1996 Olympics: Men”s Track and Field Quiz. One individual
took the silver in both the 100 and 200 meters. And one man
won the bronze in each, as well. Name the two. Answer below.
Kevin Williams
So I”m sitting in the Meadowlands, watching the Jets – Bills
game, when the Jets Kevin Williams returns a kickoff 97 yards
for a score. It was a dramatic point in the game, to say the least,
but I simply failed to fully appreciate what a great moment it was
until the next day when I started reading all of the articles on Williams.
I was totally embarrassed that I didn”t put two and two together
until then. I had to say, “Ohhh, that Kevin Williams.”
It was just last year at this time when Williams was near death.
And that”s no exaggeration.
On a trip to Denver for the Jets fourth game of the ”99 season,
somehow Williams contracted an infection. And it was no
ordinary one. A life-threatening bacterial invasion had settled in
his throat and lungs and Kevin was in the hospital a whole
month.
While all this was going on last year, I remember how closed
mouth the entire Jets organization was concerning Williams and
his condition. The reporters covering the beat would write
cryptic comments and coach Bill Parcells was under the gun for,
according to some sources, not seeming to care about Kevin”s
health. All he would say is that the team was doing everything it
could for him. The public knew little and the Jets released zippo.
The fact that the club was on its way to a 1-6 start didn”t help
matters any.
But cornerback Ray Mickens remembers.
“When I saw him in the fall, he was on his last breath. I was one
of the guys who visited him, and he was down and out.”
Williams had three separate surgeries as doctors tried to arrest
the infection. First, he had a procedure to remove an abscess in
his throat. Second, another operation to clean fluid from his
neck, and third, surgeons cut into his side, pried his ribs open and
cleaned out the bacteria that was about to take his life. It was
this last bit that saved him.
Kevin lost almost 40 pounds but by February he was able to
work out again and emerged at training camp this past summer,
seemingly back to normal.
Today, Williams says, “God was real good to me.” Notes head
coach Al Groh (who replaced Parcells), “To go to the brink of
death and to come back with his will to live and his will to come
back as a football player, he established the heart of this team.”
Peter Norman / Mexico City
In my Bar Chat of September 1st, I detailed the black power
movement at the Mexico City Olympics in 1968. One of the
memorable events of those Games was the display that American
sprinters Tommie Smith and John Carlos put on while accepting
their gold and bronze medals, respectively, for the 200 meters.
Taking the silver was one Peter Norman of Australia. Little has
been written of Norman but the New York Times” Michael Wise
profiled him this past weekend and he has quite a story.
Norman ran the race of his life to finish 2nd that day,
accomplishing a feat that no Aussie sprinter has done since, win
an Olympic medal. As Carlos said, “A lot happened back then.
But the most amazing thing was, I didn”t know there was a white
guy who could run that fast.”
Smith and Carlos are forever grateful to Norman, however, for
what he did after the race. The two of them were planning to
make a statement on the victory stand by each raising a black-
gloved hand in the air in a demonstration of black power.
Norman asked if he could do anything to help before they walked
out to accept their medals and he willingly wore a button on his
uniform that read “Olympic Project for Human Rights” as a way
of showing his solidarity.
Said Carlos: “He was chosen to be the third man, I”m convinced.
To wear the badge as a white individual, it made the statement
even more powerful. During a crucial time in our lives, he was
compassionate, understanding and he showed his manhood. I”ll
always respect and love him for that. Pete became my brother at
that moment.”
Norman recalls:
“For those two guys to sacrifice what they did that day, for the
cause they believed in, was nothing short of heroic. Here they
are in an Olympic moment they had worked for all of their track
careers. And they chose to give their own version of glory over
to the cause they believed in. These two guys stood up there on
their little square meter of world that they owned at that time and
they made a demonstration without throwing a stone or shooting
a gun that has held up for 32 years. And it didn”t hurt anyone.”
Norman, now 58, had his own problem to deal with. Running 10
years ago, he severely tore his Achilles tendon. A cast was
placed on the leg but bleeding from the wound didn”t allow it to
harden properly and gangrene set in.
