1969 AAU National Track and Field Championships

1969 AAU National Track and Field Championships 3-Mile, in Miami- Dade, Florida.

My friend, Ingrid Skoog, posted this photo on a Google Plus circle we're in but thought you guys might get a chuckle out of it. Below is the back story (of the picture) I wrote to her, cut and pasted here as I'm too lazy to re-edit it, so excuse the asides. :)

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Holy Cow Ingrid!  I've never seen this photo! It was from the 1969 AAU (Amateur Athletic Union) National Track & Field Championship 3-mile (before we went metric) in Miami-Dade, Flordia.

If you recall from our last conversation Georgetown suspended the Track team that year (1969 while they did a national search for a new coach) after they found out about the crazy stuff our coach was doing and had been doing for years.

[An aside:  Once the administration of Georgetown heard and investigated the situation they cancelled the season within weeks. Now can you imagine a University of any NCAA Division I sports team summarily suspending their team from competition?! That is, their administrators doing the right thing, not stalling, not sweeping things under the rug but being forthright and supporting their student-athletes once the fact were known above a tenured coach? Integrity, plain and simple! ]

Anyway, I was training alone clandestinely with Rick Urbina (former Georgetown NCAA Champion in the 880yds) and Eamon O'Reilly (the then American Record holder in the Marathon and a Ph.D. grad student at GU in mathematics) coaching me. Since our team was suspended, I had no races in which I could compete but qualified for the Nationals 6-mile race at a Georgetown all-comers meet where I ran a 10k out in front, solo, the whole way! It was my first and only 10k on the track I ever ran. My 10k time qualified me for the Nationals 6-mile race. With that in hand, Eamon and Rick pleaded my case and got me into the Nationals 3-mile race (pictured above).

[An aside:  Since Georgetown's track team was suspended I had to find a team to run under at Nationals.  It's hard to imagine now, but it was the '60s. I wanted to run for the New York Athletic Club, but they didn't allow African-Americans in their club, so I ran for another New York club, the Grant Street Boys. Also hard to believe now, but at the time  I was one of only 6 African-Americans in my class at Georgetown in the College of Arts and Sciences. However, Georgetown's School of Foreign Service had a good amount of diversity, and of course, Washington D.C. has an international feel given the diplomatic corps and many embassies, although Georgetown itself at that time was - preppy beyond belief - thank god for the great guys on Georgetown's track team!

Anyway, Tracy Smith won in a sprint with the legendary Gerry Lindgren of Washington State University placing second in a photo finish!

I'm 19 here and just finished my sophomore year at Georgetown and Steve Prefontaine (#13) was entering his freshman year at the University of Oregon that Fall.  Pre and I were in a slugfest for the 3rd spot; we must have changed leads five times.  He ended up beating me and was the 3rd American finisher; I finished 5th behind the great Jerry Jobski from ASU. Pre made the American Team for the summer European tour, while I euphemistically speaking, got back on the bus.

Others of note in the field that I did manage to beat were Dick Buerkle (later to beat Pre, hold the world indoor record for the mile and made the 1976 Olympic team in the 5k), Gary Tuttle,  Canadian record holder and Olympian, Bob Finlay and the up-and-coming Canadian Grant McLaren. It took me a good 10 years before I was able to appreciate how well I actually did in this race given the circumstances. I'll be forever thankful to Eamon and Rick for their coaching, mentoring and friendship.

Four years later I was still chasing Pre and in 1973 I had the 2nd fastest 3-mile time in the nation to Pre (and 7th in the world) going into the National Championships in Eugene, Oregon. This time coached by my Georgetown buddy and superb runner, "Stags", below #117), who was on the 1971 PAN-AM Team with Pre.

Stags, Pre and Frank Shorter

Here's Stags (#117) making Pre earn it in the last 200m.

Pre looks worried and in serious pain! :)

That's Frank Shorter the 1972 US Olympic Marathon Champion behind on the right.

And there you have it, thanks for this Ingrid!
:: garth ::