V 14 N. 36 More Musings on the Trials and Tripulations

We continue to watch the Olympic Trials through the lens of NBC producers and and their toadies.  The big story was the Athing Mu fall on the back stretch near the 200 meter mark that sent her career into a nose dive.  It just proves that the Trials are one of the toughest, most high pressure events in American sport.   Were this to happen in the UK,  the 'selection committee' might have the option to forgive that mistake and put her on the team.  It appeared to be the result of her own misjudgement when she was cutting across the track.  But that was only from the head on angle that we saw on the screen.

George-Now we see NBC Snooping, read Stooping, to new lows in broadcasting a sporting event. The time spent with him could have been used to broadcast actual USA Olympic Trials events! What has happened to covering the trials with viewers in mind. Surely this is not a prelude to what we will see in Paris!  That women's 5,000 tops the list of exciting competition up to this point. I was just telling my two sons that the athletes who NBC focuses on, are jinxed by their coverage and then Athing gets tripped up and out. So sad. BTW-I thought reigning Oly Champs get an automatic pass into the next Olympic Games. Am I crazy? Darryl Taylor

Darryl

I think Snoop's in there purely to attract viewers who would not otherwise be interested in the Trials.   I fully expect his team partner Martha Stewart to be there soon looking at wall coverings (ie. tattoo designs) with Sha'carri Richardson.  Sydney McLaughlin Levrone or Valerie Allman have too much class for Martha.   It's a shame what happened to Athing Mu.  There's no free pass into the Olympics otherwise an aging Bob Schul might have been selected in 1968 and Bobby Morrow, with his bags packed,  would not have been left at the gate in the airport in L.A. in 1960, so some 'connected' official could have a seat on the plane.  Can you imagine the amount of money that was lost on that solitary trip by Athing Mu?   Just before the event they did a piece on her, and she looked brilliant, like a high level model for all kinds of beauty products and clothing. And she was very articulate.  Now is it all down the drain?  That's show bizz.   Hopefully she might be added to the 4x400 relay and taken to the games.  There is always a lot of lobbying to set that fourth runner on the team.  If not, it's a long four years until the next Games.   Same for Christian Coleman.  His chances are better with his 4th place in the 100 meters. 

In 1968 there were two rounds of Trials, one in L.A. and the second at Echo Summit which was supposed to allow more room for removing error in the selection.  There was still controversy in the elimination of Dave Patrick who was clearly one of the top 1500 meters hopes.  

In a post event interview last night (Monday),  Grant Holloway proved himself to be the most articulate member of the men's team so far and Rai Benjamin not far behind.  They appeared in a post race interview with Mike Tirico.    Holloway also displayed a level of grace after his first round win in the 110HH with an excellent 12.92 timing by greeting a young child in the stands and holding him up for a photo.

And how 'bout that 1500 with Cole Hocker breaking the field with that long kick?  And Elle St. Pierre holding off Liz Cranney.   Nike may produce a pair of training shoes resembling those rubber Wellingtons she wears in the cow barn.  

 The suits on Madison Ave. clearly have a hand in all this in some kind of agreement with USATF to try "one last time'? to promote the sport.  So we go with any recognizable names to the 30-40 years set that we can find on the block that might also match the profile of some of these athletes or events.  When we think Snoop Dogg and pole vault, the common denominator is 'high'.  Snoop in that fake Olympic track suit is the wet dream of some ad exec trying to make a name for her/himself in the marketing world.  Is anyone working on a Taylor Swift connection?  George

Comment from Elliott Denman:

Hi George:

These tsuggestions:

1. Instead of just saying 'new post' each time, give us a few clues as to the subject matter...

would attract more attention..

2. Re: Mu....one factor no one mentioning is that the race had 9 runners, rather than

traditional 8.....all 9 lanes were used on 9-lane track....Presume that Oly. Games (as World Champs did) will 

continue with 8-runner 800 finals..

