By Nancy McLaughlin

GREENSBORO -- High school students sometimes have a moment -- the violin solo, that late quarter touchdown, taking a bow as homecoming queen.

The memories that few experience.

A reel that continues to repeat decades later, if only in their minds.

For four guys from Grimsley High School, it's a 47-year-old state track championship in the mile relay in what was at the time, a state record-tying time.

This race is now known as the 4x400 meter relay. It was the last event that May, with the four racing against a nighttime backdrop.

It still stands not only as a Grimsley record but the best time ever recorded by a Greensboro school.

There was Valdez Chavis, a senior and probably the most analytical of the bunch. The one who figured if he did "this" at a certain point he might chisel seconds from his run time the next hundred yards.

And junior Herman Thacker, the gutsy one from a family of runners who ran circles around everyone except each other. He didn't particularly like the 400 relay. He's not a 400 guy in his mind, but in actuality, he was a great 400 guy, according to his teammates.

The methodical one, Neil Dunnavant, wasn't going to talk a whole lot, but the senior would get the job done.

Just like winning the Mr. Grimsley contest that year.

"Back then it was not a serious thing," said Dunnavant, whose talent involved a cheerleading outfit.

And then there was junior June Martin, the most spirited, the showboat -- who wore the word "Showboat" in standout letters on the back of his jogging suit.

"You can't have a name like that and not back it up," the now-retired police officer says with a laugh.

And he did. Martin qualified for the U.S. Olympic trials in 1980 in track, but that was the year the United States boycotted the games.

With each trial or success that would come in life, they each still carry the visual of what happened as the baton touched their hand that day. They weren't best friends at Grimsley but a relay team forms a special bond. They were the band of brothers who mostly talked running whenever they hung out at one of their houses and on the long drives to competitions with their coaches. They all played other sports and had other teammates, but agree this one thing forever defined them.

The 8 mm film from perhaps their finest hour as teenagers, they have since learned, is gone.

Too late to have it converted to digital. But who really needed that?

"June was saying -- and it's so true -- that even today he could close his eyes and see each of us running and I can do the same thing," Dunnavant said.

The next adventure

After high school they each went in different directions and on various adventures. Thacker and Martin would have another year in high school.

There were weddings. Babies. They found ways to improve the community where they landed.

For Dunnavant, it was the University of Virginia and ministry in Greensboro, it was both holding Bible studies and helping the jobless find work.

Martin, a graduate of what is now UNC-Pembroke, was drawn to law enforcement in Raleigh.

Chavis, whose brother Garcia was a substitute when needed on the relay team, later earned a degree in engineering from N.C. A&T and has worked in safety and forensics analysis in the field.

In retirement, Chavis started his own media production company.v After graduation, Thacker joined the U.S. Army and competed in military track competitions on bases around the world.

He reconnected with Dunnavant in a way that neither expected.

Dunnavant, whose wife had been in on it, came home years ago while a Time Warner Cable technician was in one of the rooms working with his back to him. The man, who had earlier recognized the name on the ticket, kept his back to him before turning to pass him something and quipping that it was like the old days.

"And I recognized Herman instantly," Dunnavant said of Thacker, then working as a senior installer with what was then Time Warner Cable.

A team meeting

Over the years, each of them had been talking to different teammates via email and telephone about trying to bring the others all together in person. They even found themselves talking to other people about each other.

"I've been wanting to try to get us together and just tell whatever lies we are going to tell -- the big fish stories -- and reminisce,'" Martin said he told his wife.

Before Martin got the chance, Chavis called in March to say that he would be back home and had talked to Dunnavant about a get-together in Greensboro.

They met at Dunnavant's home. Thacker, undergoing medical treatments, was unable to attend.

Their coach, the legendary Grimsley athletic director Bob Sawyer, was there telling them how easy they were to coach. They talked about how the coaches would take the high schoolers to big meets just to watch others run in places like Tennessee, West Virginia and Virginia.

"It helped with our own drive," Chavis said.

There were the stops at Sizzler for steak on the way home.

But inevitably, it would be about that day.

About the four warming up in their Grimsley attire on the track field at N.C. State in Raleigh, with Martin in their ears pumping them up.

the lineup: Thacker to start off, Valdez Chavis next, followed by Dunnavant and finishing with Martin.

They took their places in the lanes.

They had family and alumni in the stands.

"We could hear the crowd cheering us along the way," Thacker said. "We could feel it in our hearts."

With relay runners, it's having the speed of a sprinter but the endurance of a long-distance runner.

"We really pushed each other," Chavis said.

There was a familiar cadence to their running. Like the familiarity of an old tune.

"We won every time we ran together," Chavis said. "I don't care what kind of combination," he added, noting their positions in the relay didn't matter.

But they'd never run that fast before.

"That day, everything just clicked," Chavis said.

They had worked hard to get to the state championship that year. But they were also just really good.

Thacker was sometimes underestimated by those who had never seen him run.

"The thing about it, I was short," Thacker said. "When they looked at me take off, they used to say it looked like somebody turned the jets on."

At this level the competition was fierce. One of the members of a Cary team had been the state champion in an individual event.

"Some had (USA Track & Field) records," Thacker said. "We said we wanted to do something few people had done."

Martin's leg of the race that year was against a state individual record holder.

And it still gets his heart pumping. The others had given him a large lead.

"All of a sudden I hear, 'June he's about 10 yards behind you,'" Martin said with a laugh. "I changed gears. I came past that line and looked back and that boy was 30 yards behind me."

The team won the state championship and tied the record at 3:18.5 minutes.

"Second and third weren't even close," Chavis said. "And then we found out about the record."

Garcia Chavis, Martin and Dunnavant sat together this spring to watch a track and field event at A&T and had hours of conversation.

"Still talking about that day," Martin said with a laugh.

Source: June 19, 2022 Greensboro.com story