V 11 N. 7 On the Olympic Torch Relay (circa 1963) An Original Piece by Paul O'Shea

 I Tried to Help Detroit Get the Olympic Games,

But They Long Jumped To Mexico City

 

By Paul O’Shea

 

Go back with me to the Nineteen Sixties.  For many that will be pleasantly nostalgic, for others, a memory a bit too far.  

 

I was in my late twenties, writing for a company magazine, married with kids, living in suburban Chicago. Away from the typewriter I was the long distance running chairman of the Central AAU, the Illinois governing body for competitive distance runners.

 

I scheduled races, recruited runners, fired the starting gun, timed competitors, handed out medals to the first finishers, repatriated the Did Not Finishers, logged the race results, and wrote the story for a running newsletter. It was plenty of work for precious few runners, a portfolio without staff.  A seamless transition from running in races to race management, I loved it.

 

In the Sixties, I sometimes had more medals than there were runners who completed the required ten, fifteen or twenty miles. Today, if you haven’t run at least one marathon, the only way to gain respect is to selfie yourself waiting patiently to get to the top of Mount Everest.

 

That was the pre-Nike world, pre-running bloom. Road races were lonely competitions. In 1963, just 285 men-only started the Boston Marathon. It would be nine more years before women were admitted to the starting line.  In 2019 13,684 women started and 16,556 men.

 

Then, career and volunteer worlds merged. I took on a different management challenge.

 

In l963 the Detroit Olympic Committee decided, again, that hosting an Olympic Games would bring great rewards to their winning city. Worldwide prestige. A building boom. Infrastructure improvements. Job creation. And, perhaps most important, an immediate infusion of tourist dollars into the local economy.

 

You had to admire their perseverance. The Motor City folks had bid for the ’52, ’56, ‘60 and ‘64 Games without success. Now, in l963 they were after the ’68 prize.  Early money was on Detroit; the sports world thought it should be rewarded for relentless pluck.   

 

This time, boy, we’ve got ‘em where we want ‘em. The International Olympic Committee couldn’t possibly turn us down again!

 

Could they?

 

To capture the interest, nay the votes of the International Olympic Committee, the Detroit ever-hopefuls decided to launch a grand gesture, something that would seize minds and votes. And what better idea than to recreate the Olympic torches first ignited by Germany in l936 Berlin.  Answer: The Olympic Games Torch Relay to Detroit.

 

The cross-country promotional event called for building a cadre of thousands of runners to carry a blazing torch on foot from Los Angeles, through the West, into the Midwest, finally crossing the finish line in front of Detroit City Hall. Organize runners through nine states, small towns and medium sized cities, through the desert, across rivers, a trek of 2,521 miles.

 

For the Olympic Torch Relay to Detroit, the assignment called for shepherding the torch through a state, keeping it lit, going forward at all costs. Then, the anchoring team would arrive in Detroit to ecstatic citizen acclaim, worldwide press. This would pressure the International Olympic Committee, the hundred or so princes, presidents, dictators and oligarchs who trade money and political favors, before The Masked Country reveal.

 

Because of my one-man role, the Illinois landscape was mine.  And so I contacted the coaches, running clubs and runners I knew who would want to be part of something bigger than the holiday Turkey Trot.

 

In downtown Chicago, employer Illinois Bell Telephone Company was delighted to learn about my involvement with the Olympic Torch Relay.  Senior management was keen to be part of something bigger than installing Touch Tone phones from Waukegan to Pinckneyville.

 

On one bright Los Angeles morning the starting gun fired and the butane-fueled torch headed east. First off the starting line with the flame held high was Jim Beatty, first to run a sub-four minute mile indoors.  From then on it was a mix of high school and collegiate runners, joggers, kids, many who just wanted to lope along with friends.  Not all carriers were swift. Some were grim-faced contributors like the 250-pound Jaycee president.

 

Day and night the convoy lumbered east, accompanied by the Torch Relay headquarters housed in a motor home driven by the Jimmy Hoffa Teamsters relay team. In areas with large populations and commercial development, state police sedans accompanied the pioneers.

 

There were unforeseen hurdles. I learned later that it was 125 degrees in the desert, and the torch got so hot it blistered the hands of a few carriers. During the night, rattlesnakes crawled out and rested on the hot pavement, perhaps wishing to take a turn at the heel. One of the runners killed a rattler with a rock. I was comforted that the rattlesnake was not the Illinois state animal.