3. As to Mu, she could still win 2 medals....in the 4x400 and mixed 4x400   (and up to 8 per nation can win relay medals, prelims

and finals....Mu was on 4x400 team in 2021...

All best wishes,

Elliott Denman

Comment from Jim Metcalf former member of Oklahoma State WR 4x880 team

being an old 880 runner there are about 3 choices for strategy.

 

 

1. on the first 300 stay at the back of the pack out of trouble and avoid a 25 second first 200 and then in the home straight move up in the second lane to the leaders shoulder.  avoiding the pack. MU could do that easily

     2.  stay on the leaders shoulder for the first 400 ahead of the pack..but then you run too fast the first 400

 

      3. lead from the beginning. and run a 57 which is a 1:54 pace. the great WR caliber 880 m runners usually run negative splits..

 

but stay out of a crowded pack..

 

the first is the best choice.  so many runners today , women , run 53-54 and then  tie up...no need to run 54  unless you plan on 1:48

 

Jim Metcalf     

From Russ Ebbetts:

George - 

1. Saddened by Mu fall in the 800...I see her as a generational talent but there is a "fly in the ointment"...one of the things I overheard when I was the US National Team chiro in Helsinki in 2005 was three NCAA women's champions complaining in the team's treatment room...it was just me and the three ladies...the basic comment was that they hated running against the Europeans and Africans as they were continually being bumped or touched as they ran along...this surprised me but then I thought about it...one was an absolute front runner...she would break on top and run away from the field...the other two women pretty much did the same in their respective races during their NCAA career...they never learned to "run in the pack" and subsequently did not have the skills/patience to handle the close quarters at the world-class level...as I have said, do you think the Dibaba sisters gave a damn you were an NCAA champ? ...the Ethopian women ran 1,2,3,4 in the 5000 at Helsinki as I recall.
2. One of the things I did as a coach was always make my runners do a race during the season where they raced from the back of the pack and had to finish running around people fast for the last half of a race...the other thing I had them do was run a race where they purposely went out too fast usually against weak competition so that they would get in trouble in the back straight of an 800 and have to struggle home...in either case they were better prepared for a race scenario and could react accordingly
3. I think Mu with Kersee as a coach, winds up training on her own much of the time, or running in a lane beside McLaughlin...her lack of training partners and no real race plan (sit for 300m, move up for 200m and then see who wants to run the last 300m) would have secured her a runaway victory (if she is in top shape - which I have doubts about that also)
4. Bobby Kersee's success with athletes in laned races is unparalleled...I cannot think of a runner he ever had over the 400m distance...Mu is the kind of talent that would make us all look like coaching geniuses but her lack of tactical sense and unfortunate fall show that there is room for improvement and sophistication...sad day all around for her and the US team in that regard...
5. and then there is Parker Valby...leading the 5k..."she needs the qualifying time" one of the announcers justified that tactic but I am pretty sure any of the eventual top three would have pressed the pace...when they moved on her she had no response...I do think the top three best runners made the team but I also think Valby would have been more game over the last 600m and not lost by some 10 seconds, possibly being 5-7 seconds faster...
6. both the HS boys should be on the relays for the qualifying rounds and if...IF....(BIG IF) the US can get the stick around the track in the 4x1 they will be Olympic medalists while in high school...how exciting for them...Russ  

V 14 N. 35 Ricardo Urbina, NCAA Champion, Civil Rights Advocat, Federal Judge R.I.P.

 

June 23, 2024

Watching CBS Sunday Morning today I noticed on the brief mention of persons who had died this past week,  Judge Ricardo Urbina was mentioned.  This picture was also displayed on the screen.  

Before he was a federal judge, Ricardo Urbina was an outstanding middle distance runner winning the 1966 NCAA indoor 880 for Georgetown University.  He was 78 years old and passed away in an assisted-living center, suffering from Parkinson's Disease.  His best times were 1:48, 880 and 2:08.8 1000 yards.

