(1948) Readers of this column may recall that I did a lot of pre-meet raving about Barney Ewell prior to that race at the Coliseum Relays. I told you then that here was one man capable of giving Pell-Mel Patton a true test; that Ewell, Patton and Lloyd LaBeach (and possibly the Australian, John Treloar) were the great sprinters of the world.
Barney let me down --- made all that look like the usual build-up for the gate. Come to think of it, Ewell ran like a gate -- a rusty gate. He finished sixth, and had only one man beaten --- Treloar. Ahead of him were Patton, LaBeach, Parker, Anderson and Lt. Carter.
"I'm just not in condition --- yet," Barney explained to Coach Dean Cromwell. That qualifying "yet" was enough to cause some of us to prick up our ears.
Then Barney ran at Compton. LaBeach and Indiana's Chuck Peters both ran right away from him. Not once, but twice - in the 100 meters and 220 yards. Even Bill Fell of Compton High beat Barney to the 100-yard mark and Barney barely came from behind to nip Fell by inches at 100 meters. LaBeach defeated both of them by six to eight yards.
Barney Ewell simply was not in condition --- yet.
Four weeks went by. The scene shifts to Marquette Stadium at Milwaukee. It is the National AAU championships, a semifinal qualifying meet for the Olympic team.
Now we find Barney Ewell winning the 100 meters from Dillard, Anderson, Mathis and others in the average time of 10. 6s. In the 200 meters we have him third behind LaBeach and Bourland. Barney is almost in condition now --- but not quite.
Next we turn to the final trials at Dyche Stadium. The experienced campaigner, the wily, cagy, brilliant Barney, is ready now. Just as Jack Lovelock was ready in the Olympic Games of 1936. Barney, like Lovelock and Eddie Tolan, never cared much about winning any races but the biggest.
You can alibi Patton and Dillard for being caught asleep at the gun. No doubt they were. Perhaps, had he been off with the gun as well as Ewell, Patton could have won. It does not matter. He made the 100 meters team. But excuse Patton as you will, the fact remains that Barney Ewell, at the age of 31, ran 100 meters in 10. 2s., which is as fast as LaBeach ran in beating him at Compton; as fast as Patton would have run at the Coliseum had they gone the full 100 meters; as fast as Jesse Owens or Ralph Metcalfe or Charley Paddock or Hal Davis ever ran 100 meters.
Barney Ewell won that race because he always was, and remains to this day, one of the truly great sprinters of all time. He may win one or both sprints in London, for that same reason.
No, I never have been and am not now surprised at any race Ewell ever wins, no matter whom he beats. Of all the sprinters who ever lived, I think Barney Ewell is quite the most remarkable. Four years ago, when he won his second of three National AAU 100 meters championships, he was the oldest man ever to have won that title. Now he is four years older than he was then - and again he beats them all in the 100 meters.
Charley Paddock and Ewell stand out as the two most durable sprinters of all time. The championship span of each covers nine years, one more than their closest rival in this department who was Frank Wykoff with three Olympiads under his belt.
Wykoff was this country's No. 1 sprinter in 1928, and he made the Olympic 100 meters team in 1936 after having run only the relay in 1932, when a pulled muscle slowed him down.
Paddock won the world title at the Inter-Allied Games of 1919, next the Olympic 100 meters of 1920. He was National AAU 100 king in 1921 and 1924, the 220 champion in 1920, 1921 and 1924. In 1928 he placed second to Charley Borah in the American team trials at 200 meters, was eliminated when he ran fourth in the semifinals at Amsterdam.
That was a nine-year span of great sprinting for Paddock. Wykoff missed it by one year.
Ewell won his first championship in 1939, the National AAU 200 meters. He repeated in 1946-47 and has been second several times. He won the AAU 100 in 1941, 1944 and 1948. He won both the 100 and 220 in the NCAA meets of 1940-41.
And he still runs fast enough to beat Mel Patton In world record time:
There you have a man measuring up in every respect to the true stature of greatness. Barney Ewell, to me, is a giant among sprinters. When he began his career, years ago, he was good enough to beat Hal Davis. Now, as he nears its end, he is good enough to beat Mel Patton. And a great many experts will tell you that the great sprinters of all time are Jesse Owens, Hal Davis and Mel Patton. What does that make Ewell?
Note: Results of the 1948 Olympic sprints: 100 meters- 1, Harrison Dillard, USA (10, 3); 2, Barney Ewell, USA (officially 10.4, but actually only inches back); 3, Lloyd LaBeach, Panama (10.4); 4, Alistair McCorquodale, GB (10. 4); 5, Mel Patton, USA (10. 5); 6, Emmanuel McDonald-Bailey, GB (10. 6). 200 meters- 1, Patton (21.1); 2, Ewell (21.1); 3, LaBeach (21.2); 4, Herb McKenley, Jamaica (21. 3); 5, Cliff Bourland, USA (21.4); 6, Les Laing, Jamaica (21. 5).