 

But you can’t expect seasoned runners to hold back, admire the scenery, chat up the locals. No, these zealots were primed to run as briskly as aerobic capacity allowed. Though it wasn’t a race against other competitors, some could not help treating the Torch Relay as a tough interval workout. Result: the torch was 15 hours ahead of schedule at the California-Arizona state line. Tempus and Achilles fugit.

 

It wasn’t as tough as putting on a race, but I did hope that everybody who signed up would show up. I planned on meeting the torch after it crossed into Illinois from Missouri. I would join the Torch Relay, comprised of a Detroit News reporter and the rolling home base.

 

The Missouri bearers turned out to be too fleet of foot.  They glided

over the state line and infiltrated forty miles into Illinois, to Litchfield, where the Southern Illinois Saluki track team was poised. 

 

Hundreds of people lined the road in some towns, while on other parts of the journey only the participants inhabited long stretches of the highway. I followed in my car, calling the coaches and others who agreed to provide the logistics, stopping to hear that there were runners up ahead.

 

After some thirty hours on the road, with just brief naps in my Volkswagen, our commitment to the Detroit cause was withering. The early plan was to move into Chicago where I had helped recruit area runners from the University of Chicago Track Club and DePaul University.

 

But there were still miles to go before a sleep, and by the time we hit the Chicago suburbs we were 45 minutes behind schedule.

Joining the caravan near Chicago was Hal Higdon, a member of the University of Chicago Track Club, reporting on the Torch Relay for Sports Illustrated. Hal’s piece would also appear in his delightful book, On the Run From Dogs and People. Himself a near qualifier in the 3,000-meter steeplechase for the ‘60 Games, Higdon would write some 34 books, many of them involving running.

 

An early goal was to pause briefly at City Hall, meet the imperious Richard J. Daley, and then take the torch down the pike to the Indiana line.  But the mayor’s attendants were having none of us tying up Windy City traffic at rush hour. They offered two a.m. We adjusted our schedule and accepted.  By this time Hal was sitting shotgun in my Beetle. As we stopped for a toll both, we importuned the toll taker to let us through quickly, so we could keep up with the lead runners. We paid the toll and hurried on. 

 

Finally, at the Dyer, Indiana hand off, I had been thirty-eight hours on the road.  I was drained, feeling like I had run a good chunk of the way myself.

 

Sadly, I learned later that our light had failed. The Detroit Olympic bid had lost for the fifth consecutive Games. Final IOC score: Mexico City 30, Detroit 14. You didn’t win silver, you lost gold, the Nike commercial snarled.

 

But while Detroit may have finished close, but no cigar, one athlete won 1968 Olympic gold with one of the most astonishing performances in the history of our sport.  And the failed Detroit bid may very well have played a part.

 

Mexico City’s elevation is almost eight thousand feet above sea level.  For track athletes the air is less resistant and therefore conducive to fast sprint times and lengthy jumps.

 

Bob Beamon had made the U.S. Olympic track team by the barest of margins.  Down to his last attempt in the Olympic Trials, he earned a USA vest by making a last ditch-place making jump.

 

At Mexico City, Bob Beamon became immortal on his first jump in the final. Six seconds after starting down the runway, he was hunched forward in the pit, with the greatest long jump in history, breaking the world record by nearly two feet. Beamon not only soared past twenty-eight feet, he landed at twenty-nine feet two and a half inches, one giant leap for mankind. Sports Illustrated called it one of the five greatest moments in sport history.

 

If Detroit had hosted the Olympic Games, Beamon’s jump to infinity might have been still a world record. 

 

Later, I realized the irony of thousands of average athletes running to bring fame and fortune to the Motor City. And, I wondered: Someday, might Bob be available for the next Olympic Games Torch Relay to Detroit?

This article about the relay appeared in The Pantagraph, Bloomington, IL, on October 2, 1963.   apologies for lack of focus.

Paul O’Shea is a lifelong participant in the track and field world, as competitor, coach and journalist.  After retirement from a career in corporate communications, he coached a girls’ cross country team and was a long-time contributor to Cross Country Journal. He now writes for Once Upon a Time in the Vest from his home in northern Virginia, and can be reached at Poshea17@aol.com.

