This Day in Track & Field: October 16

1968: The men's 200-meters at the Mexico City Olympics was a memorable race, with Tommie Smith, arguably the greatest all-around sprinter in history (some feel he would have beaten Michael Johnson in a 200m matchup) overtaking teammate John Carlos to win the gold medal and setting a World Record of 19.8. Carlos, looking to his left as Smith passed him, failed to notice Australian Peter Norman slipping by on his right to grab the silver medal. But the race became a mere footnote after the two sprinters engaged in their famous raised-fist protest on the victory stand. Norman, who passed away last October, did his part on the awards stand by wearing an "Olympic Project for Human Rights" badge. The three became so close over the years that Smith and Carlos were pallbearers at Norman's funeral. Check the links below to learn more about the events leading up to the incident and its aftermath. Many more links can be found by Googling "Tommie Smith" "John Carlos" or "Olympic Project for Human Rights". Smith and Carlos, both of whom competed for San Jose State, were honored by the school last year when a statue commemorating their protest was unveiled.

Statue:
www.sjsu.edu/news/news_detail.jsp?id=142

Norman:
www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/10/0 4/AR2006100401753.html

RELATED LINKS:

Carlos Interview:
zmagsite.zmag.org/Dec2003/zirin1203.html

NY Times:
www.nytimes.com/packages/html/sports/year_in_sports/10. 16a.html

Smith Hall of Fame Bio:
http://www.usatf.org/HallOfFame/TF/showBio.asp?HOFIDs= 157Carlos Hall of Fame

Bio:
http://www.usatf.org/HallOfFame/TF/showBio.asp?HOFIDs= 195 Amy Bass--Author of "Not the Triumph but the Struggle:the 1968 Olympic Games and the Making of the Black
Athlete":http://www.cnr.edu/CNR-olympics/cnr-olympics2.ht ml

www.infoplease.com/spot/mm-mexicocity.html

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This Day in Track & Field: October 15

1964 The final of the men's 100-meters at the 1964 Olympics was preceded by the start of the 20-kilometer walk, with the walkers circling the cinder track three times, mostly in lane one, before leaving the stadium. And "Bullet" Bob Hayes, even though he had won all three of his preliminary races, was assigned to lane one under the random draw system used in those days. Workers did their best to smooth out the lane before the final, but, as Hayes would say after the race, "...it felt a little soft".

No matter--Hayes was so dominating that quicksand probably wouldn't have stopped him from winning the gold medal. For the first time in Olympic history, 8 men were in the final (6 was the norm prior to 1964), and the powerfully built Hayes ran away from all of them, winning in 10.0 to equal the World Record. Auto-times were available and his .19s margin of victory over Cuba's Enrique Figuerola (10.06-10.25) is still one of the largest in Olympic history And Hayes, who died in 2002 due to kidney failure, did it in borrowed shoes! As former St.John's star Tom Farrell, who would win a bronze medal in the 800-meters four years later in Mexico City, tells about his "claim to fame": "I was warming up for my semi-final in the 800 (Farrell would finish 5th in the final)when Ed Hurt (Coach from Morgan State and one of the U.S. team's sprint coaches) and Bob Hayes came to me and asked what size shoes did I wear. I thought this was an unusual question as I was nervous, as well as excited, for my upcoming race. So I told them 8 1/2. Bob said it was the same size he wears. He asked if he could borrow them for his 100M semi-final and final races. I asked him where are his spikes and he said he had two lefts and was in a real bind. At the time in the Olympic Village there were only 2 shoe companies--Adidas and Puma--and you could get as many pairs of shoes as you wanted-- I always carried an extra pair--just in case. So I gave Bob my other pair of Tokyo 64s from Adidas--you may remember they were blue suede shoes and actually reversed Kangaroo skin." "I thought this was all a little odd since this was the most important race of Bob Hayes' career. At stake was a gold medal and the world's fastest human title. A gold medal would increase his negotiating power with the Dallas Cowboys and here he was with 2 left shoes! I was glad I could help out. Had I had only one pair--Bob would have had to run in flats. I would not give him my only pair." "I found out sometime later that future boxing great Joe Frazier (who also won a gold medal in Tokyo) played a practical joke by switching Bob's shoes before he left for the track--some joke!!!" "A few days later my father sent me a clipping from the New York Times which read: 'Farrell shoes win gold medal, too bad Farrell wasn't in them'."

Hayes, who would run a great anchor leg in the 4x100 relay on the final day of competition, went on to have an All-Pro career with the Dallas Cowboys and is the only athlete to have won an Olympic gold medal and a Super Bowl ring.

RELATED LINKS:
Obituary:
http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/football/news/2002/09/19/ha yes_obit_ap/

Hayes wasn't the only future Hall of Famer displaying his talents on this day. Al Oerter, who passed away earlier this month, once again showed his competitive toughness by overcoming injuries to win the 3rd of his eventual 4 gold medals in the discus. Competing at times with a neck brace he used to ease a cervical disk injury, and with a taped rib cage that had doctors advising him to withdraw, Oerter came from behind in the 5th round wih a throw 200-1 1/2 to win over Czech Ludvik Danek, who had taken away Oerter's World Record earlier in the season. Said Oerter about competing in pain, "These are the Olympics. You die for them."

