The 75th Kansas Relays won’t be remembered for the competition.

They’ll be remembered for rain.

“Rain and the Kansas Relays unfortunately are somewhat synonymous,” Relays meet director Tim Weaver said Saturday.

Weaver choked back tears after canceling the marquee Saturday afternoon/evening portion of the meet for what is believed to be the first time in school history.

LAWRENCE HIGH track team members take down their tent at the Kansas Relays after all remaining events were canceled. The event was called off at 4:15 p.m. Saturday because of the threat of severe weather.

“Last year I instituted a coaches’ gift at the meet, and it was an umbrella,” Weaver said. “I have to have a sense of humor about this.”

Still, it was tough for Weaver to muster a smile as he announced his “heartbreaking” decision to halt the Relays at 4:15 p.m. Saturday two hours after rain and lightning first arrived at Memorial Stadium.

“The decision we came to the safety of the competitors and everybody involved in the meet was more important than the opportunities the Kansas Relays provide,” Weaver said.

The Kansas University Athletics Corporation and Kansas Relays committee both follow strict policies regarding lightning strikes.

Lightning peppered the Lawrence area all afternoon.

“Our policy is anything within eight miles is a danger and a risk. We cannot put our fans, coaches, athletes and KUAC staff within harm’s way,” Weaver added, a loud boom of thunder interrupting his media session.

“That’s a vote of confidence for the decision. I won’t say from whom,” Weaver quipped.

“We made the right call. I had so many coaches stop me and tell me it was the right decision. I talked to Maurice Greene (Olympic sprinter from Kansas City who was to run the 800 relay Saturday night) briefly and he smiled and said, ‘Hey, you made the right decision. I’m sure it was not easy, but it was the right decision.”’

“Jon Drummond (who was to run with Greene) said, ‘Hey, we’ll be back and do this right next year.”

It poured in Lawrence at 7:15 p.m. Saturday, the scheduled time of the 800 relay and a good three hours after the meet was called.

The Relays will return next year, KU athletic director Al Bohl said.

“I was so proud to be at my first Kansas Relays,” said Bohl, who was involved in the decision to postpone the Relays, along with Weaver, various coaches and other athletic department officials who met in the locker room area prior to the decision being announced.

“I was really looking forward to tonight’s competition. It’s just regretful the weather conditions wouldn’t allow us to continue. This is a great athletic event. We’ll continue to work on it and support it. I think it’s great for the community and great for the whole state of Kansas to have a premier outdoor track event in our stadium. I’m excited getting started on this next year.”

The Megavision video board at Memorial Stadium tells the story of the Kansas Relays. The track and field event was halted at 4:15 p.m. Saturday because of severe weather.

So is Weaver, who pointed to Friday’s crowd of 8,000 the biggest Friday session since 1983 as a positive. Just 1,000 or so fans were in the stands when the rains hit Saturday. Several high school and some college and open field events had been contested before the skies opened.

“We had a build-up to this tremendous event. People felt it. Dr. Bohl pulled me aside and said he felt the build-up and that meant a lot to me,” Weaver said. “I think this could be compared to 1998 and ’99 when absence made the heart grow fonder. The Relays came back (after two year absence for stadium renovations), and when it came back people were even more passionate about the Relays.”

One of the Relays’ most passionate followers, former KU coach Bob Timmons, agreed with the decision to call off the events with lightning in the area.

“Safety is the biggest issue,” Timmons said. “I remember my first 20 years (as KU coach) it rained one or more days at the Relays. The last four years it didn’t rain at all.

“One year when the national anthem was being sung as the part of the song, ‘The bombs bursting in air,’ was sung, we shot up a big rocket. After the boom, there was an immediate downpour and everybody bailed. But the sun came out and the meet continued after a delay. It’s rained before, many times before.”

There were no thoughts of finishing the Relays today.

“You think about the teams that already left and teams that were going to leave,” Weaver said. “Some states have policies that athletic trips can take only so many hours. So many people had flights tomorrow, hotel rooms, vans leaving, it wouldn’t be practical. It wouldn’t be up to the standard of the Kansas Relays.”

MVPs: Missouri’s Christian Cantwell was named the meet’s most outstanding male performer. He won Saturday’s shot put in a personal-best 70-1 1/2. Trecia Smith of Jamaica was women’s most outstanding performer. She won the triple jump in a Relays record 45-7 3/4 and the long jump in 21-2 3/4.

Timmons OK: Former Jayhawk coach Timmons recently was hospitalized a few days.

“An artery in the back of my neck is maybe not as large as it should be to handle its function,” Timmons said. “They (doctors) are a little afraid to go into it (artery). I’m on medication. I’m not in any pain. They will tell me soon what I can and can’t do.”

Timmons has been working on sculptures of ex-KU standouts Wilt Chamberlain, Gale Sayers and Lynette Woodard.

“I’m not sure I’ll ever finish them,” Timmons quipped. “They are in clay form now.”