Rome 1960

by David Maraniss

  The contract with CBS News…was negotiated: CBS News Agreement, Brundage collection. Agreement made as of the 8th day of June, 1959, by and between CBS News, a division of Columbia Broadcasting System, Inc., 485 Madison Avenue, New York, New York, and the Gardner Advertising Corporation, a Missouri corporation having a business office at 9 Rockefeller Plaza, New York, New York, as agent for the Comitato Organizzatore dei Giochi della XVII Olympiade, Via Crescenzio 14, Rome, Italy.

  For its Olympic coverage, CBS News assembled: Ints., Jim McKay, Bud Palmer, Frank Chirkinian; also New York Times, Aug. 21, 1960; “Television in the Olympic Games, the New Era,” IOC International Symposium, Lausanne, Oct. 20, 1998.

  Critics offered mixed reviews: Boston Globe, Sept. 2, 1960, “Too Much Swimming Made Olympics Dull,” John Crosby; New York Times, Aug. 29, 1960, “CBS Coverage of Olympics Shows an Awareness of the Broader Aspects”: Baltimore Sun, Sept. 4, 1960, Donald Kirkley. “Sound reporting has been the rule,” Kirkley wrote, “and there has been no attempt to sensationalize even the peaks of action. The story is being handled with skill and good judgment, as was the case in coverage of the national convention.”

  News broke that morning that Oluf Jorgensen: Akfuelt, Aug. 27, 1960; UPI account, Aug. 28, 1960; Sports Illustrated, Sept. 12, 1960; New York Times, Aug. 29, 1960. Robert Daley wrote that doping of bike racers was common in Europe. A Swiss rider had died in that country’s amateur championships the year before, and an autopsy had shown drugs in his system. And in the spring of 1960, Daley reported, a French cyclist, Jean Graczyk, said that he took drugs but planned to stop. He said French cyclists used amphetamines. In the UPI account, Dr. Rene Mathieu, the chief doctor for the French Olympic team, said he had no evidence that the Danes took stimulants, “but I have had long experience in the stimulant problem with cyclists, and they certainly had all the symptoms of people who had taken something before the race.”

  Suspicions of doping haunted Olympic history: The First Thirty Years of the International Olympic Committee Medical Commission, Dr. Albert Dirix, IOC Medical Commission Archivist; Origins and Aspects of Olympism, chapter 8, John T. Powell.

  After Knud Enemark Jensen died: Letter from Brundage and Otto Mayer to Danish authorities, Sept. 7, 1960, Mayer file, Olympics Studies Centre. “We would be very grateful if you would have a detailed report about the matter of your unfortunate deceased athlete sent to us as soon as your investigation is finished. Please let us know additionally what precautions you will take to avoid a repeat of such actions and what sanctions you will impose on those who were responsible”; also Politiken, Apr. 9, 2001, Lars Bogeskov.

  President Eisenhower had written: State Department central files, NARA-College Park. The letter was written Aug. 26, 1960, but by Aug. 28 the State Department was still unable to get the message to Norman Armitage. In an outgoing telegram that day, State advised the Rome embassy: “If embassy unable deliver President’s message to Armitage by 11 a.m. Rome time, deliver message to Avery Brundage, making arrangements for earliest possible release in Rome.”

  In the meantime, the Soviets staged: Pravda, Aug. 29, 1960.

  At dinner, the conversation slowly turned toward the future: Ints., David Sime, Igor Ter-Ovanesyan.

  That weekend…a Soviet athletic planning official: UPI account, Tony Austin, Aug. 28, 1960; Cleveland Call & Post, Aug. 28, 1960; Ed Temple oral history, Nashville Public Library special collections.

  CHAPTER 8: UPSIDE DOWN

  Manfred Ewald…was seen walking: Die Welt, Aug. 30, 1960.

  To a brilliant old crank like A. J. Liebling: New Yorker, Aug. 31, 1960.

  Kraemer knew less about the Americans: Int., Ingrid Kraemer (German interpreter, Petra Krischok).

  Any medal showing was heralded: Neues Deutschland, Aug. 28, 1960, “Ingrid Kraemer’s Perfect Triumph.”

