Author: Vernon Gambetta

It is difficult to believe that forty years has past. Today is fortieth anniversary of the day that I took my last final and finished college. I can remember many details of days past, but I cannot remember the subject of that final. I was taking that final with a heavy heart and conflicted thoughts because the night before Robert Kennedy had been shot. I was an idealistic 21 year old who was going to go out into the world, teach history, coach and save the world. I had a good summer job with the park department awaiting me and I would start work on my teaching credential that fall at UCSB. I had the world by the tail. Now the world seemed like a bigger mess than it was the day before. It was the first election I voted in and RFK was the first person I had ever voted for. Ironically I never had any intention of voting for him, I was going to vote for McCarthy or someone else who I thought would end the war in Vietnam, but on April 19 Kennedy came to Fresno State and spoke to an overflow crowd at the outdoor Amphitheater. It was an electrifying speech. When I left that speech I was convinced that this man and his ideals were the answer. He didn’t tell us everything we wanted to hear, he was realistic and passionate. I must admit that this speech fueled my idealism. Now five weeks later he was dead. I was confused. This was a heavy dose of reality and an introduction to the violent world of 1968. I have seen a lot and done many things in the last forty years but I will never forget his acceptance speech and then a few minutes later the news flash that he had been shot. It was a hollow feeling that I will never forget. Now, studying for next day’s final did not seem important. It certainly made me think about the world and what the future would hold for me and for the country. In the past forty years we have all witnessed some terrible tragedies and more horrors of war, we have also witnessed some amazing accomplishments. My hope is that the spirit and the ideals that RFK stood for will carry us forward in a positive direction that will help to end war and bring food and health to all peoples of the world. I found these words from his speech that day at Fresno State: The spirit of youth is "not a time of life, but a state of mind," Kennedy told a crowd of 5,000 in the then-Fresno State College amphitheater. The great division in the world is not between people and races, he said, but "between those bound by the past and those freed for the future, and I stand with the spirit of youth." My sincerest wish is that the today’s youth will take up the challenge.

Are we painting ourselves into a corner with this incessant chasing of records in swimming and track and field? Am I missing something? Is not the essence of sport competition? I maintain that that much of the current situation we have with performance enhancing drugs comes from this stress on records. I have been closely following the buildup into the Prefontaine Meet this weekend and all the hype has been about so and so chasing a record. So what? Isn’t the essence of it competition? Does the average fan know or care about times or distances? I would love to see a 1600 meter relay meet that started with eight teams at four minutes and worked progressively down in five second increments until there were eight teams at three minutes. It would be much like the old West Coast Relays, were the highlight was on the racing. Turn off the timers and focus on the competition. Let’s be realistic it is not humanly possible to keep pushing the records higher, longer and faster, by doing that we are encouraging people to cheat. Does John Q. Public really care about the records? I don’t think so. You have all these wise people trying to figure out how to have track regain the popularity it once had, it is simple, get the stars to race each other.

In this past weeks issue of Sports Illustrated there was an excerpt from a new book by David Maraniss on the 1960 Olympics. Reading the excerpt, especially the section on the competition in the Decathlon between my two heroes CK Yang and Rafer Johnson made very nostalgic about the good old days. One thing that I did not know was that the 1960 Olympics were the first Olympics televised internationally. I do remember seeing some of it on TV, perhaps that is why I remember it so fondly. Sure there was commercialization, professionalization and drugs, but nothing like today. It really got me thinking about the relevance of the Olympic Games aside from a worldwide media happening. It is no longer about the athletes; it is about sponsorships and money. I do not know about you, but I am going to stage my own Olympic Boycott and watch as little of it as possible. During the cycling events I will go for bike rides, during swimming I will go swimming and during track I will go run or throw a medicine ball around. That will be my Olympics. I welcome you to join me in my silent protest. I am sure no one will notice my boycott, all the better. It is not about Tibet or Tiananmen Square it is about the loss of an ideal. We have brought back the Roman circus.

It has been a depressing few days. First Harvey Korman AKA the Gov in one of my favorite movies “Blazing Saddles” died and then yesterday Bo Diddley died. These two guys were one of a kind. I am going to have a special memorial viewing of “Blazing Saddles” tonight. Bo was a real pioneer. As with many pioneers he never got the recognition he deserved. Unfortunately he is more famous in some  circles. For his Nike ad with Bo Jackson,  surely Bo does know  Diddley.  This is one of my  favorite quotes from Bo “I opened the door for a lot of people,  and they just ran through  and left me holding the knob,” he told The New York Times in 2003.

I met Ric Charlesworth in 1996 at the Australian Coaches Conference in Brisbane. He did a presentation on the preparation of the Australian Women’s Field Hockey team for the Atlanta games. It was a great presentation. Frankly I had never seen or heard anything like that in a team sport. The meticulous attention to detail, the empowerment of the athlete, it was inspirational and educational. It certainly opened my eyes as to what could be done in team sports to prepare for the highest levels. I realized that just like many people my thoughts had been held back by tradition and what was convenient rather than going with possibility and innovation. I was honored to meet Ric and engage him in a brief conversation after his talk. He is the type of person that radiated energy and knowledge. I wish I would have been able to spent more speaking with him. Before his talk I really did not know too much about him or the accomplishments of his team. His field hockey teams were Olympic gold medalists in 96 & 2000 and world champions in 94 and 98. Charlesworth himself was a four time Olympian in Field hockey, a medical school graduate and a member of parliament. Over the years I have tried to read everything he has written and learn everything about his ideas and methods. He has written three books, all of which I recommend. http://www.riccharlesworth.com/