 (ed. note)  Had Detroit been awarded the Games, who knows what the effect of the race riots in Detroit during the years leading up to 1968 might have been.  Mexico City had its share of unrest just prior to their Games in 1968.  Here is the Wikipedia version of those events.

Following a summer of increasingly large demonstrations protesting the 1968 Olympics held in Mexico City, the Mexican Armed Forces opened fire on 2 October 1968 on unarmed civilians, killing an undetermined number, in the hundreds. It occurred in the Plaza de las Tres Culturas in the Tlatelolco section of Mexico City. The events are considered part of the Mexican Dirty War, when the US-backed PRI regime violently repressed political and social opposition. The massacre occurred 10 days before the Olympics' opening ceremony.

The head of the Federal Directorate of Security reported that 1,345 people were arrested.^[1] At the time, the government and the media in Mexico claimed that government forces had been provoked by protesters shooting at them,^[2] but government documents made public since 2000 suggest that snipers had been employed by the government. According to US national security archives, Kate Doyle, a Senior Analyst of US policy in Latin America, documented the deaths of 44 people;^[3] however, estimates of the actual death toll range from 300 to 400, with eyewitnesses reporting hundreds dead.

Here is a youtube description of these events prior to the Olympics.  Remember this was just two weeks prior to the Opening Ceremonies.

Army Repression in Mexico City 1968    Note:  This was not a riot until the army came in. ed. 

Chilling- Geoff Pietsch

George,

   What a fascinating article which brings me memories of a vibrant Detroit in the 1960s, at one time the fifth-largest city in the US and the richest city per capita in the US as well.  I loved going there for the NCAA Indoor meet at Cobo Hall, Joe Louis Arena, and eventually the Silverdome in Pontiac.  Several times I watched the Tigers play in Tiger Stadium.  Despite their many problems, Detroit has enormous civic pride, never more important than now as they try to raise themselves up from the ashes.

   Bill Schnier  

George

I went to Mexico City as a promotion representative for Onitsuka-Tiger. 

We were more successful with flats and T shirts! I was able to get Steeplechasers  in our nylon uppered spikes. Bill Toomey wore our Tiger spikes for a few jumps in the decathlon pole vault.... to let those in charge know that he was not taking money from Pumu nor Adidas. The Games themselves were exciting. I was sitting on the rail in front of the long jump pit with fellow Strider Art Walker, when Bob Beamon soared 29’ 2  1/2” or there abouts.

John Bork Jr.

I was living there (Detroit)  for the riots. It started on Claremont about 2 miles
from our house. I remember running at Wayne State while fires were
burning in all 4 directions. Tracer bullets from the National Guard went
by our bedroom window among other things. I did not sleep for 4 days.
40 blacks and 3 whites died.           Detroit had Lou Scott in the 5000
and Jerry Bocci in the walk at Mexico City.   Ned Price

 I think there was definitely an attempt to play down those events and of course the Black Power movement and the 200m ceremony overshadowed this tragic event.  Wow two African American guys protesting racial injustice outweighs several hundred deaths in the streets.

I've never seen the comparison made before.   Mexico certainly was not a Third World country , but it probably could have better used its limited resources for social programs that would have benefited more people.  The Mexican government could not risk public embarrassment two weeks down the road if there were public demonstrations of that magnitude during the Games, so they decided to send a message.   It seems like a set up, in a place where they could control the crowd and create a shooting gallery.   It didn't look like a riot if people were bringing their children, until the army turned  it into a riot.   ed. 

How soon we forget such a vile event!

Thanks for posting.  Carol McLatchie.

What great writing and a great article. Love this blog! Love learning about the history of Athletics.  Susan Abuasba    Kuwait

V 11 N. 6 Noting the passing of one of our readers Bill Flint, PV, Stanford

 

One of our regular readers, Bill Flint,  Stanford University, passed away recently (Dec. 22, 2020 at age 86)

.

Bill was a pole vaulter in college and followed the sport closely.  He sent us on of the tee shirts mentioned below in his obituary after we did the story on the top of the building vaulting competition in Minneapolis.  

See:  Brits Pub Pole Vault

William Bradford Flint Jr.

Bill passed from this earth at the age of 86 at Hospice House of Mercy in Durango, Colorado after suffering a stroke at home.

