(June 11, 1954) Wes Santee you know about. Today let us concern ourselves with the man from Luxembourg who is here to run against Santee tonight at the Coliseum in the best match race at one mile ever held in this country.
It is a race that pits the second fastest miler in track history, Santee at 4:00.6, against Josy Barthel, the Olympic champion. I would like to tell you a few things about Josy, the little guy nobody has been able to beat.
Who is Josy Barthel? He is more than just the 1952 Olympic champion at 1500 meters. He holds the Olympic record of 3:45.2, which would have beaten Jack Lovelock at Berlin by about 22 yards.
He is the first and only Luxembourger to win an Olympic gold medal in any sport. After he had defeated Occidental College's Bob McMillen, Germany's Werner Lueg and England's Roger Bannister for that gold medal, he wept as he stood on the stand for the Olympic victory ceremony and the band played the national anthem of his little country.
He won six races before the Olympic Games, the fastest of which was 3:48.5. He ran 3:51.5 in Germany in his final race before the big one at Helsinki, where few gave him even an outside chance to win.
They expected to see Barthel beaten after the Olympics. Except in a slow mile while at Harvard, when he was not yet in shape, and in a 1000 meters race against Lueg, he has not been beaten since. He won nine 1952 races after the Olympics, including two more victories over McMillen, one over Lueg, two over Gaston Reiff and two over Ingvar Ericsson.
His record for 1952 showed 16 straight victories, the fastest of which was a 3:44.1 1500 meters. They tell me that Barthel runs the last 250 yards faster than anybody, including Bannister, and if that is true he is capable of running the distance between 1500 meters and one mile (120 yards) at least as fast as Bannister's final 120 in Roger's record race.
Bannister ran that 120 in 16.4. Add 16.4 to Barthel's 3:44.1 and you get a mile run in 4:00.5 --- just a tenth-second faster than Santee ran at Compton. Barthel is the man whom everyone overlooks, the guy nobody ever expects to see win. He is also the guy nobody ever beats.
He may not win tonight. As usual, nobody expects him to win. He said on arrival here: "My big objective is to beat Bannister, Karlsson, Jungwirth and Lueg in the European Championships. If I had two more weeks to train, and my own coach on hand, I would he ready to run even with Santee. But he will beat me here. I plan to run in the National AAU meet at St. Louis. Perhaps I shall be ready then. Now I do not think I can run faster than 4:02 or 4:04."
Imagine a man apologizing for not being ready to run faster than 4:02 or 4:04? Time was when ... well, you know what I mean.
This Barthel is the most methodical runner, in his training, I ever met. He is also one of the nicest to interview. He's really what we call a pistol.
He produced a worn black log book in which he has recorded every training maneuver, every time in training or a race, everything he has done, since he was a boy of 16 in 1943. He also showed us a graph with sweeping curves that is a record of his training for the past five years. He and Coach Woldemar Gerschler, who produced Rudolf Harbig, use this graph in the most consummate piece of human engineering I have ever seen in athletics.
In 1943 Josy wrote down in his diary that he would run 1500 meters in 3:41 within 10 years. Achilles tendon trouble grounded him after a few minor races early in 1953. He came over to Harvard University, where he was the only foreigner to achieve a masters degree in sanitary engineering.
Josy is a chemist who was sent to this country by his government to learn the latest in sewage disposal and like matters. His degree came first, running secondary and only as a hobby. He expressed a desire to see the huge sewage disposal system of the city of Los Angeles before he leaves.
In the autumn of 1952 Gerschler assured Barthel that he would run the 1500 in 3:41 or even 3:40 in 1953. That schedule now steps back to read 1954 because of the injury sustained in 1953.
Barthel's diary, charts and targets all aim at 2:49 for 1000 meters, 3:41 for 1500 meters and 3:59 for one mile. Josy and Gerschler can show you, right there on the chart, that he is certain to hit those targets. For he has never missed one yet.
Barthel looks a lot like Roland Sink, and at 5 foot 8 inches is about the same height. He weighs 149, His best time to date for the mile is 4:06.3, but he can do better than that. Just last Friday he ran the 1320 in 2:58.8 and half an hour later went an 880 in 2:02.
Josy is very outspoken. He said here yesterday that he told Mal Whitfield", If you keep on messing around with the mile, guys like Santee and myself will beat you at the half-mile." Last Saturday night, Santee did.
