Mike Lindsay, an outstanding shot and discus thrower at the University of Oklahoma class of 1960 passed away recently (December 11, 2019). He was 81 years old. Mike was from Glasgow, Scotland and had represented Great Britain in Rome and Tokyo in 1960 and 64. But he represented Scotland at several Empire and Commonwealth Games. He was fifth at Rome behind the three Americans Bill Neider, Dallas Long and Parry O'Brien, and the Russian Viktor Lipsnis. At the time Mike was throwing 58 feet, but he was used to being around the American trio and was not intimidated by their 60' throws. He threw his steady 58 feet and placed high.
 |
| Chris and Mike Lindsay at Great Britain B match against Norway. Chris was a 400 meter man. |
 |
| Arthur Rowe and Mike Lindsay |
As you will see in some of the following obits, he went home, earned a Phd. and became head of the sports science department at Leeds University, one of the top physical education and sports science departments in England.
When Mike arrived at Norman, Oklahoma, he asked, "Where is the weight room?" People replied, "What's that?" Mike got them started with a weight program. At that time football was king as it is today, but there was no weight training program. The weight room was 'created' under the grandstand in a small unheated space, with a dirt floor. There was one bench, one barbell and a set of plates and a couple of dumbells, and I'm not referring to the pole vaulters. Oh yes, there was also a spittoon for Dan Erwin another all American shot putter. The note in the obit below that Mike benefitted from good facilities and coaching at the university was not quite true. He was his own coach and he introduced the concept of strength training to the university. At that time the only books one could find on weight training were published in England.
It is noted in sme of Mike's obits that he was never accused of doping in all his career. I remember though his mother used to send him protein supplements from health food stores in Scotland. He was always adding that powder to his milk in the dining hall.
He held the Scottish records in the discus and shot for 15 years. When he practiced the discus in the 180 range and we were running track work outs we always had to watch out of the corner of our eye when he was throwing, because the discus often skidded across the track. More than one runner has had a career ending injury from an errant discus. One of Igloi's top runners had that fate with the L.A. Track Club.
I never saw this but I heard that Mike used to like to tease some of the track guys by stuffing them in the trash cans in the hall way. The only guy he couldn't do that to was 6'4" decathlete and pole vaulter J.D. Martin. He also met his match in a wrestling contest with Tommy Evans the assistant wrestling coach and a 152 pound Olympic sivler medalist. Tommy pinned Mike in a matter of seconds.
On the track, Mike was the fastest guy out of the blocks on the team including the sprinters, and he could high jump 6. 0".
One of the funniest stories about Mike was when he and Claude Hammond, another thrower were riding double on a bicycle (imagine 450 pounds of people on a bike) one of them on the handlebars. They came barreling around one corner of the football stadium and had a head on crash with another cyclist who weighed all of 130 pounds. It should have been no contest, but Hammond dislocated his finger, and when Mike saw it, he threw up and fainted. The little 130 pounder was standing over both of them trying to console Hammond. We laughed for days about that.
I had been trying for several years to track down Mike and was not successful. I wish I had, and could have heard that great Scottish accent one more time.
Another member of that Sooner team also passed away recently. Buddy Stewart from Woodward, Oklahoma. Buddy was in the same year as Mike. He taught me some good life lessons as a rookie. As a runner he fit in between the mile and half mile. The 1000 yards was made for him and he did very well at that distance. When I saw him last time he told me he had married a woman who had saved his life when he was drowning in a swimming pool. He had come in from a training run and jumped in the pool to cool off and cramped up, and she was able to save him. Buddy's career wasn't as stellar as Mike Lindsay's but he was one of those people who still teaches you things that you carry along through life. I miss them both.
George
 |
| Buddy Stewart winning the 1000 at Indiana U. Kentucky tri meet at Bloomington. |
Here is the Obituary on Mike from The Scotsman, by Jack Davidson
Mike Lindsay, athlete. Born:
2 November 1938. Died:
11 December 2019, aged 81
Mike Lindsay, who has died aged 81, was arguably Scotland’s greatest ever shot putter and discus thrower, raising standards in both events to unprecedented levels while winning a stack of honours domestically and internationally. A multiple British and Scottish champion and international on more than 35 occasions in the course of a long career, his high point came when, aged only 21, he secured 5th place in the shot at the 1960 Rome Olympic Games. This was the highest place ever achieved in the event by a British athlete and was subsequently never bettered, albeit equalled once, by Geoff Capes at the 1980 Moscow Olympics.
