Walt Murphy’s News and Results Service (wmurphy25@aol.com)
This Day in Track & Field–February 24
1954—Columbia’s Al Thompson won his 2nd straight IC4A Shot Put title at Madison Square Garden with a toss of
52-10 ¾ (16.12).
After serving as a Lieutenant in the U.S. Naval Reserves, Thompson graduated from Columbia’s School of Dental and Oral Surgery in 1960 and had tended to the dental needs of many members of the NYC-area T&F community before he retired. And he was one of the few medical professionals in the U.S. to include Track and Field News among the magazines in his waiting room! (Thompson passed away in 2021 at the age of 89)
Finishing 4th in the shot was 6’-5” (1.96) Roosevelt “Rosey” Grier (Penn State), who went on to have an 11-year NFL career as a defensive lineman with the NY Giants and Los Angeles Rams. He is the last surviving member of L.A.’s famous defensive unit, the “Fearsome Foursome“ (The others were Lamar Lundy, Merlin Olsen, and Deacon Jones).
Grier was with his friend Bobby Kennedy when the presidential hopeful was assassinated in 1968, and, along with Decathlon legend Rafer Johnson, helped subdue the shooter, Sirhan Sirhan.
Other meet highlights
Thompson was 3rd in the Weight Throw, Tom Courtney won the 1000y in 2:14.9, John Haines won the 60, Lou Jones beat Bill Persichetty in the 600y 1:12.0-1:13.2
Thompson: http://www.gocolumbialions.com/ViewArticle.dbml?DB_OEM_ID=9600&ATCLID=205024801
Grier: http://www.aarp.org/politics-society/history/info-06-2010/where_are_they_now_rosey_grier.html
1962—Jim Beatty, the defending champion, won the Mile at the U.S. Indoor Championships in front of 16,864 fans with a Madison Square Garden Record of 4:00.2. A 45-minute delay to the start of the race might have been enough of a distraction to keep Beatty from breaking his recent World Record of 3:58.9.
Another successful defender was 18-year old Canadian Bruce Kidd, who won the 3-mile in 13:48.8.
https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1962/02/25/113420127.html?pageNumber=188
There was a sub-plot to the mile. As the old saying goes, a picture is worth 1,000 words. However, there are occasions when a picture doesn’t tell the whole story. A prime example was the photo that appeared on the front page of the NY Times sports section the next day (see below). One look at it and you’d swear that Villanova…
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