The Domus Mariae, headquarters for foreign correspondents: Olympic diary, Neil Allen; Observer, Sept. 4, 1960; Times of London, Sept. 5, 1960; New York Times, Sept. 5, 1960; Die Welt, Sept. 4, 1960; Nashville Tennessean, Sept. 4, 1960; Pravda, Sept. 4–5, 1960.
Rome teemed with spies: Correspondence with Ieva Lesinska-Geibere, daughter of the late Imants Lesinskis; Benjamin Smith, “How a Double Agent’s Daughter Dealt with Life after Defection,” Wall Street Journal, July 6, 2001. In Smith’s fascinating account, Lesinskis finally gave up his life as a double agent and openly defected to the U.S. with his daughter in 1974. “Some Latvian émigrés suspected that he was not a defector but a Soviet plant,” Smith wrote. “Asked by the American Latvian Society ‘to set the record straight,’ [a CIA spokesman] would only state that…‘Mr. Lesinskis’ courage, dedication, and true patriotism were well known to most of us here.”
There were KGB agents circling around the team: Int., Igor Ter-Ovanesyan; also transcripts, Igor Ter-Ovanesyan, Lev Markov, Konstantin Gyanov, The Red Files, PBS.
Sime did not know what to expect this time: Ints., David Sime, Igor Ter-Ovanesyan.
In the capital of the Free World: Washington Post, Sept. 5, 1960.
Johnson had spent much of that Sunday evening: Int., Rafer Johnson.
CHAPTER 14: THE GREATEST
The dense sky was familiar: Int., Rafer Johnson; also China Daily News, Sept. 6, 1960; New York Times, Sept. 6, 1960; New York Herald Tribune, Sept. 6, 1960.
Although a test of endurance: Int., David Edstrom; 1960 United States Olympic Book; Track & Field News, Sept. 1960.
He knew how important: Int., Rafer Johnson; conversation with Rafer Johnson and C. K. Yang transcript, LA84; Track & Field News, Sept. 1960.
Across the Tiber…that lunch hour: Jack Simes diary.
“You have to be in Rome on a rainy day”: L’Équipe, Sept. 6, 1960.
It was almost three o’clock: Ints., Rafer Johnson, David Edstrom.
Calhoun, the defending gold medalist: Ints., Gwen Calhoun, Roger Gimbel, Harrison Dillard; also Lee Calhoun oral history, Tales of Gold; New York Times, Aug. 9, 1957; Track & Field News, Jan. 1958, Sept. 1960; Chicago Defender, Aug. 5, 1957; Los Angeles Times, Sept. 6, 1960; Olympic Diary, Neil Allen; L’Équipe, Sept. 7, 1960. When Calhoun was suspended, Ferris pointed to General Rule VII, Section 1d, of the AAU code that said no athlete could capitalize on his athletic fame.
Earlier in the competition: Ints., Ed Temple, Lucinda Williams, Anne Warner (Cribbs); 1960 United States Olympic Book; Nashville Tennessean, Sept. 6, 1960.
By then the conditions: Int., Rafer Johnson; conversation with Rafer Johnson and C. K. Yang transcript, LA84; C. K. Yang oral history, NBC archive; New York Herald Tribune, Sept. 6, 1960; Los Angeles Times, Sept. 6, 1960; 1960 United States Olympic Book; Washington Post, Sept. 6, 1960.
The rains continued: Ints., Bud Palmer, Lute Mason, Jerry Armstrong, Nikos Spanakos, Rino Tomassi; Wilbert McClure oral history, NBC archive; Pete Newell oral history, NBC archive; Olympic Diary, Neil Allen; Red Smith’s Sports Annual 1961; Washington Post, Sept. 6, 1960; Ring, Sept.–Oct. 1960; official film of the Rome 1960 Olympics; 1960 United States Olympic Book.
Their competition had resumed: Int., Rafer Johnson.
