More than 600 athletes participated in the 1st annual Kansas relays on April 20, 1923.[3] During the relays early years the meet featured collegiate athletes in track and field such as Tom Poor, Ed Weir, and Tom Churchill were some of the athletes who later competed in the Olympics.[1][3] Tom Poor was the first to win the high jump event in Kansas Relays, with a jump of six feet and a quarter inch.[3] He later went on to place fourth in the 1924 Olympics. He paved the way for other athletes competing in the track and field events in the Mid-West.