The idea of this posting comes from a book that has been
sitting in my library for at least five years.
I never cracked it until Covid 19 put us into the situation of closed libraries and
bookstores these past two weeks. It is a compendium of articles written by the
sportswriter Ira Berkow, Beyond the Dream, Occasional Heroes of
Sports, Atheneum, NY, 1975. I’m glad I picked it up on a whim those many
days past, as I’ve discovered Berkow’s gift of saying a lot in a few paragraphs
. I will probably use some of his stories in postings of the future. Today our ‘occasional hero’ is Boo
Morcom. Ring a bell? His name did not ring any bells for me, but
he has a great track and field pedigree.
He was for 35 years the coach at U. of Pennsylvania, then went back to
his alma mater at U. of New Hampshire to finish out his coaching career. He was one of the best pole vaulters in the
world from the early 1940’s until 1948 when heavily favored at the London
Olympics he could only manage a sixth place.
That was one of the only disappointments in his long career. He was also in the 101st Airborne Division in WWII, which may have put him into Normandy. He was called back up for the Korean conflict as well, but got sent elsewhere. Not much is out there on his military achievements. He also went on to Masters competition when
Masters events were not yet popular and held many world and American records as
he progressed through the age groups. He
had talent in many events from PV to Triple Jump, High Jump and Throwing
events. He had the first pole vault over 14 feet set above the Arctic Circle, which is a story in
itself. The more I looked into this
colorful character and the other two American vaulters at London, the more I
learned. Third place, Bob Richards was the better known
for his later wins in 1952 and 1956, but the winner that year was Quinn Smith, also
a very interesting character. At the end
of this piece on Morcom, I’ve included bios of Smith and Richards, and Morcom, but this is
mainly about Morcom. I also give some
samples of Berkow’s writing with liberal quotes from his three-page article.
 |
| Boo Morcom |
Boo Morcom at Earth’s End
pp.98-100.
September,
1975
What
Richmond “Boo” Morcom did when he finished sixth after being the favorite in the pole vault in the
1948 Olympics was not to crawl deep in to the sawdust pit as he first
wanted. Since he was too embarrassed to
return home to New Hampshire, he arranged his own post-Olympic tour, visited
each foreign athlete who had beaten him (all Scandanavians ed.), challenged him man to man and topped
him.
In
the process, he became the first man to vault over 14 feet above the
Arctic Circle when, wearing two pairs of
long johns, he beat the silver-medal-winning Finn. And Boo overcame a problem in Norway when his
man was in jail awaiting trial on a drunk-and-disorderly charge. Boo dug into his own pocket, bailed the
competitor out, whipped him, and then left for Sweden to knock off the
next guy.
 |
| Morcom and his college coach Paul Sweet and Sweet's son |
After
Morcom came home, he continued competing in events as he aged, also competing
in the first world masters competitions in Munich in 1972 just after the
Olympics and winning the pole vault in his age group. At the age of 50 he vaulted 13’ 8” and had other WR’s of 38’ 10” in the Triple
Jump, 5’8” I the High Jump and later set WR’s in the Decathlon and 400IH. His athletes at Penn said that he was so
dedicated to competing, that even at practices they found themselves competing
with him. They went to the trouble of
devising events such as the two handed shot put to try to be on a par with
him. He was not a big guy, only 5’8” and
148 pounds. His thoughts on coaching
included this philosophy, “ I always
felt I was perfecting myself when trying to beat somebody.”
Berkow
continues,
He
remembers when he was in college at the University of New Hampshire and he
would bet his teammates that he could vault well despite obstacles such as a
wheelbarrow placed in the runway (he jumped over it) or 60 chairs put in the
runway. (He came in at a 45 degree angle))
or that he could jump 14 feet (almost an Olympic record in that day) without a warm-up (he would run out from the
locker room, be handed a pole and vault).
Once he was handed two poles tied
together and made that one, too, and refused to acknowledge the trick in order
to shake up his fellow bettors.
“I was shattered when I came in sixth in the Olympics on
a wet, windy day and with a bad knee. I
got the idea of going into the backyards of the guys who beat me and beating
them. It was evil pride combined with a
grand passion. Two Americans were first
and third, but they knew they were lucky that day and besides I had beaten them many times before, so
nothing to prove there.”