Writes Michael Wise, “A surgeon explained the procedure in
which a portion of his left Achilles” tendon would be severed and
sewn across on the right side to fill the hole. He would have to
have a bar inserted between his knees and spend three months on
his back.” [In case you haven”t figured it out, today”s Bar Chat
deals in part with rough medical conditions.] But Norman”s leg
was saved.
Norman, Carlos and Smith reunited in 1993 for an Aussie sports
documentary. Peter stayed with Tommie Smith and his family.
Smith recalls, “We just kind of looked at each other and it was
”Hey, guys. Here we are.” The first thing all of us did was shed
a tear.”
Said Norman, “There was a bond there that was a little bit more
than just friendship.I believe there are only two areas of life
that that bond ever occurs: on the sporting field and on the
battlefield. You grow through the conflict and you emerge
together. I think that”s what the Olympics are all about.”
Norman and Carlos communicate every week these days.
Those Darn Jersey Bears
Hey, as long as I see articles in the New Jersey papers, I”ll have
to keep updating the plight of the 1200 or so bruins that inhabit
our overpopulated state.
As I mentioned the other day, the bear hunt slated for mid-
September (which was to be the first in 30 years) was postponed
by Governor Whitman. Now the hunt was initially designed to
take out just 175, so no one had to worry about the bear species
being in jeopardy.
Commentator John McLaughlin made a few observations the
other day.
“In our culture, bears are always cute.did they eat Goldilocks?
Bears – including grizzlies – regularly attack more people than
wolves do. But who takes the rap? Wolves.”
Last year, New Jersey staged a coyote hunt, and no one seemed
to care. As McLaughlin said, “Babies don”t go night-night
cuddled up with stuffed coyotes.”
Coyotes can be a little destructive, but they don”t break into
kitchens the way the bears have been doing in our state. And
you don”t see them foraging at the town dump.
There are 1500 coyotes in New Jersey. McLaughlin”s point is
that citizens in the Garden State (our nickname) have run out of
patience with two other formerly beloved species – the Canada
goose and the white-tailed deer. Bear complaints have
skyrocketed to 1600 a year. Concludes John, “Six years from
now.they”ll be stealing lunches from the kiddies at school bus
stops.”
So I just reread “Goldilocks and the Three Bears.” For twenty
points, whom was the Bear family visiting when Goldilocks
stumbled on their house. Answer below.
CBS and the Birds
I was remiss in not reporting this last week when the story broke
but officials at CBS have admitted that they have been dubbing
bird calls into the background of their golf telecasts. I must say,
I thought it was awful nice to hear the sweet chirping, but I never
tried to identify the actual birds. [It took me 40 years to be able
to identify a robin, so Roger Tory Peterson I”m not.]
Jane Fritsch wrote an article in the New York Times which
spelled out how the fraud was revealed.
It turns out that an ornithologist was watching The International
tournament in Colorado when he heard the song of the white-
throated sparrow. “I thought it was unusual that those birds
would sing so consistently and at so many places on the golf
course. Then I started to wonder whether the white-throated
sparrow should even be in Colorado.” It shouldn”t.
The following weekend, at The Buick Open in Michigan, the
white-throated sparrow could be heard again. Oops. The bird
isn”t supposed to be there either.
Then in Kentucky, at the PGA Championship, there was the
beautiful sound of the hermit thrush. Only the hermit thrush isn”t
indigenous to the state.
So bird watchers started ripping up the chat lines and CBS had to
come clean. The sounds stopped. [I always wondered why you
never heard something ugly, like a crow.]
CBS did say that they are going to spread bird seed around
microphones set on the ground in an effort to generate some real
live ambience.
Now if they could only block out the morons who insist on
screaming with every shot, “You da man!!”
Top 3 songs for the week of 9/19/64: #1 “The House Of The
Rising Sun” (The Animals) #2 “Bread And Butter” (The
Newbeats) #3 “Where Did Our Love Go” (The Supremes)
1996 Olympics Quiz: Namibia”s Frankie Fredericks won the
silver in both the 100 and 200. Ato Boldon of Trinidad &
Tobago took the bronze in each. [Donovan Bailey won the 100
and Michael Johnson the 200.]
Goldilocks Quiz Answer: That hard-working family, the
Beavers.
Next Bar Chat, Friday.