Judge Urbina originally studied with the intent to become a doctor, but said that the challenge of undergrad organic chemistry brought and end to that dream.  He graduated in 1967 and prior to preparing for the 1968 Mexico City Olympics, he applied for membership in the fabled New York City Athletic Club in his hometown.  However that noble bastion of New York history still carried a 'deep South' mentality when it came to integration.     Not a judge at the time, Mr. Urbina was told that "the number of track and field athletes competing for the club had exceeded the quotas." (as reported by Brian Murphy in his obituary published by the Washington Post).   Integration did not come about with the NYAC for another 12 or more years.    This response led Mr. Urbina to call for a boycott of the NYAC's centennial celebration and annual indoor track meet at Madison Square Garden in February, 1968.  He received support from Martin Luther King and Muhammad Ali.   There was disagreement between various groups in the country that year with some like the Black Panthers advocating  a total boycott of the Olympics.   There was a boycott of the NYAC meet.   But the idea of an Olympic boycott eventually fell by the wayside, but protests on the victory podium by Tommie Smith and John Carlos did get major attention and resulted in Smith and Carlos being banned and sent home (with their medals).  

Although he did not qualify for the US team, he later stated that he felt the athletes who had trained so hard to make the team would be the ones to suffer if a total  boycott were  to occur.   It was at this point in his life  that Mr. Urbina decided to go to law school.  

Judge Urbina's passing is a loss for us all.  Our sympathy goes out to his family.

A few years ago I reported on a somewhat bizarre spy case that had a number of track and field connections including the federal judge who presided.  It was Ricardo Urbina and an 880 runner who became the head of a country to our south.     Here is a link to that story.

A Spy, Fidel Castro, and an NCAA Champion

Comments:

George,

 

I graduated one year before Ricardo at Georgetown.  Two years ago he asked for my help to find a video of his NCAA victory.  I had always cherished finding the video of two mile relay at the 1962 Millrose Games, in which Dr. Jack  Reilly, ran a 1:47.9 anchor (880 yard on the MSG 11 lap to the mile board track) to almost catch the leader after starting out 50 yards behind (the video on youtube confirmed my thoughts about the race that I saw in person 50 years ago).  So Ricardo saw that I had found that race, but by that time some how the Millrose video was taken down.  I searched and searched but could not find either the Millrose video (which Jack’s daughter asked me to help find the video) or Ric’s 880 video. 

 

I was sad to hear of Ricardo’s death.  Again, Parkinson’s claimed another great athlete, as Dr. Reilly succumbed of Parkinson’s also.  I had been in contact with Jack before he died, as he was my resident adviser at Georgetown my sophomore year, when he was at Georgetown Med.  Jack had run a 4:01 mile his senior year at Georgetown, and could have broken four if he had been allowed to train during Med school, as one of his professors asked if he wanted to be a doctor or runner.  Another great athlete, who died of Parkinson’s was Richard Greene, who I visited in his nursing home almost every weekend.  Rich was part of the Western Michigan great track and field team and later trained under the tutelage of Igloi and teammate of John Bork, who visited Rich, whenever he came to Las Vegas.

 

Best wishes,

 

Don Betowski

V 14 N. 34 NBC Fails Big Time on First Night of Olympic Trials Coverage

 I sent this paragraph out to a few friends and contacts this morning regarding the coverage of the Olympic trials on NBC.

