennett track, but construction was not complete. 

The meet is designed for the track enthusiast and the purpose is to provide the best track meet for your enjoyment and to enhance the sport and the area school’s track programs.