At the 1962 Commonwealth Games in Perth, Australia, he secured silver medals for Scotland in both shot and discus, in the former missing gold by a mere 4cms. A year later he became the first Scot to breach the 60ft barrier in the shot, a feat as significant athletically as the four-minute mile, while at the World Student Games in Brazil he collected another two silver medals in his speciality events. Being one of the first British athletes to gain a sports scholarship to the USA, to Oklahoma University in the late 1950s, undoubtedly enhanced his development into a world class thrower. Once retired from competition in 1971, he enjoyed an accomplished career in the field of physical education and academia, becoming very involved in the development of the study of bio mechanics.
Michael Robert Lindsay was born in Glasgow, the younger son of Archie and Lucy, at a time when his father was stationed locally in the army. Elder brother Chris was also a noted athlete who represented Great Britain ‘B’ at 440 yards. Because of family connections they soon moved to Coldstream, where Mike attended the local primary school. When Mike was 11 the family moved to London because his father had secured employment with Royal Mail and he attended St Marleybone Grammar School, where his sporting potential was first noted. A talented all-rounder, he shone at rugby, cricket and athletics, initially competing in jumping events. As he developed physically and started weight training, his coach Doug Mannion switched him to throwing events, at which he showed promise.
It proved a wise decision as Mike achieved prodigiously as a junior athlete winning the AAA (British) titles at shot and discus in both 1956 and ’57, in the latter year also claiming the senior AAA title at discus while still a junior. He also set a world junior best in the event with a throw over 193ft, beating the previous best by 10ft by the iconic Al Oerter, later multiple Olympic champion.
In 1957, aged 18, he set his first of many Scottish records in the shot at Edinburgh Highland Games, obliterating the previous one by 6ft, represented Scotland in his first international against Ireland in Dublin winning both shot and discus and gained his first British international vest against France. The following year, in Cardiff, he made the first of four appearances for Scotland at the Commonwealth Games, finishing a creditable 4th and 6th at discus and shot respectively, and in 1959 repeated his AAA discus success while runner up in the shot.
Oklahoma University, duly impressed, offered Mike a sports scholarship and he rewarded their faith by setting a British discus record within a year. Access to top level coaching and facilities while competing against throwers of the calibre of Olympic champions Parry O’Brien and Al Oerter edged him towards world class as he made his mark at the Rome Olympics.
After graduating in mechanical engineering in 1962 he returned to continue competing successfully for virtually the next decade under coach Ron Pickering. He added an AAA title in the shot to his CV, won the event for Britain in the 1963 contest against the USA, beating future Olympic champion Randy Matson, competed in the 1964 Tokyo Olympics and made further Commonwealth Games appearances in Perth, Kingston and Edinburgh.
By the time of Mike’s final international match in 1971, for Scotland against the Home Nations, he had topped the Scottish ranking lists at shot and discus for 15 years consecutively, an unparalleled dominance. Throughout his career he remained steadfastly drug free at a time when drug misuse had infiltrated the sport.
After Perth 1962 he remained there for six months, teaching at the Scotch College, and on his return undertook a post graduate teaching qualification at Carnegie PE College in Leeds before studying for a Master’s degree in Mechanical Engineering at the University of Leeds when the significance of the application of Biomechanics to sport was being recognised. There followed lectureships in Biomechanics at Madeley College, Staffordshire, Dunfermline PE College, Edinburgh and a PhD in Bio Engineering at Strathclyde University. In 1979 he was appointed Director of PE at University of Leeds, where he remained until retiring in 2004, making a major contribution to the development of sports science degrees.
Eminent coach Frank Dick said: “Mike brought greater understanding to the application of Biomechanics to sport and developing athletes. He was also a true gentleman who hid his light under a bushel.”
In 1972 Mike married Vivienne Greener, a teacher and lecturer whom he had met in Leeds and the couple went on to enjoy 47 years together, latterly living in Harrogate.
