Saturday, Aug, 23 the Marquette cross country season unofficially opens as the "Blue and Gold Alumni Race" will be held at Bayview Park in St. Francis. All Marquette track and field and cross country alumni are invited and encouraged to participate in the two mile-long race. Festivities will begin at 10:00 a.m.

Recently, GoMarquette.com interviewed former MU long jumper John Bennett, a silver medalist in the 1956 Melbourne Olympics and two-time NCAA National Champion.

The names Marquette and Olympic sprinter Ralph Metcalfe were once as synonymous as Marquette is today with NBA star and 2008 Olympian Dwyane Wade. That was the 1930s, when the name "Marquette" struck fear in world-class sprinters across the globe. Former MU sprinter "Rabbit" Ralph Metcalfe was the foremost U.S. sprinter in the early half of the 1930s, holding the title of "World's Fastest Human" for much of that time.