John Seefeld: Hurling The Platter

John Seefeld is the younger of the Bays great throwing Seefelds.  Phil Seefeld won the State Discus title in 1961 and then John won it in 1964.

Here are John’s results in Suburban, Sectional and State meets in 1963 and 1964, with distance if known:

Discus

1963 Suburban Relays: 1st  151-0

1963 Sectional:  1st  160-4

1963 State:  5th  152-10

1963 Suburban Outdoor:  4th  149-9

1964 Suburban Relays:  1st  175-7 (Meet Record; Never Broken)

1964 Suburban Outdoor:  1st  166-6 (Meet Record; Never Broken)

1964 Sectional:  1st  177-7 1/2 (School Record)

1964 State:  1st  164-6

The State Record was 174-2 set by Don Hendrickson of Green Bay West in 1960.  That distance is Hendrickson’s PR, so it’s likely that the 177-7 1/2 was the farthest throw in Wisconsin history to that point.

Shot Put

1964 Suburban Indoor:  3rd  54-2 1/2

1964 Suburban Relays:  3rd

1964 Suburban Outdoor:  2nd  56-4 3/4

1964 Sectional:  2nd  57-4 1/2

1964 State:  3rd  56-1 3/4

John’s problem in the Shot Put was Sandy Smith of Shorewood, who won Class A State titles in both 1963 and 1964.

And John was not the only great thrower on that 1964 team.  Even though the Suburban Relays scored field events individually in that era, the Bay used the team distance for school record purposes.  And what records they are.  In the Shot Put, John Seefeld, Paul Henningsen and Pete Gabrielson combined for a total of 162-10.  And in the Discus Seefeld, Henningsen and Jim Wilson threw a combined 467-10.  The AVERAGES are over 54 feet in the Shot Put and 156 feet in the Discus.  Those are stunning distances.  As you would expect, both totals were still the school record as of 1990.  I don’t know about subsequent to that.

John was also an outstanding football player and was named 1st Team All-Suburban as a senior in 1963.

Simply, a great athlete.

 

John then attended Miami of Ohio where he was on the track team;