But the performance that added national attention to Showalter’s storied history was a world record 100-yard dash by a high school junior, Houston McTear, on this day in 1975.
McTear, a product of backwoods poverty and the tiny high school of Baker in Florida’s Panhandle, came out of nowhere to run the 100 in a stunning time of 9.0 seconds in a Class 2A preliminary race seen by a small crowd of only 300 or so on a sun-baked late Friday afternoon.
The performance came almost two hours before the finals, thus the sparse attendance at that point of the Class 1A and 2A competitions.