Richard Casper

Dick Casper spent 40 years in Salinas teaching and coaching but was best known for creating the highly-popular Salinas Valley Track Club he started in 1968. His track club annually attracted more than 100 participants for ages 7-14. His first summer track club continued for 13 years. It was a launching pad that produced some of Salinas Valley’s greatest high school and community college runners and jumpers.  He started the track club again in 1992 and it went for another five years. Casper was a standout runner himself. He set Hartnell College records in the 440 (49.2), and his clocking of 1:53.0 in the 800 meters (the event was known as the 880 before distances were switched to meters) in 1956 stood for 39 years. He was the 800-meter Northern California champion both years at Hartnell, and was third in state as a freshman and second as a sophomore. Those times earned Casper a scholarship to Cal-Berkeley where a teammate of his was Don Boldon, the first American to break the coveted 4-minute mile. Casper’s top time in the 800 at Cal was 1:52 and 4:11 in the mile.