Vol. 3 No. 68 Eulace Peacock, Kenyan Runners and Darwin, and a request for old Track and Field and RW Journals

One of our readers,  Rick Lower is looking for collections of Track and Field News and Runner's World magazines.  He is more interested in complete years rather than individual magazines.  He can be contacted at      lower6echo@comcast.net     Remember,  your children will probably put those issues in the trash when they find them in your attic someday. 

Two articles were brought to our attention this week. The first is from a  National Public Radio (NPR) piece  by Gregory Warner about the David Epstein book  The Sports Gene on genetic traits of Kenyan athletes, particularly the Kalenjin tribe.    The link is:http://www.npr.org/blogs/parallels/2013/11/01/241895965/how-one-kenyan-tribe-produces-the-worlds-best-runners


The second article is "Faster Than the Fastest" by Michael McKnight from Sports Illustrated and talks about the great Temple University  sprinter/jumper of the 1930's,  Eulace Peacock.   On a number of occasions Peacock defeated Jesse Owens in the 100 and the long jump in head to head meetings.  However , Peacock came up injured at the time of the 1936 Olympic trials and failed to make the team, opening the door of history to Owens who more than adequately carried the pressure of his country and the civilized world at the Berlin Olympics.
http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/longform/peacock/

This is our 265th  posting on this blog.  If we printed out everything it would be over 1,000 pages long, so you should have enough material to get through those long winter evenings this year.  To date over 45,000 hits have been made from over 40 countries.

The all time most read posting is
Roy Mason and Debbie Heald Appear on the Pages of Runner's World              984 hits
The Springbank International Road Races                                                            471
1960 Rome: Day 3                                                                                                 368
Dave Sime Today                                                                                                   233

Countries where most of our hits come from are:
                                                                                USA                                   27,171
                                                                                Russia                                  1,737
                                                                                Germany                              1,620
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Thanks for being part of our hobby.    Roy Mason and George Brose


From Tom Coyne
Dear George:

I first heard the name Eulace Peacock back in 1951 from Al Renick, a really fine hurdler and teammate on our track team at Western Michigan College.

Al was from St. Louis and he always claimed that, as good as Owens was, Peacock was better.

Nice to see him being remembered.

Take care,

Tom

Vol. 2 No. 85 Sam Stoller , Indignity at Berlin

SAM STOLLER  U. OF MICHIGAN

The following biography of Sam Stoller was sent to us from Bill Schnier, men's track and cross country coach at the University of Cincinnati.  Bill will be presenting Sam Stoller (deceased) at his induction in the Cincinnati area Track and Field Hall of Fame.  Sam was a native of Cincinnati.  

SAM STOLLER

            A 1933 graduate of Hughes High School and a 1937 graduate of the University of Michigan, Sam Stoller led a fascinating life of champion and runner-up, of Olympian and non-Olympian, of athlete and singer.  Sam was born in Cincinnati and attended Hughes High School at the same time that Jesse Owens was running in Cleveland.  As a result Sam never won the state meet in high school, finishing second to the great Jesse Owens who ran for Cleveland East Tech.  The two followed each other to the Big Ten where Stoller continued to be a frequent runner-up to Owens.  Sam ran for the University of Michigan while Jesse competed for Ohio State.  During their college days they faced each other 20 times with Sam winning only once, yet the races were always close.  Sam once said “I’m the fellow you see in the movies of Jesse’s footraces.” 

                                                        Marty Glickman and Sam Stoller

  en route to Berlin

            Jesse Owens burst onto the national stage when he set four world records at the 1935 Big Ten Championships.  Sam made his national mark for the first time by setting the world record for the 60 yard dash in 6.1 seconds.  Yet it was in the 1936 Olympic Trials followed by the Berlin Olympic Games where the two earned lasting recognition.  Jesse immortalized himself by winning four gold medals in the historic “Hitler Olympics” whereas Sam became best known for qualifying for the USA 400 meter relay, then being denied the opportunity to run.  Considerably controversy surrounded that decision at the time and even to the present.