Mike Lindsay, who has died aged 81, was arguably Scotland’s greatest ever shot putter and discus thrower, raising standards in both events to unprecedented levels while winning a stack of honours domestically and internationally. A multiple British and Scottish champion and international on more than 35 occasions in the course of a long career, his high point came when, aged only 21, he secured 5th place in the shot at the 1960 Rome Olympic Games. This was the highest place ever achieved in the event by a British athlete and was subsequently never bettered, albeit equalled once, by Geoff Capes at the 1980 Moscow Olympics.
At the 1962 Commonwealth Games in Perth, Australia, he secured silver medals for Scotland in both shot and discus, in the former missing gold by a mere 4cms. A year later he became the first Scot to breach the 60ft barrier in the shot, a feat as significant athletically as the four-minute mile, while at the World Student Games in Brazil he collected another two silver medals in his speciality events. Being one of the first British athletes to gain a sports scholarship to the USA, to Oklahoma University in the late 1950s, undoubtedly enhanced his development into a world class thrower. Once retired from competition in 1971, he enjoyed an accomplished career in the field of physical education and academia, becoming very involved in the development of the study of bio mechanics.
Michael Robert Lindsay was born in Glasgow, the younger son of Archie and Lucy, at a time when his father was stationed locally in the army. Elder brother Chris was also a noted athlete who represented Great Britain ‘B’ at 440 yards. Because of family connections they soon moved to Coldstream, where Mike attended the local primary school. When Mike was 11 the family moved to London because his father had secured employment with Royal Mail and he attended St Marleybone Grammar School, where his sporting potential was first noted. A talented all-rounder, he shone at rugby, cricket and athletics, initially competing in jumping events. As he developed physically and started weight training, his coach Doug Mannion switched him to throwing events, at which he showed promise.
It proved a wise decision as Mike achieved prodigiously as a junior athlete winning the AAA (British) titles at shot and discus in both 1956 and ’57, in the latter year also claiming the senior AAA title at discus while still a junior. He also set a world junior best in the event with a throw over 193ft, beating the previous best by 10ft by the iconic Al Oerter, later multiple Olympic champion.
In 1957, aged 18, he set his first of many Scottish records in the shot at Edinburgh Highland Games, obliterating the previous one by 6ft, represented Scotland in his first international against Ireland in Dublin winning both shot and discus and gained his first British international vest against France. The following year, in Cardiff, he made the first of four appearances for Scotland at the Commonwealth Games, finishing a creditable 4th and 6th at discus and shot respectively, and in 1959 repeated his AAA discus success while runner up in the shot.
Oklahoma University, duly impressed, offered Mike a sports scholarship and he rewarded their faith by setting a British discus record within a year. Access to top level coaching and facilities while competing against throwers of the calibre of Olympic champions Parry O’Brien and Al Oerter edged him towards world class as he made his mark at the Rome Olympics.
After graduating in mechanical engineering in 1962 he returned to continue competing successfully for virtually the next decade under coach Ron Pickering. He added an AAA title in the shot to his CV, won the event for Britain in the 1963 contest against the USA, beating future Olympic champion Randy Matson, competed in the 1964 Tokyo Olympics and made further Commonwealth Games appearances in Perth, Kingston and Edinburgh.
By the time of Mike’s final international match in 1971, for Scotland against the Home Nations, he had topped the Scottish ranking lists at shot and discus for 15 years consecutively, an unparalleled dominance. Throughout his career he remained steadfastly drug free at a time when drug misuse had infiltrated the sport.
After Perth 1962 he remained there for six months, teaching at the Scotch College, and on his return undertook a post graduate teaching qualification at Carnegie PE College in Leeds before studying for a Master’s degree in Mechanical Engineering at the University of Leeds when the significance of the application of Biomechanics to sport was being recognised. There followed lectureships in Biomechanics at Madeley College, Staffordshire, Dunfermline PE College, Edinburgh and a PhD in Bio Engineering at Strathclyde University. In 1979 he was appointed Director of PE at University of Leeds, where he remained until retiring in 2004, making a major contribution to the development of sports science degrees.
Eminent coach Frank Dick said: “Mike brought greater understanding to the application of Biomechanics to sport and developing athletes. He was also a true gentleman who hid his light under a bushel.”
In 1972 Mike married Vivienne Greener, a teacher and lecturer whom he had met in Leeds and the couple went on to enjoy 47 years together, latterly living in Harrogate.
No comments:
Post a Comment