Starting Blocks For Varsity Athletes. T.D. Anderson, Cambridge University hurdler, gets off to a flying starts running training at Fenner's ground, Cambridge, with the new blocks. A new type of starting apparatus, obviating the necessity of "digging in 1, will be used by Oxford and Cambridge University athletes at their meeting at the White City on Saturday, The Cambridge team are already using it in their training for the event. March 20, 1947. (Photo by Fox Photos).