"Did any of you watch O trials on  NBC?  I don't get Peacock, Two hour coverage  yesterday was unbelievably bad.  They wasted ten minutes on second heat of the women's hundred with two restarts.  Women's 5000 heats and men's 10,000 final no splits given, in race analysis terrible.  Camera angles made it difficult to pick up the startline to do your own timing.    The women's second 5000 heat  incredibly slow but they covered the whole thing and then did not show any men's 400 prelims or 1500 prelims or  women's 800 prelims.  Or did I sleep through that part?  It wasn't on til 9Pm on the west coast.  They had 2 hours to edit the program and still made a mess.    And to top it all.  Lewis Johnson had to collect the three 10,000 qualifiers to sign a replica Eiffel Tower after their race.  The signing area was so low to the ground they had to get on their knees to sign.  Rather humiliating.  What are they going to do with it afterwards, give it to Prince Harry?   If they are trying to make track and field a marketable sport, they are failing miserably.    Then to understand the taste of the American public, I suggest you watch daytime tv to see the almost complete idiocy that is being perped on us.   P.T. Barnum had it right.  "No one ever lost money underestimating the bad taste of the American public."   I don't think we oldtimers will have any influence on the output but I'll still force myself to watch with the sound off.    That said I may still go down for events next Friday and Saturday."  

 Comment came back from Richard Mach.

 The Suits up high in the NBC tower, the Clowns sporting those oversized round red noses, are busy homogenizing our sport, throwing all of it in their giant blender and setting it to pulverize.   They apply those lowest common denominator values found in their coverage of the team sport of football and stuff our sport into the same container.  This makes for occasionally laughable outcomes, but more frequently irritating and annoying ones.  The devastating cult of personality that has swept the country is only further amplified in its broadcasted coverage.  Nothing less than winning is acceptable.   Breaking into the celebrity category by winning is paramount.  How often have you seen a superstar in a heat exclusively covered as if all the rest of the competitors were nothing but window dressing.   The democratic nature of the sport has been supplanted by a winner take all mentality.  In the combined Peacock/NBC coverage the planners for the telecast were elementally clueless in not taping the 1st 400m heat with a certain HS diminutive speedster from Potomac’s Bullis, Quincey Wilson, who set a new national high school record of 44.66 and he is but a16 yr old sophomore.  Ahead of time, that quorum of geniuses up in the tower decide on a set of human interest stories that too often have exactly the same subset of awe isn’t-that-somethin points which when you think about denies the uniqueness of human beings, but they manage to fit their chosen stars-to-be into that container no matter what.  And they get caught out doing so by the track illuminati.  And they are all over the patriotic thematic.   And not wrapping yourself in the flag can have some rather dire consequences with these hypocrites.  Witness the man who has now set 5 or is it six consecutive PV WRs, Mondo Duplantis.

Mondo had the audacity at around 19 to compete for Sweden, where his mother was an Olympian.  Already a player and quite possibly destined to become the GOAT, he left LSU after 1 yr and turned pro. For a time NBC refused to cover him despite his marks and then only reluctantly and occasionally until the only way they could continue that claptrap was to refuse covering the winner in big time contests whom was named Mondo. And I could go on but the drivel bobble headed Sanya , How Do You Feel Lewis and reluctant yes man, Ato, dish out as anything but superficial has me wanting to take a cold shower after watching yet another of their telecasts and we have nine more to go.  Meanwhile, the BBC has the stellar encyclopedia of track and field in Steve Cram who tells you 7 important things for every 1/2 of one NBC’s ‘triple threat’ manages to eeck out. On a good day. 

 Comment from Bill Schnier:

 I watched Peacock, then NBC so I am better pleased.  When cable TV came into our lives it was intended to provide wider coverage and maybe it has with the combination of Peacock and NBC.  T&F is so massive to cover, probably the most troubling sport of all.  The average person is very happy but the "track nerds" are pulling their hair out.  I do wonder why NBC has two sprinters covering the running events which seems quite narrow for a wide-scoped sport.  But George, I hope you go to the events Fri. & Sat. to see for yourself.  The OT are always worth seeing in person.

From Bruce Kritzler:

George,

I had it on Peacock, so saw all the prelims, except maybe a m400. I was hoping for 100’ temps for w5000 final, so Valby can break the three Olympians, but not going to happen. She should be able to make 10k team though.

