Clarion Content

John Woodruff, another track hero of the 1936 Berlin Olympics passed away last year. He won the 800 meters in those Olympics on August 4th, 1936. When he died last October the Clarion had never heard his story. Well, "Long John" Woodruff, a freshman at the University of Pittsburgh when he represented America at the '36 Olympics, left quite a story. Here goes.

The Berlin Olympics were shrouded in politics. Hitler was intent on using them as a vehicle to demonstrate the validity of his theories on the Aryan Master race. Jesse Owens victories in the sprint races at these Olympics are woven into the American consciousness. Lesser known, Woodruff, faced a whole different complication than Owens did in the sprints. Owens won a remarkable four gold medals. In the three sprints 100, 200 and 4*100 relay, there is no racing out of one's lane. There is no point to it. Logistically, it is implausible and by the rules it is a foul. Woodruff in the 800 had a problem, the Germans were cheating, conspiring against him. With no such prohibitions to stay in one lane, they had him boxed in. He told the New York Times the story...

"On the first lap, I was on the inside, and I was trapped. I knew that the rules of running said if I tried to break out of a trap and fouled someone, I would be disqualified. At that point, I didn’t think I could win, but I had to do something.”

I didn’t panic. I just figured if I had only one opportunity to win, this was it. I’ve heard people say that I slowed down or almost stopped. I didn’t almost stop. I stopped, and everyone else ran around me.”

Woodruff let the other runners pass him by completely. He started running again, caught the pack on the last lap, took the lead, only to lose it again momentarily before a final push at the finish line garnered him the gold medal.

Quite the story we hadn't heard. Had you?

Labels: Pop Culture, sports