I once was involved in a scheme to provide false information to a large daily newspaper.

It went on for most of a summer, and introducing the doctored facts into the newspaper reportage was quite successful. Not once was I questioned, nor was there any hint of suspicion.

When I was in high school, an all-comers track meet was put on by the Spokane Parks Department every Wednesday evening during the summer. My best friends, Dave and Mike Dixon, often entered with me.

The field of runners was small, and we usually had no trouble winning races. A guy recorded the times and names of the winners, and the next day, the results were printed in the sports section of the Spokane Spokesman-Review.

The first week we did this, I won the mile and said my name was Marty Miler. However, the next day, an editor must have thought it was a misspelling because the name was changed to Marty Miller.

We changed out tactics slightly, and the Dixons and I succeeded in our weekly mischief. We were delighted whenever the goofy, made-up names got into the newspaper.

One week the three of us and another friend formed a mile-relay team. Around this time, the world mile record, held by Jim Ryun of the U.S., was broken by Filbert Bayi of Tanzania. Not long after, John Walker of New Zealand broke it again. Another top runner, Marty Liquori of the U.S., was also running great times.

Only the last names of the winning relay team were printed in the paper, which we won. We used the names of the runners I just mentioned, with different first names to avoid being obvious. Anyone following track and field would have caught on, even with the changed first names, but apparently the result-taker was not a track and field guy.

The next day, the Spokesman-Review reported that the team of Ryun, Liquori, Bayi and Walker won the mile relay.

It’s the only time in Spokane history that four of the fastest milers in the world came to town to make stars of themselves at the parks department all-comers meet.