  Germany in the late summer of 1960: Ian Fleming, “Spying Is Big Business in Berlin,” (London) Sunday Times, Aug. 7, 1960. Along with his fascination with the rubble from WWII and the veritable army of spies, Fleming took an interest in the transvestite nightclubs of Berlin. Of a bar named Eden he wrote: “The ‘waitresses’ were most ingenious at serving one while somehow keeping their huge hands and feet out of sight and modulating the deep tones of their voices when they took your order, but otherwise they were buttressed, bewigged, and made-up as extremely handsome and decorous ‘ladies.’”

  At the White House that summer: National Security Council, Operations Coordinating Board Report on U.S. Policy Toward Germany, series OCB, box 5, Eisenhower Presidential Library.

  East German officials said they felt compelled: Die Welt, Aug. 29, 1960; Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, Aug. 31–Sept. 4, 1960; Reuters report, Aug. 31, 1960.

  “They get along well with each other”: Die Welt, Aug. 30, 1960.

  Ingrid Kraemer had also emerged: Int., Ingrid Kraemer; in Kurt Vonnegut’s Slaughterhouse-Five, the main character, Billy Pilgrim, an American prisoner of war, survives the massive firebombing by taking shelter in an airtight meat locker in the basement of a former Dresden slaughterhouse.

  Whether that happened: Neues Deutschland, Aug. 31, 1960; Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, Aug. 31, 1960; Los Angeles Times, Aug. 31, 1960; “An Olympian’s Oral History: Paula Jean Myers Pope,” LA84.

  Was it really another proxy battle in the cold war?: Int., Ingrid Kraemer; also Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, Aug. 31–Sept. 1, 1960; Die Welt, Aug. 31–Sept. 1, 1960; Neues Deutschland, Sept. 1, 1960.

  CHAPTER 9: TRACK & FIELD NEWS

  Riding a streetcar from the YMCA hotel: Ints., Cordner Nelson, Nancy Nelson.

  From depth charts listing: Ints., Cordner Nelson, Nancy Nelson. In keeping with Track & Field News’s dismissive attitude toward female athletes, the Nelson Competition involved only men’s events.

  Print still ruled: Nashville Banner, Aug. 10–23, 1960; San Francisco Chronicle, Aug. 18–25, 1960; Red Smith, “Road to Rome,” New York Herald Tribune, Aug. 21, 1960: “Little Becky Trueheart took the hills like a bird. Little Becky is a Peugeot sedan that was picked up in Paris, and not even the hairpin turns and dizzying heights of the Grossglocknerhochalpenstrasse could faze her. She made it a comfortable journey.”

  Shirley Povich…brought along…his own aide-de-camp: Int., Don Graham; also The Games of the XVII Olympiad, Rome 1960.

  It was a movable feast: Int., Robert Creamer; The Games of the XVII Olympiad, Rome 1960.

  Aside from the private parties: New Yorker, Aug. 31, 1960.

  Most foreign correspondents were not: Int., Gian Paolo Ormezzano; The Games of the XVII Olympiad, Rome, 1960.

  Dave Sime arrived at the stadium: Ints., Dave Sime, Joe Faust; also 1960 United States Olympic Book.

  For the quarterfinal round: Ints., Dave Sime, Don Graham; Ray Norton oral history, NBC archive; The Tipping Olympics; Il Messaggero, Sept. 2, 1960; Die Welt, Sept. 3, 1960.

  Hary did his own part: Int., Lute Mason; Scripps Howard syndicate, Jesse Owens as told to Paul G. Neimark, Aug. 31, 1960; UPI account, Aug. 31, 1960; also Sprinter of the Century, Rome chapter.

  About the time the cheering died down: Int., Dallas Long; also Parry O’Brien oral history, Tales of Gold; Sport, Aug. 1960; 1960 United States Olympic Book; Track & Field News, Sept. 1960.

  In the cafeterias at the Olympic Village: Ints., Dave Sime, Robert Creamer; also Ray Norton oral history, NBC archive; Los Angeles Times, Sept. 1, 1960; New York Times, Sept. 1, 1960; Sprinter of the Century, Rome chapter; Scripps Howard syndicate, Jesse Owens as told to Neimark, Sept. 1, 1960.