Bill was born in San Jose, California and grew up in nearby Holliter where he graduated from Hollister High School as  class president and participated in a number of sports, primarily pole vaulting. He earned a Bachelor's degree and a Master's degree in Petroleum Engineering from Stanford University, Palo Alto, California.  His premier sport was pole vaulting. As he said (and even had a T-shirt made) with the saying, "When men and poles were made of steel".

He had two ancestors of note. He is a descendant and name sake of William Bradford, who arrived on the Mayflower. During the gold rush the Simon Breen family joined the Donner party in route to California. The family was isolated from others in the party and all survived.

He enlisted in the Reserves of the US Army Corps of Engineers and was a Second Lieutenant.

He joined Unocal Corporation (Union 76) in 1959 as an Engineer Trainee, a career which then encompassed 33 years of progressively more responsible positions, finishing as Vice-president of North American Oil and Gas Division, Los Angeles (1990 - 1995)

He retired and moved to his wife's home state in Durango, Colorado where he enjoyed golf, tennis, and following his children around to their various athletic endeavors.

Flunking retirement, he joined the Department of Energy of the Southern Ute Indian Tribe as a senior petroleum engineer from 2004 - 2012; and for a time as Assistant to the Executive Director.

His final gig was as Senior Technical Counsel for Koveva Ltd from 2012 until 2018.

He will be remembered for his kindness, his love of sports, his dedication to family, his generosity, wicked sense of humor and his positive outlook. A teacher and mentor at heart, he is lauded by friends and family for his dedication to encouraging everyone to be their best. A core piece of advice was: "Proper prior planning prevents poor performance". Whether bringing in a new trainee or supporting a grandchild's athletic endeavors, he was able to see their strengths and to smooth their path.

"Don't cry because I'm gone.

Smile because I was here"

V 11 N. 6 Would You Give Up Your Place in the Vaccination Line So the Olympics Can Go On?

 January 24, 2021

An article (unsigned) in today's Guardian indicates that the IOC "is floating the idea" that athletes should get Covid vaccinations, so that they might attend the Olympic Games which are scheduled to begin July 23 in Tokyo.  This has been voiced by Mo Farrah in the said article.  

The Guardian

With Japan starting to show some serious upturns in Covid cases, this might be a moot question for an athlete to travel  there in July, to live in close proximity,  and to compete with thousands of other athletes from all 150 plus countries in the world.  Talk about a super spreader event if those folks were unvaccinated.  Even vaccinated, they could still be 'carriers'.  With travel bans starting to be put back into place in this country (the US) keeping foreigners from South Africa and a number of other western European countries from coming to the US, it seems that without pre-Olympic vaccinations it will not be possible to hold an Olympic Games this year.  

That brings one to the dilemma of giving up their place in the vaccination line, so that healthy young athletes can compete, Japanese O games investors, the TV networks, and big money sponsors can gain a platform to flog their wares, and all to breathe a sigh of relief that the show will go on.  And it is not just those mentioned in the previous sentence but all those associated directly and indirectly with the Games, including the officials, the trainers, the stadium crews, the janitors, bus drivers, commissary personnel, the airlines pilots, flight attendants, baggage handlers,  and on and on who will need to be vaccinated for that show to happen.

That said, would you be willing to give up your place in the vaccination line?  Harder still would you be willing to tell your loved ones that they too need to step aside as well?  An acquaintance once said that he would push his mother aside to finish one place higher in a road race.  But I think he was only making a joke.  That however might effectively be happening in this current dilemma.  We've heard countless times that "We're all in this together."  Now for some things we have to decide if we really are.

I will throw out this suggestion on how to make the Games happen on a very limited basis.  In track and field we all know that only a very select few people will have any effect or influence on who walks up to the starting line or throwing circle or jump runway.  That can be handled by competing remotely to get to the finals.  People run prelims in their home countries or regions to qualify.  Of course in many instances they will be running against the clock to advance.  With technology and science, those preliminary performances could be 'graded' to allow for differences in wind velocity, temperature, humidity, and altitude to determine who advances to the finals.  Of course there won't be the head to head competition that is seen in the prelims.  But how many prelims do you remember compared to the finals in the Olympic Games?  With pacing lights now available, the middle distance and distance events could involve athletes having to tell in advance what pace they are going to run in their prelim to give some input to how fast others should expect to be going.  Of course that would put some gamesmanship into the event.   Other sports will have a much more difficult time such as wrestling and boxing with  person to person eliminations  and team events.  But track and field won't have that problem.  Once you have your finalists determined you then bring them to Japan for their event.  Unfortunately the pagentry, camaraderie, and all the other things that make up the Games won't be there, but there will be an event and a champion crowned, and someone's name put in the record books.

