Contestants run a 50-meter dash during the Police Activities League’s annual Kids’ Games event at Kezar Stadium in San Francisco on Sunday.
Jess Lynn Goss for the S.F. Chronicle
Legacy Violet Brooks had just come out of her starting crouch in the 50-yard dash when the morning mist turned into drizzle. This compelled Legacy to alter her race strategy to “run around the raindrops,” as her mother, Violet Brooks, described it from the finish line.
Legacy finished fourth in the 7-year-old girls division, but it was a dry fourth.
“If she ran straight, she would have won,” Violet said, while Legacy was happy with her performance. She was given a medal for effort, which she wore around her neck like an Olympian. It bore the seal of the San Francisco Police Athletic League, an independent nonprofit that has been the main sponsor and proponent of free youth sports for city kids since 1959.
Article continues below this ad
Sunday’s track meet at Kezar Stadium has been around for only a decade of that glorious history, which is primarily in organizing tackle football, basketball and baseball leagues. Called the Kids’ Games, it is open to any city resident aged 5 to 14, and each age got its own division in separate races for boys and girls. About 1,200 signed up to partake in a meet, starting at 9 a.m. There was an opening ceremony march halfway around the track, with the national anthem supplied by the Washington High School marching band and enough sworn officers in blue uniforms to make the old stadium on the edge of Golden Gate Park the safest place in San Francisco on Sunday morning. Many wore their service revolvers for effect.
San Francisco Police Chief Derrick Lew announces the start of the boys’ 50-meter dash at the Police Activities League’s annual Kids’ Games at Kezar Stadium.
Jess Lynn Goss for the S.F. Chronicle
“It’s a great opportunity to interact with the parents and the kids,” said Police Chief Derrick Lew, who was there to hang the medals on the necks of the top three finishers in each age group during a solemn ceremony on a podium. “Their first interaction with cops should be a positive one, and Kezar is a big piece of our history.”
San Francisco Chronicle Logo
Make us a Preferred Source to get more of our news when you search.
Add Preferred Source
This dates to the 1960s, when the San Francisco 49ers still made Kezar their home and kids in the PAL football leagues would blow up balloons for the pregame and halftime festivities. They would then sit in the stands, in their uniforms, pads and helmets, for the full game before coming out to scrimmage on the field afterward, for an audience of lingerers from among the 60,000 fans.
Article continues below this ad
Children play on the placing podium during the Police Activities League’s annual Kids’ Games at Kezar Stadium.
Jess Lynn Goss for the S.F. Chronicle
PAL has a long history at Kezar. Back when the San Francisco 49ers made it their home, PAL would supply youth football teams to play at halftime of NFL games, coming down out of the stands in their uniforms and helmets for a shortened contest.
It was often the San Francisco Mates, who practiced at a field directly across from the Taraval Police Station in the Sunset District, to make it convenient for coaches who would sometimes come straight from duty on their police motorcycles.
In 1970, the Mates scrimmaged against the Richmond Rebels, a rival PAL team from the other side of the park. The Mates ended up 12-0, capped by a victory in the Northern California championship in the under 125-pound division of Pop Warner football, beating a team from Concord in the title game played at City College of San Francisco. The 49ers had a slightly less successful season than the Mates. Behind league MVP John Brodie, the 49ers won their first NFC West title in 1970 but ended up losing the championship game to Dallas, 17-10, in the last NFL game played at Kezar.
Brothers Nico and Teddy von Unger throw javelins during the Police Activities League’s annual Kids’ Games at Kezar Stadium.
Jess Lynn Goss for the S.F. Chronicle
The old concrete bowl was then shrunken down to a 10,000-seat high school stadium. But the same track is still there, its dusty cinders replaced by a more forgiving spongy surface. Which was a lucky thing because in each heat at least one kid face-planted coming out of the start, usually picking themselves up to weave their way to the finish.
Article continues below this ad
“I was in third, but I ran too fast and then I fell,” Olivia Liu, 12, explained as she was having her knee bandaged up in the first aid tent. “It’s not that bad. I guess it was worth it.
There were more spills and collisions when the meet was first started by PAL executive director Rick Bruce, a retired captain in the force. Back then there were relay races, “and it was mass hysteria,” he recalled Sunday. “We decided that we have to simplify it.”
Families watch their children and friends during the Police Activities League’s annual Kids’ Games at Kezar Stadium.
Jess Lynn Goss for the S.F. Chronicle
The relays and the long jump were eliminated, and now the only events are the 50-meter dash and the 100-meter dash, the marquee events in schoolyards everywhere.
“Those we can control, with kids who have never been on a track before,” Bruce said. “There are kids who only know to follow the kid in front of them.”
Article continues below this ad
Almost 600 kids showed up, and after the rain hit, the field of competitors immediately diminished by about a quarter, their parents unwilling to stand out there and get wet. But Violeta and Legacy Brooks weren’t giving up. They’d come from Dolores Park with a contingent of 10 families from Harvey Milk Civil Rights Academy.
Mission High School cross-country and track coach Tony Marshall and student Navarro Lopezjones teach children how to throw the shot put and javelin during the Police Activities League’s annual Kids’ Games at Kezar Stadium.
Jess Lynn Goss/For the S.F. Chronicle
Mission High School cross-country and track coach Tony Marshall and student Navarro Lopezjones teach children how to throw the shot put and javelin during the Police Activities League’s annual Kids’ Games at Kezar Stadium.
Jess Lynn Goss/For the S.F. Chronicle
“I love it because it motivates the kids to get moving and teaches them about competition,” said Violet, who did not dodge the raindrops like her daughter, ended up wetter for it.
Astrid Held, 8, finished third in the 50 to earn a medal and a post on the podium, while her brother Konrad, 6, finished fifth, which was good for a ribbon. Their younger brother, Franz, 4, was too young to compete so he lay down on the wet track, which was good enough to earn him a hot dog, the reward given to all competitors.
“This is a great citywide event where everyone can join,” said their mother, Mareike Held, a German emigre who was once a gymnast, waiting at the finish line when Astrid finished her race.
Article continues below this ad
Girls are awarded medals after winning in the 50-meter dash at the Police Activities League’s annual Kids’ Games at Kezar Stadium.
Jess Lynn Goss for the S.F. Chronicle
“She came in smiling,” her mom said. “I’m just proud that she ran and had fun.”
PAL serves 1,600 kids annually, with organized coed leagues in both flag and tackle football, basketball, cheerleading and individual sports judo, jujitsu, wrestling, chess, crossfit, and track and field. The group will even take kids fishing on the bay. The annual budget of $350,000 is primarily funded by a golf tournament for adults held every September.
“The goal is to build community and create spaces where the youth feel supported, encouraged and connected,” said development director Sabine Medrano. “What you saw today captures the essence of what the SFPAL is all about.”
Kids’ Games participants run around Kezar Stadium during the opening ceremony.
Jess Lynn Goss for the S.F. Chronicle