  CHAPTER 10: BLACK THURSDAY

  Late in the afternoon, at a quarter after five: Ints., Dave Sime, Don Graham, Robert Creamer, Cordner Nelson, Ed Temple, Lucinda Williams, Joe Faust, Livio Berruti; also Ray Norton oral history, NBC archive; Sprinter of the Century, Rome chapter; Track & Field News, Sept. 1960; Sports Illustrated, Sept. 5, 1960; Time, Sept. 12, 1960; Life, Sept. 1960; Los Angeles Times, Sept. 2, 1960; Washington Post, Sept. 2, 1960; 1960 United States Olympic Book; T
he Road to Rome, “The Biggest Sprint of All, Peter Radford.”

  Even in sprinting, the most elemental sport: Official film of the 1960 Rome Olympics; Sprinter of the Century, Rome chapter.

  The finger tightened on the trigger: Description of the 100-meter final drawn from Ints., Dave Sime, Ed Temple, Don Graham; Olympic Diary, Neil Allen; 1960 United States Olympic Book; Die Welt, Sept. 2, 1960; Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, Sept. 2, 1960; Track & Field News, Sept. 1960; Scripps Howard syndicate, Jesse Owens as told to Neimark, Sept. 2, 1960; Sports Illustrated, Sept. 5, 1960; New York Times, Sept. 2, 1960; New York Herald Tribune, Sept. 2, 1960; Rome Daily American, Sept. 2, 1960; Pravda, Sept. 3, 1960; Los Angeles Times, Sept. 2, 1960; Nashville Banner, Sept. 2, 1960; Times of London, Sept. 2, 1960; Sprinter of the Century, Rome chapter; Pitch Invasion (pp. 67–68); Notes, box 246, Brundage collection (first cited The Games Must Go On, Guttmann, p. 168).

  In the Boston area that morning: Boston Globe, Sept. 1, 1960.

  “This is a sensation!”: Izvestia, Sept. 2, 1960.

  But Nason was worried: Description of high-jump final drawn from Ints., John Thomas, Cord Nelson, Joe Faust; also Boston Globe, Sept. 2, 1960; Track & Field News, Sept. 1960; Sports Illustrated, Sept. 5, 1960; Pravda, Sept. 2, 1960; Izvestia, Sept. 2, 1960; “Testing Service to the Queen,” Gavriel Korobkov; Chicago Tribune, Sept. 2, 1960; New York Herald Tribune, Sept. 2, 1960; Nashville Banner, Sept. 2, 1960.

  His parents were fine: New York Herald Tribune, Sept. 2, 1960; Los Angeles Times, Sept. 2, 1960; Newsweek, Sept. 5, 1960.

  At the Palazzetto dello Sport: UPI account, Sept. 1, 1960; Pete Newell oral history, NBC archive.

  Shatkov was anything but crude: Ints., Bud Palmer, Lute Mason, Nikos Spanakos; Ring, Oct. 1960; Mikhail Lukashev, “The Discovery of Boxing America.”

  Traditionalists thought his style…: Chicago Tribune, Apr. 29, 1959; Jim Doherty, “At 17, Ali Charmed Madison,” Wisconsin State Journal, Oct. 26, 2005.

  The Olympic Trials were held: San Francisco Chronicle, May 18–20, 1960.

  Gennady Shatkov, like Clay: Mikhail Lukashev, “The Discovery of Boxing America.”

  INTERLUDE: DESCENDING WITH GRATITUDE

  It could be said that Joe Faust: Story of Joe Faust based on interviews and correspondence with Joe Faust and meeting at his house in Los Angeles; also 1960 United States Olympic Book; Track & Field News, July, Aug., Sept. 1960.

  CHAPTER 11: THE WIND AT HER BACK

  Ed Temple was so worried: Int., Ed Temple.

  During a training jog with the Tigerbelles: Ints., Lucinda Williams, Ed Temple; also Nashville Tennessean, Sept. 3, 1960.