Some of our readers have had the honor to participate in and even win medals in the Olympics, and I'm certain they will see this question much differently than the rest of us.  Some have coached Olympic medal winners. Some have witnessed the Games as spectators, and some like myself have never seen the Games in person.  I'd be interested to hear everyone's point of view on this.  

George Brose

michael gregory	8:36 AM (1 hour ago)
to me

No---The rest of the World is not on the  vaccine schedule that the US has access to. Plus there are now foreign varationss of the virus.  Look at 2022!  

I suspect that the more socialist or even communistic countries will gladly place Olympic hopefuls at the front of the vaccine line so they might compete.  Capitalistic countries such as the US have always resisted favoritism of Olympic athletes even though they often need more help than their gate receipts in non-Olympiads years can generate, hence our private sector mentality.  I can see professional athletes in the US being placed at the front of the line but not Olympic athletes.  They are simply not a priority and would create way more pushback than praise for elected officials.  

   Will the Olympics be held?  Possibly but only with limited attendance, much like we have seen all along in the US.  The NBA created a very good example as to dealing with the virus with their Orlando bubble for about four months with almost no cases.  The same could happen in Tokyo which would be a country very able to pull off such a bubble.  I project a completed Olympics, with mandatory living in a bubble, and limited attendance along the lines of 30% capacity.

   Bill Schnier  former U of Cincinnati coach

Hi George

I know Japan has spent a lot of time planning and has spent millions of dollars to get ready to host the games. At this point I do not believe it is in the best interest of the athletes or anyone else to hold the games.

I really do not see that there is a way for all the athletes and officials to get the vaccine before others

I would think that would diminish public opinion of athletics 

Steve Smith   

 Dear George:

Years ago, at an Olympics I believe, after a race controversy, Sonia O'Sullivan's father made what I consider to be the most cogent statement ever made ever made about athletics.  If I remember correctly, he said

"It's only sport, lads.  We still have to get up and go to work in the morning".

The Olympics, important and lucrative as they can be, are suppose to be sport.  People die from COVID-19

We all need to step back a bit and consider what is at stake.

Take care,

Tom Coyne   

Interesting question.   But I would vote for overall citizens to get the vaccine first.   

To me the public is a bigger priority right now

Mike Waters  

Bonnes réflexions au sujet du vaccin et des J.O. De TOKIO.  Jose Sant  

A very vexed question.  I have always loved the very idea ( and ideals) of the Olympics and started my

 interest as a 14 year old in London in 1948.  I remember little of the details but have read Bob Phillips 

great book about them.  Did not have a chance to see any in person.  Much ( sooo much) has changed

 in the 73 years since then that it is hard to recognise the Games .  I believe since around 1960 it has 

lost its way and is now a massive showcase of much that is wrong with the world-OH let the poor 

Russians play!!)  Money is the driving force now.  Whatever happened to Citius Fortis etc?  There were 

problems before that –1936 and Brundage and so forth .  Since then virtually every sport ( and so called

 sport) has their own World Championship and I really think that the Olympics have passed their best 

by date.  I have never had the privilege of being able to perform at anywhere within miles of the Games

 and know that there is still a cachet attached to that that means a lot.  Many of your contributors will 

be able to speak of that from personal experience which will no doubt feed this discussion.

 

I know that the Japanese will give their hearts and souls and last yens to make sure the Games are a 

great success but my straight answer to your question is NO.  The money spent on the Games should 

be used f9r other more important areas.  It is interesting to see that many of the former sponsors of 

the upcoming Football extravaganza in the USA (Superbowl ed. )are dropping out and  pledging the 

funds to Covid related needs-kudos to them ( although I do not drink Bud –gnats piss to we true beer 

drinkers).

 

I know their will be many divergent thoughts on this and because of the already huge expenditures on 

the Games they will most likely proceed.

 

Happy and Joyful 2021 to each and every one of you.