                                               Ralph Metcalfe, Sam Stoller, Jesse Owens
                                                       possibly at 1936 Olympic Trials

            At the 1936 Olympic Trials at Randall’s Island in New York City, the places were as follows:  1. Jesse Owens,  2. Ralph Metcalf,  3. Frank Wykoff,  4. Foy Draper,  5. Marty Glickman,  6. Sam Stoller and 7. Mack Robinson (brother of Jackie Robinson).  Using the logic and current thinking of United States sprinting, the top four would run the finals of the 400 meter relay while fifth and sixth would serve as backups, running only in the trials.  However, at that time, 1936, the plan was to have the headliners run the open sprints and to have the others concentrate on their handoffs, directing their entire attention to the relay.  Consequently Stoller rode the Olympic ship to Germany fully planning to run the 400 meter relay.  Once in Germany the team of Sam Stoller, Marty Glickman, Foy Draper and Frank Wykoff practiced their handoffs faithfully in anticipation of the day when they would represent the USA.  While in Berlin they heard a rumor that the Germans were hiding their best sprinters so they could surprise the world but especially the Americans in the 400 meter relay, yet in the 100 and 200 meter races they were nowhere to be seen.  Near the end of the Olympic Games and the morning of the 400 meter relay trials, a meeting took place with US head coach Lawson Robertson, assistant coach Dean Cromwell and the seven American sprinters.  In that meeting it was announced that Jesse Owens and Ralph Metcalfe, who had placed first and second in the 100 meters, would replace Stoller and Marty Glickman.  The rationale during that meeting is that the coaches wanted to put the four fastest runners on the relay.  In a 100 meter race at the Olympic site a few weeks earlier, the places were Stoller, Glickman and Draper indicating that the two who did not run were faster than those who did run.  The interpretation by the two runners left off the relay is that they were dropped for religious purposes since they were both Jewish and the US Olympic Committee did not want to offend Hitler and the Nazi leaders.  Both Avery Brundage, the Head of the USOC, and assistant coach, Dean Cromwell, were members of the American First Committee, an isolationist group headed by Charles Lindbergh with anti-Semitic leanings.  The team of Jesse Owens, Ralph Metcalf, Foy Draper and Frank Wykoff went on to win the gold medal in the world record time of 39.8.  However, the controversy continues today.

            On Sam’s 21^st birthday he did not go to the stadium to see the relay and vowed never to run again.  However he reconsidered and ran his final year at Michigan, winning the Big Ten and NCAA 100 meters.  After the NCAAs in 1937, he stayed in California, taking up a singing career in nine separate movies as Singin’ Sammy Stoller.  Later in life he was an announcer for the Washington Senators.  In 1988 the US Olympic Committee tried to atone for the Olympic slight by awarding Stoller and Glickman the General MacArthur Medal.  Sam Stoller was also inducted into the International Jewish Sports Hall of Fame before dying in 1985 at the age of 69.  

Vol. 1 No. 78 1936 Berlin Olympics sequences

We're going to go a bit out of sequence here, because I've found some great film footage of the 1936 Olympics on Youtube. Most of this was filmed by Leni Reifenstahl, Hitler and Goebbels' film propagandist. The easiest way to view these is go to Youtube and type in "1936 Olympics, Leni Reifenstahl" and the clips will come up and you can choose from all of them. Otherwise you will have to type in the rather complex html's below.

Last two laps of 1500 meters Great footage of Jack Lovelock of New Zealand winning over Glenn Cunningham.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aeXPyJI24tk1936

Jesse Owens semis and finals 100 meters
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K1XclGwJY8s&feature=endscreen&NR=1

Some of these clips are backed with Pink Floyd music, be prepared.

the 1936 marathon can also be found at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JQY6MfX5420

German naratiion, Wagner instead of Pink Flloyd.
Winner was Kiti Son Japan/Korea, 2hr 29min 19 sec
2nd Ernest Harper Great Br. 2hr 31min 23 sec
3rd Nan Shoryu Japan/Korea 2 hr 31 min 42 sec.

US entries Johnny A Kelly 16th

Tarzan Brown and Billy McMahon DNF
Below is a picture of Ellison Tarzan Brown at Naragansett Indian from Rhode Island.