  As a child, Wilma was underweight: Ints., Ed Temple, Lucinda Williams; Yvonne Rudolph oral history, NBC archive; Alex Haley, May 1961 Rotarian magazine; Vivian Bernice Lee Adkins, “The Development of the Negro Female Olympic Talent,” Indiana University thesis, 1967; Wilma Rudolph, Champion Athlete, Biracree; Barbara Heilman, “Like Nothing Else in Tennessee,” Sports Illustrated, Nov. 14, 1960.

  When the Tigerbelles returned: Int., David Halberstam.

  Now, on this Friday afternoon…in Rome: Int., Ed Temple.

  Until Wilma Rudolph awoke: New York Times, Sept. 3, 1960; Detroit Times, Sept. 3, 1960; Eddy Gilmore, Associated Press account, Sept. 2, 1960; Washington Post, Sept. 3, 1960; Ints., Lucinda Williams, Rafer Johnson, John Thomas.

  Winning…was by no means only an American obsession: Rome Daily American, Sept. 3, 1960; Associated Press account, Sept. 3, 1960. “Sports experts said it was the first time such a fix charge had ever been made in the Olympics. The allegation had the whole Olympic Village talking the next day.”

  The Olympic spirit was also under assault: UPI account, Sept. 3, 1960; New Yorker, Aug. 31, 1960; Letter from Brundage to Count Henri Latour regarding boxing at 1936 Berlin Olympics, boxes 129, 248, Brundage collection.

  Once again, the Germans: Int., Lute Mason; UPI account, Sept. 3, 1960; also Sprinter of the Century.

  It was that versatility…that made Davis like a brother: Int., Rafer Johnson; Glenn Davis oral history, Tales of Gold; New York Times, Sept. 3, 1960; New York Herald Tribune, Sept. 3, 1960; Die Welt, Sept. 3, 1960; Columbus Dispatch, Sept. 3, 1961.

  When not extolling the virtues: Rome Daily American, Aug. 25–Sept. 10, 1960; Grombach file, box 26, Brundage collection; Otto Mayer file, OSC, Lausanne; Senate Internal Security Subcommittee record group 46, Brundage file, Grombach file, NARA-Washington.

  In the…stadium sat Jesse Owens: UPI account, Sept. 3, 1960; Scripps Howard syndicate, Jesse Owens to Neimark, Sept. 3, 1960; Nashville Banner, Sept. 3, 1960; Nashville Tennessean, Sept. 3, 1960; Ints., Ed Temple, Lucinda Williams; Track & Field News, Sept. 1960, Amateur Athlete, Oct. 1960.

  Next came Ter-Ovanesyan: Int., Igor Ter-Ovanesyan (Knesia Boitsova, interpreter); also Track & Field News, Sept. 1960.

  All that remained was the final jump: Nashville Tennessean, Sept. 3, 1960; Los Angeles Times, Sept. 3, 1960; Brett Hoover, “The Bo You Didn’t Know,” Ivy League Sports Newsletter. In this intriguing article, Hoover quotes Jeremy Schaap, the son of sportswriter Dick Schaap, who was a classmate of Bo Roberson’s at Cornell, saying, “He was convinced Bo Roberson was the best natural athlete ever in the Ivy League.”

  Only twenty minutes earlier: Int., Ed Temple; also Nashville Banner, Sept. 3, 1960; official film of the Rome Olympics.

  CHAPTER 12: LIBERATION

  What a bella festa: Int., Gian Paolo Ormezzano (Kathryn Wallace, interpreter).

  There was one other thing: Ints., Livio Berruti, Gian Paolo Ormezzano, Rino Tommasi.

  The 200 had always been: Int., Dave Sime.

  With Sime gone to the coast: Ints., Dave Sime, Livio Berruti; Ray Norton oral history, NBC archive.

  Perhaps because it was a Saturday: Ints., Cordner Nelson, Nancy Nelson.

  He was ahead at 70 meters: Ints., Livio Berruti, Gian Paolo Ormezzano, Don Graham, Cordner Nelson; also Rome Daily American, Sept. 4, 1960; Associated Press account, Sept. 3, 1960.