 Geoff Williams,   Victoria, BC

V 11 N. 5 Cost of Doing Business in 1957 and More Cliff Severn Photos

 This note came in recently from Robert Benson with some info about Cliff Severn and his shoe distributorship in North Hollywood,  CA in the 1950's.  There is an especially interesting price comparison for shoes then and now.  I too remember  paying about that price for my first pair of Adidas spikes and similarly for a pair of flats mail ordered from Vandervoort's in Lansing Michigan in 1961.  I earned $6.00 caddying two bags for 18 holes of golf back then, tip included. 

Here's Robert Benson's  note:

While going though my old sports files, I came across a business card for Clifford Severn Sporting Goods (attached). 

I was a freshman at Claremont High School when your contributor Ernie Cunliffe was a senior track co-captain. 

Ernie’s 880 yard time of 1:54.7 in 1955, and his leadership on the team inspired many younger members.  

 

In March of 1957, just before track season began, the track team assembled to listen to sales pitches by representatives of track shoe companies.

The representative for Clifford Severn Sporting Goods was Chris Severn (attached card).  I bought a pair of Adidas track shoes for a total price of $15.64.  

This may sound cheap, but, the amount of $15.64 adjusted for CPI inflation is $146.54 as of December 2020. 

Thus, current Adidas shoe prices may seem comparable to old prices when adjusted for inflation. 

 

Robert Benson

Senior Track Co-Captain 1959

Claremont High School

10636 Magnolia Blvd. Today   click here for a google maps image of that address today.

If you walked past that shop 60 years ago.

And now some more of those dumpster photos.

Cliff hustling shoes at North Hollywood High

His comment on back says: "We must work on NHHS and the football team 'cause the coach is making it tough to sell shoes.  Spring '66"

Back to Tokyo

Maurice Herriott (silver, Steeple) in polo shirt

Standing?/ Robbie Brightwell, Jurgen Kalfelder (Ger), John Cooper

Alf Beute, probably an Adidas rep.

Argentines at practice track

Three on the right Maria Formeiro, Evilia Farina, Alicia Kaufmanas, all sprinters.  

I was able to identify the three on the right from a photo of them dining in a restaurant in Tokyo during the O's.  That photo is copyrighted by Getty Images, so I could not publish it.

Germans at practice track.

Recognize any of them? Middle might be Jurgen Kalfelder seen above. Or are they Hans und Franz?

Stop Press:  John Bork self identifies. He is the one on the left.  John your hair looks so blond in this. ed. 

Crowds along marathon route

East Europeans in dining hall.  "Why you take picture"?

Poles Shopping.  "Picture? Okay. You got Levi's?"

Street Decor

New Zealand athlete unidentified.  

"I did not choose this uniform."

 

Tanganyikan athlete unidentified

Could be one of four: Daniel Thomas (400)

Pascal Mfiomi (10,000 DNF), Hassan Dymwale (800, 1:54), or Omari Abdallah Marathon 2:40.06, 47th). Eight years later Abdallah competed again for  Tanzania in the 4x400.  Odd combo of events.  He had 8 years to work on his speed.

I contacted Tim Hickey, Penn Relays Director for high side of that meet.  Tim was a Peace Corps volunteer in Tanzania from 64-67 and coached there.  His comment is:  

My best guess is that is Pascal Mfiomi in the picture.    

Bruce Kritzler reminds us:  Mamo Wolde went the other direction, from the 4x4 to the marathon.

There are more photos to come including one of US Sports Academy Director Tom Rosandich.  

V 11 N. 4 Our 900th Posting and a Good Message for Everyone from Jim Kerr

What a good occasion and subject to be doing our 900th posting on this 11th year of our blog! I received the following message from Felecia Brownlow in the Virgin Islands regarding the appeal we made to send cards to 1964 Olympian James Kerr. In these times of division in our country, it shows that people from a wide variety of beliefs and faiths can do something together without thinking only about themselves.   George Brose

Here is the link to our original story:  Once Upon a Time in the Vest

 

Good Morning and A Happy New Year to You. 

 Yes, Mr. Kerr received many Christmas Card Greetings from a variety of locations. I cannot say exactly how many but I know he is elated to know that he has Christmas greetings from so many people, especially as they are from former fellow Olympians. I visited him on Friday (1/15) and told him I will have to send out some thank-yous for him but finding the time to acknowledge them is difficult for me at this time. I know Mr. Kerr will be happy if you are able to send a general thank you from him to all who reached out to cheer him up. Your plea for outreach was successful. I say "Thank You" on behalf of Mr. Kerr as well as those of us who read the cards for him. He is definitely adjusting to his new environment and has gained an appetite so he is eating more and feeling a lot better. We continue to stay in touch with Mr. Kerr and hope that before long COVID-19 will be over and he and all our clients will be able to resume day activities at our Center. Thank you again for reaching out to him. Best regards to you and I hope it will be possible for you to let Mr. Kerr's well-wishers know their greetings are received and very much appreciated. Please let me know you receive this mail and continue to stay safe. All the best. 