After
beating the Norwegian, the Swede, and the Finn,
Boo was invited to the house of the Finn, Erkki Kataja, after the Arctic
Circle triumph.
“By
this time , says Boo, “everybody in Europe was calling me the world’s
champ. I went to this kid’s house and
met his grandmother. She went to the
cupboard and brought out his Olympic silver medial. She asked to see my Olympic medal. She didn’t realize I didn’t have one. That really put me in my place. I
laughed. It showed what kind of
bastard I was. But it was beautiful. I could beat him but I couldn’t beat that.”
Addenda
The following, if you care to read on are from several sources Quinn Smith’s obituary and Wikipedia on Morcom
and Bob Richards.
Owen Guinn Smith receiving
the Olympic Gold Medal for the Pole Vault in London 1948 representing the USA
and competing for the Olympic Club of San Francisco.
Owen Guinn Smith of San Francisco, a World War II pilot and
former investment counselor who won a gold medal for pole vaulting in the 1948
Summer Olympics, has died at the age of 83.
"He was very tough," said his son, Stephen
Whitlock Smith, a retired Army physician from Tacoma, Wash.
Guinn Smith lived on Russian Hill in San Francisco for more than three
decades, was born in McKinney, Texas, but moved to Pasadena with his family as
a child. He went to Pasadena High and graduated from UC Berkeley as a history
major in 1942.
With World War II in full swing, he became a pilot in the
Army Air Corps, flying "the hump" over the Himalayas and
participating in the Allies' campaigns in Burma and on the Philippine island of
Mindanao. Later, during the Korean War, he was recalled as an Air
Force pilot and stationed in England.
He snagged his Olympic gold on a horribly windy and rainy
London day. Mr. Smith was plagued with knee problems, resulting partly from a
wartime injury when his plane was shot down. His first two attempts failed. For
the third try, his son said, he switched to a bamboo pole sent to him by a
Japanese pole vaulter he'd met after the war -- who couldn't compete in the
games because athletes from Japan and Germany were barred.
"That's what it took to win," Stephen Smith said.
"The Japanese person was very glad."
The winning vault was 14 feet, 1 1/4 inches, nowhere near Mr.
Smith's personal best and far below today's records, achieved with fiberglass
poles that didn't exist then. But it was enough, especially for someone who'd
started out as a high jumper.
"He wanted to go to UC Berkeley, and they already had
good high jumpers," Stephen Smith said. "But they didn't have any
good pole vaulters at the time, so he took it up to give himself a competitive
edge."
At Berkeley, Mr. Smith was captain of the 1940-41 track and
field team.
Stephen Smith said his father's Olympic medal was displayed
in the family's home, in a case on the wall, and was always available to his
brother and him.
"We played with it," he said. "And in grade
school, I'd bring my friends over to look at it."
He described his father as "a very private person but
very charming when he wanted to be, someone who was totally in charge."
The career path Mr. Smith followed as an adult was varied
and eclectic. He first worked at his alma mater in Berkeley and then became
assistant dean at the Harvard
Business School. After that, he moved on to a job as an investment
counselor in Boston. Stephen Smith said his parents didn't like "the cold
or taxes or corruption of Massachusetts" and missed the Bay Area greatly.
So, amid the social ferment of the late 1960s, the "very
conservative" ex-pilot and his wife, the late Nancy
Jane Whitlock, returned to San Francisco and never left again. Mr.
Smith worked here as administrator of the San Francisco branch of the Palo
Alto Medical Clinic.
He died Tuesday at California
Pacific Medical Center in San Francisco after a lengthy bout with
emphysema.
"I did try to move him at different times to
Tacoma," his son said. "But he would not leave San Francisco. He
wanted to be within sight of the Campanile and the Berkeley hills and the Golden Gate Bridge.
He was very much grounded in this city."
His Hyde Street apartment afforded views of all these
places. In his latter years, Mr. Smith was fond of taking daily walks along the
San Francisco Marina and visiting the Cliff
House and Sutro Heights. He also enjoyed crossword puzzles and
became adept at using his Macintosh computer.
Mr. Smith, who kept a power boat at the Berkeley Marina,
belonged to the St. Francis
Yacht Club, the Olympic
Club and the Berkeley Masonic Lodge.
Albert Richmond "Boo" Morcom (May
1, 1921 - October 3, 2012)[1] was
an American track
and field athlete.