Wait till Sha'Carri writes her name in 6" letters on the Tower!

Bruce

NBC has a week to clean up their act, but I doubt that will happen.  George

V 14 N. 33 Bob Schul, A Champion of Champions R.I.P.

June 17, 2024 

                                                         

                                                                         Bob Schul 

                                                        (September 28, 1937 - June 16, 2024)

News came this morning that Bob Schul passed away yesterday at his nursing home in Middletown, Ohio.  Bob as anyone who reads this blog knows was the 5,000 meters Olympic Champion in 1964 in Tokyo, the only American ever to win that event.  Bob and Billy Mills who won the 10,000 meters that same Olympics could arguably claim to have been the catalysts of the Running Boom which would follow a few years later.

                                                                                                                            Bob running in Dayton, 1955 for West Milton HS

Bob Schul grew up on a farm near West Milton, Ohio where he was a  good high school runner.  Not a state champ, he finished 6th his junior year and fifth his senior year in the mile.  

Clipping from Dayton Daily News  May, 1955.   His teammate Ron Peele of West Milton HS won the state 

meet 880 twice with a good time for those days of 1:58+.   Lots more promise than Bob in those days.  

He went on to Miami University in Oxford, Ohio, but after a couple of years dropped out and joined the Air Force where in California he came under the tutelage of Mihaly Igloi and the L.A. Track Club.  Bob thrived on the rugged training methods of Igloi and began a great career of middle distance running in the early 1960's.   His career culminated with that win in Tokyo.   He was a clear favorite going into the race and did not let anyone down with his performance especially in that last lap where on a soggy track his last 200 meters was equal to Peter Snell's last 200 when Snell won the 1500.   

Here are the last three laps in Tokyo   Link:   Bob Wins The Five Thousand
                                           

                                                                  Bob's Autobiography

In the years following 1964,  Bob operated a small running shoe store in Troy, Ohio and also began coaching in several high schools and eventually at Wright State University in Dayton, Ohio.  He also taught school in several local school systems.  It could never be said that Bob in any way really financially benefitted from his running career.  

Going after Norpoth and Jazy on the last lap

Got Norpoth, now Jazy

downshifting 

Consoling Jazy after the 5,000

                                                             In more recent times

I first saw Bob run at Miami of Ohio in a dual meet with Ohio University about 1958.  The meet ran concurrently with the Miami Invitational high school meet.  I'm not sure the NCAA would allow such an event today.  Anyway Bob easily won the mile in 4:16 and as I watched from the infield I had never witnessed anyone run at that level and so smoothly and relaxed.  I think I dreamed about that race for months after.   Then a few years later we started seeing Bob on national TV winning races.   At the time of his Olympic win I was a junior at the U. of Oklahoma and recall watching that race on TV in the Jefferson House lounge.  We had already witnessed Billy Mills a few days earlier winning the 10,000 in a great surprise.  Bob's win was no surprise.  We all expected it from the way Bob had been performing in the lead up to Tokyo for about a year.  His 54 last lap was something to behold.

One story Bob told me years ago that I don't know has ever been repeated concerns his participation in the 1968 Olympic Trials.   Few would remember that.  He had not been seriously training in 1968 but ran a few races and suddenly found that he was eligible to compete again in the 5000 to make the team in September.  He had a problem though.  He had a bad case of hemorrhoids.  The father of one of the Villanova runners was a doctor and in attendance at the trials. When he heard of Bob's predicament he offered to perform a hemorrhoidectomy in Bob's motel room at Echo Summit.  No hospitals in the immediate area and who had insurance?  Bob needed the surgery and received it with a local anesthesia while on his belly on the bed.  I think they used the motel shower curtain to cover the bed.  Bob's wife was asked to hold down one of his legs but had to leave before the surgery was completed.  The operation was a success, and Bob asked how he was going to be feeling in two days when the finals were to be held.  The surgeon started getting a bit green around the gills when he heard Bob's question.  "I thought you said the finals were in two weeks?"  So Bob toughed it out two days later and finished a distant sixth place.  None of the times were very fast due to the altitude, but that didn't matter.   But ask anyone who has just had that surgery if they could run an O Trials race in two days.  Here is the box score.