Much has been written about Oerter never being the favorite when he won his gold medals, but he was the consenus pick of T&F News's expert panel prior to the Games.

Jay Silvester, who got bumped from the bronze medal position by Oerter's winning throw, almost didn't make it to the final. Walking towards the infield through a tunnel under the stadium, he was knocked unconscious after hitting his head on a concrete beam, but quickly recovered.

1968 Four years to the day after winning his 3rd Olympic title in Tokyo, Al Oerter cemented his place in sporting history by winning his 4th gold medal in the discus at the Mexico City Olympics, becoming the first t&f athlete in Olympic history to win the same event four times (Carl Lewis would later win 4 long jump golds). Few gave Oerter a chance this time, since Jay Silvester had set a World Record of 224-5 the previous month, a distance that was 17-feet longer than Oerter's best. But Oerter is the consummate competitor, especially at the Olympics. He took the lead for good in the 3rd round with a throw of 212-6 1/2, an Olympic Record and a personal best by more than 5 feet! A disheartened Silvester couldn't improve on his 2nd-round throw of 202-8 and had to settle for 5th place. Oerter "retired in 1969, but returned to the U.S. top-10 rankings in 1977, finished 4th at the 1980 boycott Olympic Trials, threw a personal best of 227-11 that same year when he was 43, and made his final appearance in the U.S. Rankings in 1983 at the age of 46.

RELATED LINKS:
http://www2.iaaf.org/athletes/legends/AlOerter.html
http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/olympics2000/bbc_team/890 517.stm

http://espn.go.com/sportscentury/features/00016388.html

Wyomia Tyus, who had won in Tokyo in 1964, became the first Olympian (man or woman) to win successive 100-meter titles. Tyus, one of Ed Temple's Tennessee State Tigerbelles, set a World Record of 11.0(11.08) to beat American teammatte Barbara Ferrell and Poland's Irina Szewinska, both of whom ran 11.1.

USATF Hall of Fame Bio:
http://www.usatf.org/HallOfFame/TF/showBio.asp?HOFIDs= 175 Great Britain's David Hemery, who had won IC4A and NCAA titles in the 400-meter hurdles earlier in the season while competing for Boston University, completed his trifecta by winning the biggest title of all, taking the gold medal in Mexico with a world-record time of 48.1.

RELATED LINK (Written in 2000):
http://tinyurl.com/cyg9o

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This Day in Track & Field: October 14

1964 It was the first day of competition at the first of four Olympic Games that I would attend as a member of Track and Field News' Olympic Tours. I first became aware of the magazine the previous year and quickly signed up when I saw an ad for their trip to the Tokyo Olympics. One of the tour packages included a stopover in Hawaii, and I had watched the Opening Ceremony with other tour members on a TV set up in a hotel hallway in Honolulu. I had even competed in a road race that featured local resident Leah Ferris, the 1963 U.S. Indoor 1/2-mile champion. With the time difference, I was also able to watch a World Series game between the NY Yankees and St.Louis Cardinals at 7am!

But now here I was, a young track fan from Brooklyn, walking towards the Olympic Stadium in Tokyo. I can still hear the flag-ropes banging against the tall metal posts in the plaza outside the stadium on that breezy day. As luck would have it, my seat was right next to Cordner Nelson and his late wife, Mary. What better way to be introduced to the Olympic experience than to talk track (and field) with the co-founder of Track and Field News!

Most of that first day was filled with qualifying rounds (Bob Hayes won his heat and 1/4-final in the men's 100-meters), but there was one running final--the men's 10,000-meters. Most of the pre-Games chatter centered on Ron Clarke, the world record holder from Australia, defending champion Pyotr Bolotnikov of the Soviet Union, and New Zealand's Murray Halberg, the 1960 Olympic Champion at 5000-meters. Clarke was the consensus pick of T&F News' expert panel, with 18-year old Gerry Lindgren considered to be the leading American entry.

A crowded field of 38 runners, still the largest ever to contest an Olympic 10k final, started the race, and the surprising 1/2-way leader was another American, Billy Mills, who went through 5000-meters in 14:04.6, a world-record pace! Everyone "knew" that he couldn't maintain that tempo, but wasn't it nice to see him in the lead, at least for a while. Lindgren, who had suffered a sprained ankle shortly before the Games, was out of contention at this point, while Mills was one of only five runners still battling for the three medals. Soon it was down to four, with Mills, Clarke, Tunisia's Mohamed Gamoudi, and Ethiopia's Malmo Wolde working their way around lapped runners. With two laps to go, Wolde lost contact with the others and the feeling among excited American fans was, "Wow, Mills is going to get at least a bronze medal"!