Early career
He was born in Braintree,
Massachusetts. While he is primarily known for his exploits in the pole
vault event, he has demonstrated versatility in other events
including long
jump and high
jump. He set several records at Braintree
High School.
At the age of 19 he was the best pole vaulter in the state
of Massachusetts. He became known as "the Barefoot Boy" for his habit
of high jumping with one shoe on and one shoe off. Then when he matriculated to
the University
of New Hampshire under coach Paul Sweet, the Boston newspaper sport
pages would refer to him as "One Shoe Boo". His fame spread as he
pole vaulted on an athletic tour of Canada with
three other athletes including Babe Ruth.[2] In
1940 he took his athletic skills to the University
of New Hampshire, where his record in the long jump lasted for 67 years.[3]
His studies were interrupted by World War II.
Before departing for the conflict, he won the 1942 United
States National Championships in the pole vault.[4] He
finished in second place in the high
jump.[5] He
returned to UNH to become the 1947 NCAA pole vault champion.[6]
In 1950, he was recalled to the Army's 101st
Airborne Division "Screaming Eagles" as an officer and Jumpmaster for
the Korean
War.[7]
Olympics
Morcom competed in the pole
vault at the 1948
Summer Olympics for the United States,[8] finishing
in 6th place after passing at lesser heights, then during a rainstorm, missing
at the height the eventual winners would clear of 4.20 meters.[9] [10] A
week later he beat the winning height by 6 inches.[2] In
1949 he won his third United States national championship.[4]
He graduated with a degree in biology and went on to coach
Track and Field at the University
of Pennsylvania for 35 years before returning to coach in New
Hampshire. He started one of the first high school track teams for girls in
1954 and opened the Penn athletic facilities to poor minority high school
students.[2] In
1956, he was the coach of the USA Women's Olympic Track Team.
Masters
Morcom continued to compete in athletics as he advanced in
age, competing in college meets through his 40s. As an early pioneer of masters
athletics, he held the world record for the pole vault as he passed through
each of the age divisions between age 50 and 70, plus world records in
the high
jump, long
jump, decathlon,
and pentathlon.[11] [12] He
continued to vault past age 75, still ranked number one.[13]
Due to the advent of fiberglass vaulting poles, his world
record in the M55 division was higher than his best vault in the
Olympics almost three decades earlier.
He became well known for these activities, encountering, by
his recollection, Jesse
Owens, Wilt Chamberlain, and Jackie Robinson.
He appeared on The Bob Hope Show.[2] He
was inducted into the USATF
Masters Hall of Fame in 1997.[14] He
is also in the Braintree High School Athletic Hall of Fame, the UNH Athletic
Hall of Fame, the Pole Vault Hall of Fame, the Massachusetts Track Coaches Hall
of Fame, and as a coach in the Women's Track and Field Hall of Fame.
In 1987, at the age of 66, he was still able to jump
12'6" in the pole vault, as high as any high school athlete in the state
of New Hampshire.[15] He
was awarded the New Hampshire Male Athlete of the Year Trophy.
Bob Richards was the second man to vault 15 feet and, like
the first man over this height, Cornelius "Dutch" Warmerdam, he
dominated the event for a number of years. Richards is the only man in history
to win two Olympic gold medals in the pole vault, and these came after an
Olympic bronze in 1948. Unlike many champions in this event, he was not an
outstanding collegiate athlete, and while at Illinois, his best placing at the
NCAA meet came in 1947 when he was in a six-way tie for first. However, he went
on to win the AAU title a record nine times and won eight AAU indoor crowns. He
was also Pan American Games champion in 1951 and 1955. Richards was also a top
decathlete, winning the AAU title three times and the All-Around Championship
once. In the 1955 Pan American Games decathlon he won the silver medal. In 1956
he made the Olympic team in the decathlon but, hampered by an injury, did not
finsh. Richards later became a familiar face on TV. He did sports commentary
and was a commercial spokesman for Wheaties. He formed his own company that
specializes in motivational speaking and film producing. The Reverend Robert
Richards, known as the "Vaulting Vicar", lost his family record of
15-6 (4.72) in the pole vault when his son, Bob, Jr., cleared 17-6 (5.33) in 1973.
Personal Bests: HJ – 6-3¼
(1.91) (1954); PV – 4.72i (1957); LJ – 23-3¼ (7.09) (1954); Dec –
7381 (1954).
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