   

Another brief story that few people know about Bob.   He was in the Peace Corps.  Have any other Olympic champions ever been in the Peace Corps?  He served as the national track and field coach of Maylasia as his assignment in1971.   While there he was able to become familiar with the British Hash House Harrier runs, but that's another story.  Here is a link to a piece I wrote about Bob and some other athletes who served in the Peace Corps  link:  Bob Schul in the Peace Corps

Another little anecdote about Bob:

Rich Davis, former men's cross country coach at U. of Dayton accompanied Bob and a group of his runners from the Dayton area to Europe for a running tour.   When they were in Austria, somehow they got separated from Bob and asked the hotel clerk if they knew where  'Bob Schul' could be found.   Bob's name in German means something like 'bob sled school' so that's where they sent them.

I truly believe Bob was one of the least appreciated Olympic champions in our country,  ever.  Admittedly Bob could rub administrators and suits a bit the wrong way.  But it wasn't really an arrogance that made him that way, it was more an honesty and outspokeness of an Ohio farm boy.  GB 

Bob Schul and Piotor Bolotnikov in Russian Dual Meet in Kiev

Ron Larrieu #3

My favorite photo I call "The Card Shark"  Bob dealing to Ron Clarke, Billy Mills, Peter Snell, and

                        Michel Jazy, probably at Tokyo.  I'm not sure of the origin, possibly from Cliff 

                        Severn collection that came to us from a dumpster.  Only Billy and Bob look like they                              know what is going on.

With Jim Grelle, Lazlo Tabori, Bob, and Cordner Nelson

Completing his 8:26.4  2 mile WR

                      Candid photo of Bob on return to his alma mater  Miami of Ohio

                                      Schul, Dellinger, Norpoth from Bill Dellinger's  collection

                                                 My last photo of Bob Schul September, 2023

Following comments have come in :

 After his stint in the Air Force, I overlapped with Bob at Miami (OH) for almost two years. Though he competed only occasionally for Miami, we had many opportunities to see him train - twice a day and often doing fast short intervals in both am and pm sessions. And often with a handkerchief mask during out door winter sessions. He was of the smoothest distance runners I’d ever seen.

Jack Bacheler

Subject: Bob Schul

 

   I just heard that Bob Schul passed away yesterday.   

   I had the good fortune of knowing Bob, training under him for a few months, traveling with him to the 1974 Thanksgiving Day Race in Cincinnati, coaching against him when he was at Wright State, and visiting him earlier this year at the Bickford Home in Middletown.  He was reared in West Milton, attended Miami, trained under Mihaly Igloi in California, coached at several high schools in Dayton, coached at Wright State where they were seventh in the NCAA Division II with only Dayton runners.  He was a world record holder and Olympic champion with an incredible knowledge of the physiology of the human body and a unique way of applying that to running.  In Ohio annals Bob was the distance equivalent to Jesse Owens.  He will absolutely be missed. 

   Bill Schnier

                             More details on Bob's life and post running career in this article from the Dayton Daily 

                             News by Dave Jablonski    Remembering Bob Schul 

V 14 N. 32 Ron Morris Pole Vaulter Olympic Silver Medallist in 1960 R. I. P.

 

Ron Morris in Action

This photo is said to have been doctored as it was taken at a lower height

but he then cleared`16 feet' later the same day.