At the bell, still maneuvering around lapped runners, Clarke held the lead, while Mills moved slightly ahead on the turn, but not enough to cut in. While running wide to get around yet another lapped runner, Clarke and Mills bumped shoulders, forcing a stumbling Mills to the outer edge of lane. Then Gamoudi, as much of an underdog as Mills coming into the race, squeezed his way between the two leaders, opened up a lead of about 5-6 meters on the backstretch, and looked like a sure winner. Clarke gamely gave chase and drew almost even midway down the final stretch. And then Mills did the unthinkable. His late sprint brought him first past Clarke, and then Gamoudi, as he went on to attain one of the biggest upsets in Olympic history, winning in 28:24.4. Gamoudi held on for 2nd in 28:24.8, with Clarke 3rd in 28:25.8 as all three bettered the previous Olympic Record (as did Wolde, who finished 4th in 28:31.8).

Here's how Cordner Nelson wrote of Mills' finish in his wonderful coverage for T&F News: "Then suddenly happened a rare moment which made even mediocre track fans say, 'That was worth the trip, alone'. A hundred and fifty pounds of fighting man went into action with an all-out sprint which abruptly turned sane men (including TV announcers-WM) into screaming hysterics. With each stride of his 5'-11" frame the Marine Lieutenant bore down on his rivals, surging past a mass of lapped runners, past Clarke and Gamoudi 50 yards from the tape so fast that Clarke was stunned and gave up the chase. With a wild grin, Billy Mills hit the tape, arms upraised in a leap of sheer joy". All in all, not a bad way to start my Olympic viewing "career".

Mills, a Native American (Ogala Lakota/Sioux), is currently a much-sought after motivational speaker, both at running and corporate events, and is the spokesperson for the organization he founded, Running Strong for American Indian Youth(billymills.org [includes a link to a video of the Tokyo last lap]).

RELATED LINKS:
Tokyo Poster:
www.sportsposterwarehouse.com/warehouse/billymills03r p.htm

Ad for "Tokyo Olympiad" Kon Ichikowa's outstanding coverage of the 1964 Olympics (highly recommended):
www.imdb.com/title/tt0059817/

STORY/PHOTOS:
www.stripes.com/photoday/040504photoday.html

NY TIMES:
www.nytimes.com/packages/html/sports/year_in_sports/10. 14.html;

T&F NEWS COVER (Oct./Nov.)
www.trackandfieldnews.com/archive/past_issues/1964cove rs.html

KANSAS BIO:
www.kuhistory.com/proto/story.asp?id=74

His Niece "Knew":
www.bluecloud.org/hh%20billymills.htm

Washington Post article(2005):
www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/10/2 8/AR2005102802132.html

Scholarship Established at Kansas:
www.kuconnection.org/2003june/people_1.asp

This Day in Track and Field: April 2

1955: Wes Santee, "The Kansas Cowboy," ran 4:00.5 in Austin,Texas, to break the American Record for the 4th and final time, but fell just short of becoming the first American to run a sub 4-minute mile. Santee's pursuit of the 4-minute mile, along with that of Roger Bannister and John Landy, is chronicled in the book, "The Perfect Mile"
(www.houghtonmifflinbooks.com/bookseller s/press_release/bascomb).
Other Links: Kansas U. on-line chat from 2004:
www.kusports.com/news/chats/story/11031 0)

1960: Using a borrowed implement (his was being repaired), Bill Nieder regained the shot put World Record from Dallas Long in a big way at the Texas Relays with his throw of 65-7, besting Long's previous mark by more than a foot. Related Links:
www.hickoksports.com/biograph/niederbill. shtml
www.kshof.org/hof-profiles.cfm?record_id= 55

1971: Russ Francis, a senior at Pleasant Hill H.S. who had never even seen a javelin when he moved from Hawaii to Oregon, threw 184-2 in his first competition. That was a modest opener for Francis, who went on to set three National H.S. Records with the "old" implement in 1971: 253-1(5-7), 254-11(5-27), and 259-9(6-12), the latter standing for 17 years until the late Art Skipper threw 259-10(Sandy,OR) in 1988. He also finished 2nd at the U.S. Championships that year. Francis spent more than ten years in the NFL as a tight end with New England and San Francisco and was a member of the 49ers' 1985 Super Bowl Championship team. Among his teammates were fellow track and field stars Michael Carter and Renaldo Nehemiah. Francis, following in the footsteps of his father (Ed), also spent some time as a professional wrestler and ran for Congress in Hawaii in 2000.

1994: After anchoring Arkansas' 4x100 to a 3rd-place finish (39.80) at the UTEP Inv., senior Erick Walder made his way over to the long jump pit, where he started out with a pair of modest 25-footers. He gave a hint of things to come with his 5th-round jump of 27-4 3/4, then, taking full advantage of El Paso's 3,700' altitude and a maximum 2.0 mps trailing wind, Walder reached out to 28-8 1/4 to break Carl Lewis's 13-year old Collegiate Record of 28-3 1/2. "I've been chasing that mark since my sophomore year", said the happy Walder. (From T&F News www.trackandfieldnews.com).

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This Day in Track & Field: April 1 & 2

2006: Kenenisa Bekele won his 5th straight double (short-4/1, long 4/2) at the World X-Country Championships in Fukuoaka, Japan. Adam Goucher had the best showing by an American, finishing an impressive 6th in the Senior Men's Short race (4/1).