 Sincerely, Felecia A. Brownlow, 

 Director VI Association for Independent Living 

P.O. Box 03305 St. Thomas, VI 00803-3305 

 340-777-4978 

 viailstt@gmail.com 

www.independentlivingvi.org

V 11 N. 3 "Quicksilver: The Mercurial Emil Zatopek" by Pat Butcher, a Book Review by Paul O'Shea

When we come across books to review, we know that there is a particular skill set needed to be fair and honest and at the same time literary.  Our eyes and hearts turn to Paul O'Shea for that task.  Here is Paul's latest review on a superb book about a superb athlete:  The Mercurial Emil Zatopek by Pat Butcher.       George Brose ed.   

The Zatopek Bookshelf Is Nearly Full

 A Book Review

 By Paul O’Shea

 

The following conversation could have taken place recently.

 Tereza had just gotten home to their Prague apartment after her writing group session where writers exchanged memoir drafts and new project ideas. “Tomas,” she tells her husband, “we were just kicking around potential subjects, and my friend Olga said: ‘We haven’t had a new biography of Zatopek in almost five years. Tereza, you know about him, your parents saw him run, he’s a national treasure. Why don’t you write a new biography?’

 “Tomas, what do you think?”

 I have a suggestion for my mythical Tereza. We probably have gleaned all we can from books about the life of Emil Zatopek, athlete extraordinaire, national hero, icon. No need for another life story.

 In 2016, three biographers each published their account of the Czechoslovak immortal. The books and their authors: Endurance: The Extraordinary Life and Times of Emil Zatopek, by Rick Broadbent. The second: Today We Die A Little!: The Inimitable Emil Zatopek, The Greatest Olympic Runner of All Time, by Richard Askwith. The third: Quicksilver: The Mercurial Emil Zatopek, by Pat Butcher.

 Collectively, these works bring to life one of the sport’s three most famous brands—Bannister, Bolt, Zatopek.

 I reviewed Askwith’s Today We Die A Little! for Once Upon a Time in the Vest four years ago.  I found it “a well-written treasure for the distance running buff that wants to return to a largely forgotten era.” You can retrieve the review here.  Once Upon a Time in the Vest

 For those who need more Zatopek, if you haven’t read the Broadbent or Askwith entries, Pat Butcher’s Quicksilver: The Mercurial Emil Zatopek (209 pages, $34.09, Amazon) is a valuable addition, highly recommended.  You may also acquire this book by ordering directly from Pat Butcher, signed to the buyer for $24.99 (incl post) at   https://www.globerunner.org/books/

To be sure, these weren’t the only books published about him over the years. BBC Radio athletics commentator, Bob Phillips, wrote Za-to-pek! Za-to-pek! Za-to-pek! in 2002. There is a 2009 novel, titled Running, by French author Jean Echenoz. Zatopek, a graphic novel, the work of Jan Novak, appeared last year.

Butcher’s Quicksilver is richly researched, comes alive on virtually every page as the author interviews coaches, friends and competitors.  He makes extensive use of the Zatopeks’1960 co-autobiography, As Told By Dana and Emil, having had it translated from the original Czech. The book is not available in English, unfortunately.

Pat Butcher combines his own impressive track and field resume with a premier journalism career.  The Brit’s PRs, set in the nineteen-seventies are marks of 3:49.6 for 1500 meters, 4:09.4 for the mile, and 14:30.2 for five thousand meters. In 35 years Butcher’s byline has appeared in The New York Times, Washington Post, Sports Illustrated, Financial Times, GQ, and major UK publications. He wrote and produced documentaries for the BBC.

He is also author of two other books, one about the Coe-Ovett rivalry (The Perfect Distance), the other, The Destiny of Ali Mimoun, the Algerian-born Frenchman who won the l956 Olympic marathon.  National-class runner, world-class writer.

