Running legends, heroes continue to inspire us
Columnist Steve Schallenkamp recalls the runners that inspired him and others to take up the sport.
Recently, I was a guest on Dan Reinhard’s Radio Kingston Sports Talk broadcast. In the interview, we wound up discussing the running heroes and legends that inspired us. I thought the topic would make an interesting column.
My introduction to running as a sport was through the SRA reading program at George Washington Elementary School in Kingston. This series had a biography section. One day, I read the story of Glenn Cunningham.
At age 8, Cunningham was severely burned in a fire. His wounds were so bad his doctors wanted to amputate both of his legs. His parents refused. Cunningham lost all the skin on his knees and shins and all the toes on his left foot. He was expected never to be able to walk. He proved the doctors wrong.
In 1934, he set the world record for the mile, running 4:06.8. In the 1936 Olympics, he would win the silver medal in the 1,500-meter run (the metric mile). He set the world record in the 800-meter run and the indoor mile.
My father and sister died in a fire in 1964. Perhaps that is why Cunningham’s story resonated so strongly with me. His story made me believe that running was a sport where determination, perseverance, and grit mattered.
The 1964 Tokyo Olympic Games were the first Olympics I watched with great interest.
Of course, I rooted for “Bullet Bob Hayes,” who was dubbed the “world’s fastest human.” Hayes would win the 100-meter dash in world-record time and anchor the U.S. 400-meter relay to victory and another world record.
Hayes would wind up being a star wide receiver for the Dallas Cowboys.
Perhaps because the sprints were over quickly, the race that caught my attention was the 10,000-meter run. The favorite in the race was the great Australian runner and world record holder Ron Clarke (28:15.6).
American hopes for a medal were on the shoulders of 18-year-old phenom Gerry Lindgren. Halfway through the race, only five men were still in contention. With two laps to go, only Clarke, Mohammed Gammoudi, and unheralded American Billy Mills remained in the hunt for gold.
With a lap to go, the three fought for the lead with a fair amount of jostling occurring.
Coming off the last turn with 100 meters to go, Gammoudi surged into the lead, Clarke went after him, and Mills looked out of the race. Mills moved out to lane four and summoned the will to mount one last charge.
At the finish, Mills would win gold in an Olympic record time of 28:24.4. Incredibly, he ran 50 seconds faster than he ever had.
Some have labeled this the biggest upset in Olympic history. I can still hear the announcer screaming, “Look at Mills! Look at Mills!” Mills is the only American winner of the Olympic 10K. He was an orphan who grew up in poverty on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation and had to overcome the searing prejudice against native Americans of his era. Once again, I saw how running created a level playing field and how spirit, will, and determination could become greatness.
In 1966, Joe Defino started an elementary school track team at George Washington Elementary School. Inspired by Cunningham and watching Olympians like Mills, I went out for the team. This experience would be the start of a passion that has served me well for more than 50 years.
In 1966, the world record holder for the mile (3:51.3) was the University of Kansas track star, Jim Ryan. That same year, he set the world record for the 880-yard run (halfmile) with a 1:44.9. Ryan, in 1964, was the first high school runner to break the 4-minute mile, and at age 17, he remains the youngest U.S. Olympic male track athlete ever.
At the 1968 Mexico City Olympics, I was heartbroken to see him lose to the great Kenyan runner Kip Keino in the 1,500. In the 1972 Munich Olympic Games, he would get tripped in a qualifying round and fail to make the finals.
At the 1972 Munich Olympic Games, Dave Wottle was the half-miler I watched with high expectations. At the U.S. Olympic Trials, he had equaled the world record for the 800 (1:44.3). But in the Olympic Games finals of the 800, after 500 meters, he was dead last. He then began to pass one runner after another. He caught the Russian leader at the finish and took the gold medal by three-thousandths of a second.
This race may have been the best tactical race I ever watched. He had the patience and guts to stick to his game plan and not panic. Everyone else had gone out too fast. If you look at his splits, he ran even, and in the last 100 meters, the other runners looked like they were stuck in mud.
In those same Olympics, Frank Shorter would win the marathon. By 1972, the Olympic Games had become a massive spectacle that garnered the world’s attention. Shorter’s victory is often credited with igniting the “running boom” and making running a mass participation sport.
Americans love winners. In the 1976 Montreal Olympic Games, Shorter would take the silver medal in the marathon. He would run nearly 2 minutes quicker than in 1972. He was surprised to be beaten by East Germany’s Waldemar Cierpinski.
After the fall of the Berlin Wall and the demise of East Germany, records of East Germany’s statesponsored doping system were found. In those records, Cierpinski was implicated in performanceenhancing drug use. Some believe Cierpinski should be stripped of his medal, and Shorter awarded the gold. American Don Kardong, who finished fourth, would then become the bronze medal winner.
My greatest running hero is not a distance runner. It is Jesse Owens. Running for Ohio State at the 1935 Big Ten Championships, Owens accomplished what some historians have labeled “the greatest 45 minutes in sports history.” In less than an hour, Owens broke the world record for the 220-yard dash, 220 low hurdles, the long jump, and tied the record for the 100-yard dash. In the long jump, he became the first person to exceed eight meters with an 8.13 leap (26 feet, 8.25 inches). Amazingly, Owens did this with only one jump. The schedule of his events was so tight, he only had time for a single attempt.
In the 100, most of the official timers had him in 9.3 seconds. By the rules, the slowest official’s time of 9.4 had to be used. It would take 13 more years for someone to run a 9.3. His long jump record would last for 25 years. This mammoth leap on a cinder runway with crude spikes would have gotten him a sixth place at the 2016 Olympics.
His performance at the Big Ten Championships demonstrated his greatness as an athlete. His performance at the 1936 Olympic Games made him a hero.
The Berlin Games were perhaps the first “modern” Olympics. Adolph Hitler recognized the worldwide attention they garnered and their propaganda value, and he intended to make the games a showcase of Aryan supremacy. The Olympic Stadium was a monument to this ideology. The stands were filled with more than 100,000 spectators shouting “Sieg Heil” and saluting Hitler.
Imagine the pressure Owens must have felt in this cauldron of hate. He was representing his country, representing his
race, representing himself. These Olympics were about much more than sports.
Owens would win four gold medals and shred the Nazi ideology of supremacy. Before the games ended, tens of thousands of Germans would be applauding his performance.
Unfortunately, for Owens and America, he did not receive the same recognition in the United States. President Franklin Roosevelt did not congratulate him, and at a dinner honoring him at the Waldorf Astoria, he had to enter the hotel using the freight elevator.
Many other running legends deserve recognition, such as Bob Schul, Buddy Edelen, Ted Corbitt, Steve Prefontaine, and sprinters like Carl Lewis and Michael Johnson. A future column needs to be written about women pioneers and heroes.