Ron Morris, Olympic silver medallist and a longtime acquaintance  I met through this blog has passed away in Southern California on May 31, 2024.   He contributed to this blog often helping me get into contact with people we were writing about.  He put me in touch with Dick Bank who was one of the most unforgettable of that group.  For many years Ron operated the track and field supply company  On Track.  It's said that he was the most successful of the jumpers in the conversion from steel to fiberglass.   He was always available for a conversation about the good old days.  A dear friend and colleague Phil Scott who could talk  the arm off a slot machine would get on the phone with Ron for hours on end.   When he heard that Ron had never seen film of himself vaulting at Rome in 1960,  Phil was able to somehow finagle a copy of the film from the International Olympic Committee in Lauzanne and pass it on to Ron.  I don't know if the IOC is still looking for that film.   To show his gratitude to Phil,  Ron devoted two pages of his annual company catalogue to Phil upon his passing.  Ron was not one to forget a kindness by making another kindness.

Ron in Action  video link

In action at Rome   This link will take you to a 13 picture series of Ron at Rome Olympics clearing 4.40 meters (14'  5 1/4").  Note the pole vault was late in the day and a lot of spectators had gone home.  Photos series was taken by an unnamed German photographer.  From U. of Oregon library archives.

Below is what Wikipedia has to say about Ron.\' 

Ronald Hugh Morris (April 27, 1935 – May 31, 2024) was an American track and field athlete who won the national title in pole vault in 1958, 1961 and 1962.^[3] He placed fourth at the 1959 Pan American Games and second at the 1960 Summer Olympics.^[4] Morris vaulted 15 ft 0 in (4.57 m) in June 1971 for a Masters M35 World Record at the 1971 Los Angeles Senior Olympics. After retiring from competitions, he worked as athletics coach.^[1] Morris competed for the USC Trojans track and field team.^[4] He died on May 31, 2024, at the age of 89.^[5]

Ron Morris

Morris (left) at the 1960 Olympics
Personal information
Full name	Ronald Hugh Morris
Born	April 27, 1935 Glendale, California, U.S.
Died	May 31, 2024 (aged 89)
Height	178 cm (5 ft 10 in)
Weight	70 kg (154 lb)
Sport
Country	United States
Sport	Athletics
Event	Pole vault
Club	Southern California Striders
Achievements and titles
Personal best	5.03 m (1966)[1][2]
Medal record Olympic Games 1960 Rome Pole vault

His athletic and coaching experience includes:

• 1952–1953 Two time California Interscholastic Pole Vault and U.S. Interscholastic Record Holder^[1]
• 1955–1957 Twice Intercollegiate All-American and University of Southern California Pole Vault Record Holder
• 1956 Sixth man in history to clear 15 feet
• 1956–1966 Eight times AAU All-American – ranked in the top 10 in the world for ten years
• 1960 Silver Medal in XVII Olympiad, Rome, Italy
• 1962 Only World Class athlete to successfully convert from steel to fiberglass (ranked #1 in the world that year)
• 1978 Ranked by Track and Field News as the 2nd Best Pole Vaulter (longevity) in history
• 1960–1978 Track Coach at California State University, Los Angeles (prepared several All-American athletes)
• 1978–? Owner and operator of On Track

V14 N. 31 Remembering Olympians Who Fell in War

 

On this day June 6, 2024 we are hearing from many sources about the 80th anniversary of the D-Day Invasion in Northern France.  It was indeed a turning point in WWII where many brave men and women paid a heavy price.  Even those who survived may have carried the physical and psychological wounds of those events for the rest of their lives.  Last week on Memorial Day we also chose to remember those who served. 

Here is our ink to the the piece we did on Olympians who died in all the wars.  Thank you comrades in arms.

Remembering Olympians Who Died In War

V 14 N. 30 Remembering Tiananmen

June 3, 2024 

Take a look at the picture below.  Do you find anything offensive?  It appeared in papers over seven months ago.  It shows two Chinese athletes embracing after a hurdles race.  Apparently it offended authorities in the Peoples' Republic of China.  In some publications the hip numbers were shaded over because the  6 and 4  side by side are a reminder to many people of the date June 4, 1989 when the massacre of Chinese students occurred in Tiananmen Square in the center of Beijing.  Tomorrow is the 35th anniversary of that event.  