 "If I couldn’t run like Emil Zatopek, the next best thing was to write a book about him," Butcher says about the book’s genesis. He travelled throughout the Czech Republic, talking to Zatopek’s training partner and coach. Butcher met with the Zatopeks, interviewing Emil two years before his death in 2000. He even had access to the Czech government’s secret police files about Zatopek, who was a thorn in the side of the Communists while at the same time a symbol of its athletic excellence.

Pat Butcher 

photo by nancyhoney.com

When histories of our sport are written decades down the road, Zatopek’s achievements will still be cherished.  Foremost is the 1952 Olympic Gold Medal Triple when he won the five and ten (failing only in a five thousand heat to finish first), wrapped up with the marathon victory where he defeated world record holder Jim Peters. All were Olympic records. Zatopek’s first Olympic win came four years earlier when he beat Belgium’s Gaston Reiff.    

The l952 Olympic win in Helsinki has been called the finest race ever run by Zatopek, archived by the photo of the Czech leading Alain Mimoun and Herbert Schade, while Chris Chataway lay crumpled on the track. Fourth entering the final turn, Zatopek mounted what later could be called a Billy Mills sprint to the finish, winning by less than a second. 

The Czech might have won more major medals but IAAF Worlds were still a gleam in the eye of national governing bodies and their corrupt bureaucrats. 

Sprinkled through his world-class decade of 1946 to 1956 were eighteen world records. He was the first runner under twenty-nine minutes for ten thousand meters, the first to run twenty kilometers in less than an hour. Runner’s World named him the Greatest Runner of All Time, in 2013. 

Butcher tells us about this runner who probably trained and competed excessively. Zatopek was one of the first to explore interval training. The competitions took place in the midst of a training regimen notorious for its punishment. Sessions of eighty to a hundred repeats of 400-meter runs, sometimes several in a day were routine.  In one two-year period he raced 32 five thousands and 18 ten thousands. No rest for the successful. 

In his visits to the Czech Republic Butcher spent hours with Dana, who we are charmed to learn won the javelin competition just after her husband was winning Olympic gold in ’52. That seemed ordained: Dana and Emil shared the same birthday, September 19, 1922.  “We could get married on the same day, too,” he dryly told her. The book is dedicated to Zane Branson, manager, runner and Butcher’s close friend. Branson died suddenly of a heart attack in Iten, Kenya in 2015.

The British author recounts Zatopek’s political stubbornness in the face of the Russian invasion of the country. A member of the Czech Army, he was forced to join the Party. For criticizing the Soviet Union’s l968 takeover he was deprived of his colonelcy and Party membership and exiled for four years. The four-time Olympic champion was forced into a series of menial jobs including picking up trash and working in uranium mines.

 One of the well-known anecdotes revealing Zatopek’s generosity and empathy involved another running legend, Ron Clarke. Though he was a multiple world record setter, the Australian never won Olympic gold, although he was the favorite in several of the races.

 In 1966 Zatopek invited Clarke to a meet in Prague.  Before Clarke boarded the plane for the return to Australia, the Czech handed him a small package, saying, “Not out of friendship, but because you deserve it.”  Uncertain about its contents, he waited until mid-flight to open the gift.  Inside was Zatopek’s 1952 Olympic gold medal for his win at ten thousand meters.

 Gracing Quicksilver’s cover is Zatopek’s photo, arms and hands punching an invisible opponent, the runner’s glistening, grimacing face above a vest with stop-sign numbers. We can imagine the galumping stride, the locomotive’s connecting rods driving the carriage irrevocably forward. “I wasn’t smart enough to smile and run at the same time.”

 The gregarious and cosmopolitan athlete (he spoke eight languages) might be amused today to see the number of books about him available at the library, not just because of national pride, but also because he deserved it.  

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Paul O’Shea’s grandmother and mother were skilled at preparing Czech recipes that included duck and pork roasts, knedliky, strudel to finish. And the fruit dumplings, the fruit dumplings… see (The Spruce Eats) for Knedliky recipe, by Barbara Rolek

  

Paul O’Shea is a lifelong participant in the track and field world, as competitor, coach and journalist.  After retirement from a career in corporate communications, he coached a girls’ cross country team and was a long-time contributor to Cross Country Journal. He now writes for Once Upon a Time in the Vest from his home in northern Virginia, and can be reached at Poshea17@aol.com.