“The Carnival: 125 Years of the Penn Relays” presents the relays from their debut on April 20, 1895 – the year before the debut of the modern Olympics – to the most recent competition in 2019, when much of the filming was done.
Recording the 125-year history of the Penn Relays was a difficult enough task with producers sifting through mountains of old photographs and grainy film to accurately tell the story of what is called “the Holy Grail of track and field in this country.”
Penn officials were looking for the right time to unveil their history lesson and they found it Thursday night when “The Carnival: 125 Years of the Penn Relays” was shown to a VIP audience at The Palestra, four weeks before the start of the 126th event . “I can’t say enough nice things about the Penn Relays,” Bell, now 92, said after viewing the film in person. “I was treated like royalty every time here and it was just nice that I went undefeated in all my appearances here. That was just icing on the cake.
“I think the theme came through very clear, which is something we really celebrate, the inclusiveness of the Penn Relays,” said Steve Dolan, Penn’s men’s and women’s head track coach who is in his first year as director of the Penn Relays. “All are welcome and actually the diversity of the event is what makes it great. It’s what we celebrate, the diversity of all, whether it’s by age, by gender, by ethnicity.
“What we witnessed here tonight was awesome,” said Frazier, the senior deputy athletics director at Syracuse. “I thought it was wonderful how they integrated what happened in the world from the late 1800s all the way through with the Penn Relays.”