(July 8, 1954) Otis Chandler, one of the great shot-putters of all time in addition to being one of the nation's foremost weight lifters, has prepared a mimeographed paper on the subject of scientific weight-lifting exercises designed for track and field athletes in all events.
Chandler, in a way, is the man behind many of the world records we have been getting the past few years. For ages track coaches had repeated the adage that "all weight lifters are muscle bound" until their athletes would not dare to touch one of the "iron pills".
Otis broke away from this "muscle bound" theory, believing that it actually existed only between the ears of the coaches, and achieved a mark of 57 ft. 4 in. in the 16-pound shot. He urged weight lifting upon many of his friends, teammates and fellow competitors. One of these was Parry O'Brien, a young man of whom you may have read.
Another was Fortune Gordien, who at 29 began working out with Otis in a Pasadena gym. Gordien started only the first part of the 1953 season and by August he had broken his former world record five times. Gordien personally gives weight-lifting training full credit for his incredible improvement, and that in turn is a tribute to Otis Chandler.
Just as O'Brien solved a difficult problem (the 60-foot shot put) by turning his back to it, so Chandler became both a human guinea pig in testing his theories and then a missionary spreading the gospel of the two-arm barbell, the clean and jerk and the finger flip around the land.
Other shot potters who have gone over to working with weights include Darrow Hooper, Bernie Mayer, Stan Lampert, Moose Thompson and Yira Skobla of Czechoslovakia. It is of interest to note that Skobla, who has a best mark of 57 ft. 6 in., and who undoubtedly ranks No. 2 in the world today behind O'Brien, is the son of a 1932 Olympic Games weight-lifting champion.
Chandler states that although Bud Held never actually lifted barbells or dumbbells, he applied the same principles by using pulleys with weights and by throwing two and three-pound rocks with his javelin arm. Rev. Bob Richards uses weights regularly and is very strong on the clean and jerk (230 pounds). Les Steers used weights in his training program and Mal Whitfield developed his fine physique, especially his upper body, by training with weights.
John Landy, the Australian miler who set a new world record of 3:58, trained with weights as a background before concentrating on the mile. This was done on advice of his coach. Other coaches who now endorse weight training include Jess Mortensen, Dink Templeton, Payton Jordan, Jack Weiershauser and Ducky Drake.
"A few athletes in other popular sports who train with weights, " Chandler says, "include Frank Sedgman in tennis, Frank Stranahan in golf, Bob Feller in baseball, Dick Cleveland in swimming, Randy Turpin in boxing, Henry Wittenberg in amateur wrestling and Glenn Davis, Piggy Barnes and Chuck Bednarik in football."
Otis reports that the great weight-lifting champion, John Davis, developed so much strength and spring in his legs that, though he stands only 5 feet 8 inches tall and weighs 230, "he has many times exceeded the present world's record for the standing broad jump."
In addition to building muscle strength and co-ordination, weight lifting gives the shot putter and discus man a psychological advantage.
Says Chandler: "Not only in my case, but in talking to many other weight-lifting shot putters, I have found this fact to be true: All agree that the shot or discus feels like a pebble when you have been used to lifting heavy weights.
"You get in a meet and pick up that shot and 16 pounds feel like one pound. It is a terrific mental advantage over the person who never lifts anything heavier than the 16-pound shot. This latter type gets in a meet and 16 pounds feels heavy to him to start with."
Chandler recommends the athlete start working with weights right after his competitive season is over, that he ease off a bit on the weights as the next season draws near and that workouts be held from one hour and a half to two hours three times a week in the late afternoon or early evening.
Note: The remarkable influence of Chandler and O'Brien upon shot putting can be seen by comparing the ten best shot putters of all time against the same list at the end of the 1951 season, the end of the pre- O'Brien- Chandler era:
1951
1958
58'10 3/4"
Jim Fuchs
63'2"
Parry O'Brien
58'3/8"
Chuck Fonville
62'2"
Bill Nieder
57'4 3/8"
Otis Chandler
61'1/2"
Dallas Long
57'1"
Jack Torrance
60'5"
Dave Davis
56'6 3/4"
Stan Lampert
60'1/2"
Ken Bantum
56'6 1/8"
Al Blozis
59'5 7/8"
Stan Lampert
56'2"
Wilbur Thompson
59'5 7/8"
Dave Owen
55'11"
Elmer Hackney
59'2 3/4"
Jiri Skobla
55'9 1/4"
Parry O'Brien
59'1"
Tom Jones
55'8 1/2"
Heino Lipp
58'11 1/8"
Arthur Rowe
Copyright© 1959, Track & Field News