currently been seen by El Pasoans on TV, having appeared on guest programs, and in Revlon Theatre, My Friend Irma, City Detective, My Favorite Husband, and a series called Secret Chapter. Mrs. Eleanor Schwitters of El Paso is an aunt by marriage, and Ernest Schwitters of Carlock is a first cousin.
Don Cash Seaton
When Mr. and Mrs. C. M. C. Seaton arrived in El Paso in August of 1916, they brought with them a young chap destined to go far in the field of physical education. Don was born in Canton, Illinois, January 31, 1902, coming here when his parents took over the Clifton Hotel, where he grew up.
County tournaments found Seaton piling up points for El Paso Township High School, and he still holds the county broad jump record of twenty-one feet one and one-half inches, established in 1920, next to Joe Baker's shot put record, the oldest in the books. Seaton received his B. S. at the University of Illinois in 1925 and his M. A. in 1936. In the summer of 1938 he did postgraduate work at Columbia University, and in 1947 received his Ed. D. degree at New York University.
Seaton became the director of physical education at Pontiac in 1925 and the next year originated the Pontiac holiday basketball tournament which is still an annual affair in Pontiac. He is also given credit for originating the man in motion in the "T" formation in football that fall at Pontiac. In 1928 Seaton became instructor of physical education and track and football coach at the Senn High School in Chicago, and in five years won thirteen out of a possible twenty city track and field championships among Chicago high schools. In 1935 he became varsity track and cross-country coach at the University of Illinois, and in 1937 he accepted the position of Illinois State Director of Physical Education.
Don was a lieutenant in the U. S. Navy in 1942 in charge of the Fourth Naval District's Physical Fitness program, being discharged in 1945 as a lieutenant commander. In 1945 he became a coordinator of safety education in New York's public schools for New York University, and in 1947 accepted the position he still holds as Director of Physical Education and Track Coach at the University of Kentucky at Louisville.
Seaton has had marked success in his chosen field; in his four-year period at the University of Illinois his teams won one Big Ten track championship and two cross-country championships when he was the youngest coach in the conference. Perhaps most important is his safety work; as state director he secured nearly 95% compliance to the high school physical education law, and he encouraged over 800 high schools to teach safety education; he pushed a safety program and safety laws in Illinois public school transportation systems, and was instrumental in requiring certain physical examinations in all high schools.
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