  Off to the side stood Ray Norton: Ray Norton oral history, NBC archive; Int., Rafer Johnson; Nashville Tennessean, Sept. 3, 1960, Raymond Johnson column.

  Tickets were so tight: Letter of thanks from Zellerbach to Avery Brundage, Brundage collection.

  Some of the best views in the house: Int., Dallas Long.

  The United States…had dominated Olympic competition: National Basketball Hall of Fame archive, Springfield, Massachusetts.

  Spandarian was further encouraged: Pravda, Sept. 2, 1960; UPI account, Aug. 24, 1960.

  In preparing his team: Newell oral history, NBC archive.

  The consequences of East-West tensions: Jerry West oral history, NBC archive; Geoff Calkins, “West Knows the Horror of War All Too Well,” Memphis Commercial Appeal, March 31, 2003. Calkins began his compelling story: “Thirteen-year-old Jerry West went to go fetch the mail for his mother Cecile. This was 1951 in Cheylan, West Virginia. Going to fetch the mail back then didn’t mean walking to the end of the driveway. It meant walking to the post office in Cabin Creek. Jerry, a good son, volunteered for the job. When he arrived at the post office, he ran into a neighbor. All these years later, West still flinches at the memory. ‘He told me my brother had been killed in Korea.’”

  Meaning comes from life experience: Oscar Robertson oral history, NBC archive.

  After West scored the first basket: 1960 United States Olympic Book; Los Angeles Times, Sept. 3, 1960; San Francisco Chronicle, Sept. 3, 1960; Newell oral history, NBC archive.

  It had been a trying year: Int., Peter Bos; also USNA athletic department archive, 1960 Navy crew; Sports Illustrated, July 18, 1960, “The Old Navy Way”; The Years of MacArthur, vol. 1, Dorris Clayton James (pp. 138–139).

  Inspiration in heavyweight rowing: Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, Sept. 4, 1960; Die Welt, Aug. 26, 1960.

  Bynum Shaw of the Baltimore Sun: Bynum Shaw, Sept. 9, 1960, “New Republic on the Rhine,” Baltimore Sun. Aside from the Olympic coverage, Bynum wrote
of East German television, “The rest of the TV day, about four hours at best, is given over to documentary films, dull interviews, boring political lectures, or a piece of heavy drama. Ballet or opera makes the grade occasionally, and on Sunday the children have a dubbed version of Lassie.”

  That night, Dave Sime and Jim Beatty: Ints., Dave Sime, Jim Beatty, Eraldo Pizzo.

  CHAPTER 13: THE RUSSIANS ARE COMING

  The second Sunday of the Olympics: A. Dyakov, B. Petrusenko, and C. Narinyani, “Big Day of Friendship,” Pravda, Sept. 5, 1960. Their account of the journey began: “It is a hot, sunny day, and on the way to new Appia there are four large buses driving fast, bypassing little villages and great plantations around them. Soviet songs can be heard from the buses.”

  Another day of propaganda: Associated Press report, Sept. 5, 1960.

  The American press and public began: “What I Saw in Three Weeks Behind the Iron Curtain,” Avery Brundage speech to Economic Club of Detroit, box 245, Brundage collection; also Saturday Evening Post, Apr. 30, 1955, “I Must Admit—Russian Athletes Are Great!” by Avery Brundage. The article was ghostwritten by sportswriter Will Grimsley and edited by Harry T. Paxton at the Saturday Evening Post. In one editing exchange with Brundage, Paxton wrote: “I can appreciate your fears about being mistaken for a Communist sympathizer, but it seems to me that you have already taken care of this with such statements as, ‘I do not mean we should adopt Russia’s methods. That would not be the American way.’ And ‘The Russians were well aware of my view on Communism.’ I had been denounced frequently as ‘an imperialistic agent and a shameless capitalist.’ If you want to spell this out even more explicitly, wouldn’t the purpose be served by inserting a sentence to the effect that you went to Russia solely to pass judgment on their sports program, and not on their political system?” That sentence was indeed inserted into the article.