"Jack Donaldson was the most amazing athlete the world has ever seen."
This high appraisal of the famed Australian professional sprinter was given here yesterday (March 22, 1954) at the meeting of the local track and field writers. The man who gave it is H. P. Greenwood (Storky) Adams, an old-time Australian athlete and official who knew Donaldson well and often saw him run.
Adams was talking about Donaldson because of the 9.3 100-yard dash run recently by Australia's Hec Hogan. This Aussie, who has also bettered 25 feet in the broad jump, may be the man to beat in the 1956 Olympic Games 100 meters if he is able to convert from grass to cinders or red brick mixed with clay.
"Hogan made his phenomenal time, tying Mel Patton's world record, on the Sydney Sports Ground," Adams said. "That's where in 1911 Donaldson ran 130 yards in 12 seconds flat. Jack told me several times after running all over the world, if he had to go out and run his fastest record race, he would rather try to do it on that rolled grass surface than on any track in the world."
Adams was trying to bring out the fact that Hogan's 9.3 was not to be laughed off as obviously unreliable because a man can't run that fast on grass. If he's good enough he can because it's as fast a track as any in the world.
"Donaldson was an amazing athlete," Adams stated. "He could win at distances from 50 yards up to a half mile and even 4000 meters cross country. Once he took on H. A. Wilson of Great Britain at a half mile and won. Wilson was second in the 1500 meters at the 1908 Olympic Games.
"In 1910 in South Africa, Donaldson ran 100 yards in 9 3/8 seconds. They used 16th-second stop watches that had been made to time whippets, and that's how they arrived at the unusual fraction of 9 3/8.
"When Donaldson went to New York as a golf club salesman he worked out with and helped train Bob McAllister, the Flying Cop, who placed in the 1928 Olympic Games 100 meters. Donaldson had been born way back in 1886, yet he talked to McAllister over the 100 yards and won easily.
"Donaldson was about 5 feet 8 or 9 inches, weighed about 146 pounds. He was a good football player, boxer, amateur trap and pigeon shot and he drove and won trotting races."
(Aug. 13, 1954) In all the well-justified excitement over the Bannister - Landy race at Vancouver last Saturday, one of the most dramatic moments in the history of sport was given no more than casual attention in the press. And that statement includes all sport, the world over, and as far hack into bygone years as you care to go.
It is the story of Jim Peters, England's phenomenal marathon runner, who entered the stadium with 385 yards to go and 26 miles of hot pavement behind him, fully 10 minutes ahead of his nearest foe. The dreadful collapse of Peters, before 35, 000 people, among them women who were weeping and fainting at the sight of him, was even more dramatic than the immortal story of Dorando in the Olympic Games marathon at London in 1908.
The Dorando story pales beside that of Jim Peters. Bill Schroeder of Helms Hall, just home from Vancouver, told me about it yesterday in these words:
"It was the most tragic thing I ever saw and the greatest show of courage I have seen in any sport. The Helms Foundation will recognize Peters by giving him an award for the greatest display of courage in track and field history.
"The big gates at one end of the stadium opened and an official ran down the ramp with the cry that the first marathon runner, Jim Peters of England, was about to enter the stadium. To complete the 26 miles, 385 yards, it was necessary for the runner to pass the regular finish line and continue on around the track to the tape on the far side.
"Peters came into view, staggering like a drunken man. He weaved from one side of the 30-foot wide downhill asphalt ramp to the other. As he reached the level track he fell flat on his face. He got up and then fell on his back, hitting his head on the ground.
"The man, who obviously had suffered a sunstroke and could not see, crawled along on hands and knees. Again he got up, only to fall again. Nine times he fell to the track. Finally he managed to crawl to a shady spot just past the post marking the regular finish of races like the mile and 100-yard dash.
"Had he lain there for six or eight minutes he could have got up and gone on around the final 200 yards to the finish of the marathon. But the English athletes, officials and the crowd kept urging him to get up and go on. He was crawling and writhing and foaming at the mouth and hysterical women were fainting all over the place.
"Finally he did get up again and was facing the wrong way. Instinct turned him around but he staggered again and the English manager ran out and caught him in his arms.
"This was about 200 yards short of the finish and Peters was disqualified. J. McGhee of Scotland, who hadn't yet entered the stadium, was eventually declared the winner."
Copyright© 1959, Track & Field News