V 12 N. 5 Rink Babka Silver Medalist/Olympian R.I.P.

 Russ Reabold of Trojan Force just notified me of the passing of Rink Babka.

Rink Babka

Rink Babka briefly attended Menlo Junior College and then attended Southern Cal where he played football in addition to throwing the discus. As a senior he was NCAA discus champion. After winning the AAU discus in 1958, Rink Babka never again managed to win this particular title, although for the next 10 years he was never out of the first six, was runner-up on three occasions, and placed third three times. Babka set a world record of 196-6½ (59.91) in August 1960 before going to Rome where he placed second behind Al Oerter at the Olympics. Babka enjoyed a remarkably long career at the top, also winning silver at the 1967 Pan American Games, and his best mark ever came in 1968 when, at the age of 32, he threw 209-9 (63.93). He also signed an NFL contract with the San Francisco 49ers but never played in a regular season game.

A graduate of USC in industrial management, he went on to work in the electronics industry, beginning with the Deutsch Company in Los Angeles. A very successful businessman, he later started his own company, Systems Data Network Corporation, a computer service company. He then began forming and purchasing several different companies. Due to his success in business, he sat on numerous corporate and charitable boards, and eventually formed Babka Ltd., a company which assisted other businesses in financial and managerial issues.

Personal Best: DT – 63.93 (1968).

Description

Born: September 23, 1936 (age 85 years), Cheyenne, Wyoming, United States

Height: 1.96 meters

Retired: 1969

Education: Menlo College, University of Southern California, Palo Alto High Schoo

The following essay by Rink Babka appeared in the Palo Alto High School website honoring Olympians who have attended that institution.

     THAT TEAR - by Rink A. Babka

     That Tear – is priceless to acquire.  The prerequisites are few but demand conviction, courage and commitment.

     That Tear – has a vision:  The view of the dream of excellence and the focus of hard work and demanding improvement.

    That Tear – you see from the eye of the Olympian is in fact the True Spirit of the Games, never to be seen any place   else. No other sport or assembly can claim it.  Only a camera can capture it.

     That Tear- may be irrelevant to others since they cannot buy it. Only the Olympian has earned it. This true expression from the perfection, pride and privilege of dedication to have struggled, knowing they had done their best at that moment in time.  The entry fee is free.

     That Tear – in fact is the Olympic experience.  The spirit of the lasting reminder of one’s wonder of their inner self; both   collectively with one’s soul and the Olympic Flame that will never burn out.

     That Tear – the spirit of true emotion will be with the Olympian for life.  That is God’s gift – a greater gift than the medal     itself.

What a shock to see your report on Rink this morning. Just spoke to him last week. We talked regularly. 

We were both in Rome and he lived in Dallas for a few years where we became even better friends. 

Such a wonderful guy. The real thing!

I will miss him.

ey

Earl Young

Rink Babka, Perry O'Brian, Bob Humphreys, Fortune Gordien, Bill Neider, and Dave Davis were all attendees at the Long Beach State winter All-Comers meets. Discus throwers especially liked the aiding wind that visited our campus nearly every evening.  Somewhere among my Dad's old 8mm film I have some short clips of O'Brian and Humphreys competing with their Striders uniforms on. Great memories!  Darryl Taylor=LBSSC

George,

Jim Metcalf just mentioned that if you click on the blue Al Oerter link in this post that it will take you to every Olympics in which Oerter competed: 1956, 1960, 1964 and 1968. Click on “athletics” and it has every event at each Olympics including all the prelims!

John Perry