HEADS TURN AT UO’S WRONG-WAY TRACK PHOTOS

Some things go clockwise like, well, clocks. And turntables. And Monopoly board pieces.

Other things, like carousels and hurricanes and baseball players, go counterclockwise.

And, of course, track and field runners go counterclockwise, too. Here in Track Town USA, we know that better than anyone — right?

Maybe.

Two years ago, the University of Oregon’s nationally renowned Warsaw Center for Sports Marketing decided to put a different “spin” on things.

“There’s really not much to it, other than we were trying to be artistic and clever,” Warsaw center spokesman Jim Engelhardt said.

In August 2009, when a photographer headed to Hayward Field with UO graduate student and distance runner Melissa Grelli, they decided to do things the UO way, Engelhardt said. Innovatively, creatively, and going — literally — against the grain.

The Warsaw center’s website has two photos of Grelli, a 2010 graduate of the program, in a business suit, headed the wrong way on the track.

One photo shows her crouched in a sprinter’s starting position at Hayward’s finishing line, another breaking the tape as if she just won a race.

Eugene attorney Dave Bahr, a Hayward volunteer, has a little problem with that. “It’s just a peeve,” said Bahr, who contacted the Warsaw center twice asking them to correct the problem.

“Here we are in Track Town with all these people coming,” Bahr said of the upcoming USA Outdoor Track and Field Championships at Hayward Field Thursday through Sunday.

Bahr said he noticed the photos in April while searching online for a UO faculty member. He called the Warsaw center and left a message. No results. So he called again a couple of weeks ago. A man answered.

“It seemed like he was busy with important things to do,” Bahr said. “He started telling me about all these important things.” Things like balancing resources, time pressures and recruiting the nation’s best graduate students, Bahr said.

The photos are an embarrassment for a place that brags about having the most knowledgeable track fans in the world, Bahr said.

Engelhardt’s response?

“We were just trying to be artsy fartsy,” he said.