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
No comments:
Post a Comment