See article from The Guardian  Chinese Censors Block Image of Athletes Hugging  photograph from Xinhua/Shutterstock

In June, 1989 my family was nearing the end of a year living in Beijing.  My wife had gotten a contract to teach English to Chinese grad students who were preparing to come to Canada to work on post graduate studies.  We lived in a high rise dormitory for 'foreign experts'  on the campus of Beijing Normal University.  After our arrival, I latched on to a teaching job as well.  In February of that year we had been in Lhasa, Tibet at the beginning of a crackdown on Tibetans demanding more independence from China.  We saw the demonstrations first hand and a week later in Time Magazine a picture of The Yak Hotel on fire where we stayed in Lhasa.  

Then in late April Beijing students began demonstrating for more independence and more open government.  They used the word 'democracy' on many of their posters.  It began with posters being hung on the walls on the campus.  We had little or no idea what was going on then but the movement began growing each day.  And soon there were marches on campus, then parades in the streets demanding a more open government.  By mid May the parades were starting on the campuses in town and convening in Tiananmen Square approximately 4 miles away.  We rode our 'Flying Pigeon' bicycles down to the Square and were amazed by the crowds numbering in the hundreds of thousands of people from all over the city.  They arrived in groups representing their universities or their work units.   The government was in a state of flux and a power struggle was going on behind the scenes between a group sympathetic to the students and one wanting to crush the demonstrators.  The hardcore Maoists were busy trying to organize a military repression to put down the movement.  But they had to bring army units from other parts of the country into Beijing, because local units were thought to be sympathetic to the students.  That took time, and the demonstrations kept getting bigger each day.  My wife Marie was told not to look out the classroom windows at the demonstrators.  An impossible temptation when she was already in the streets with the students.  We all were there.  The Canadian organization she worked for had to dock her pay for not being on the job.  The letter informing her of the pay cut  came with a lot of reluctance and tongue in cheek regrets.

In mid May, Premier Gorbachev of the Soviet Union was scheduled to visit Beijing.  Heads of state traditionally were brought into Tiananmen  Square for a grand entrance, a military parade and all the trimmings.  .   Gorby had to come in the back door because of the students occupying the Square.  It seemed a triumph for the students at the time.  Everyone was full of hope except the older people we talked with.  They thought it would end in a bloodbath.  

On the night of June 3 the loudspeakers throughout the city began blaring louder than we had ever heard and our Chinese colleagues told us not to go into the streets.  My kids both teenagers and I naively ignored the warnings and accompanied a visitor back to his residence which took us across Chang An Street which runs directly into the north end of the square.  I don't remember the time, but it was pitch black.  Many people were out that night also ignoring the warnings.  Suddenly there was what seemed to be fireworks and green flares going off a bit to the west, and we thought we would go that way to see what was happening.  Then we were told that it was gunfire and to get off the main street.  Fortunately we knew the back alleys or 'hutongs' from 9 months of cycling all over the city and got into one just as the army started its rush to the square.  By the time we got back to our university we found many of the students busy making Molotov cocktails and getting ready to march downtown.  We would learn later that some of them were killed, but numbers are very sketchy because the government would suppress that information.  

We spent three more days in Beijing which involved transfers to several hotels and eventually the Canadian embassy from where we were taken to the airport and flown to Tokyo.  On one occasion we broke into our work unit office and lifted the keys to a van and drove Canadian teachers to the hotels.  The streets were abandoned then and I think we got well over 60 mph in downtown Beijing.  It may still be a speed record there.  By pure luck we never ran into any army patrols and we avoided going through the Square on those sprints.  

Every year this date brings back those memories of those brave students and citizens of Beijing, and we choose to remember them even though the Peoples' Republic of China chooses to forget.