CHAPTER 15: THE LAST LAPS
Everyone seemed up and about: Ints., Lucinda Williams, Dallas Long, Nikos Spanakos, David Sime, Ed Temple; Louisville Courier-Journal, Sept. 7, 1960.
Rafer Johnson was also up early: Int., Rafer Johnson.
The seventh event: Int., Rafer Johnson; transcript of conversation with Rafer Johnson and C. K. Yang transcript, LA84; C. K. Yang oral history, NBC archive; Track & Field News, Sept. 1960, Sports Illustrated, Sept. 12, 1960; 1960 United States Olympic Book; official film of 1960 Rome Olympics; Los Angeles Times, Sept. 8, 1960; New York Times, Sept. 8, 1960; Pravda, Sept. 9, 1960.
Of that group, the most exotic: Times of India, “A Commentary by AFST”; Sikh Heritage, “The Flying Sikh,” 2006.
Davis came from Bill Bowerman’s renowned track program: Ints., Otis Davis, David Edstrom, Cordner Nelson; New York Herald Tribune, Sept. 8, 1960; Associated Press account, Sept. 7, 1960; Bowerman and the Men of Oregon (pp. 110–112); Track & Field News, Aug.–Sept. 1960.
Here was an impressive assortment: (London) Sunday Times, Sept. 5, 1960; Why Die? The Extraordinary Percy Cerutty.
Elliott and Cerutty made a lasting impression: Ints., Cordner Nelson, Nancy Nelson.
At the race’s start: Ints., Jim Beatty, Don Graham, Cordner Nelson; official film of the 1960 Rome Olympics; New York Times, Sept. 8, 1960; The Tipping Olympics, E. W. Tipping; Olympic Diary, Neil Allen; Associated Press account, Sept. 7, 1960; Times of London, Sept. 8, 1960; Le Miroir des Sports, Sept. 8, 1960.
Darkness had fallen: Ints., Rafer Johnson, Lucinda Williams, Ed Temple, David Edstrom, Don Graham, John A. Lucas, Cordner Nelson; C. K. Yang oral history, NBC archive; Pete Newell oral history, NBC archive; conversation with Rafer Johnson and C. K. Yang transcript, LA84; Track & Field News, Sept.–Oct. 1960; Sports Illustrated, Sept. 12, 1960; Pravda, Sept. 9, 1960; 1960 United States Olympic Book; New York Times, Sept. 8, 1960; Los Angeles Times, Sept. 8, 1960; American diplomatic legation, Budapest, dispatch to State Department, Nicholas Feld, Oct. 3, 1960, State Department central file, NARA-College Park. While the Hungarians refused to acknowledge Yang, Feld reported that in other respects the Olympics promoted some measure of goodwill between his legation and Hungarian officials. “When the reporting officer paid a call on a Foreign Ministry official on the day the American swimmers had won several events, the official was quick to offer congratulations, which were duly reciprocated by congratulations on the pentathlon victories of the Hungarians. This is the kind of reciprocity which the legation, unfortunately, does not enjoy in its other dealings with the Hungarian regime.”
Yang’s silver medal was the top story: China Daily News, Sept. 8, 1960.
CHAPTER 16: NEW WORLDS
Before President Eisenhower held a press conference: Briefing Papers for the President’s Press Conference, September 7, 1960, and Official White House Transcript of President Eisenhower’s Press and Radio Conference No. 191 (filmed, taped, and shorthand reported). Held in room 474, Executive Office Building, Wednesday, September 7, 1960, 10:30 o’clock a.m., Press Conference Series, box 8, Eisenhower Presidential Library.
There was growing concern: Incoming telegram from Rome to Secretary of State, No. 1026, September 8, 4 p.m., State Department Rome file, NARA-College Park.
Hours before…Rafer Johnson appeared: Int., Rafer Johnson; Associated Press account, Sept. 8, 1960.
Also breaking ground was Ljudmila Shevstova-Lysenko: Minutes of IOC session, Munich, May 25, 1959; 1960 United States Olympic Book; Mary Leigh and Therese Bonin, 1977. Sheila Mitchell, Journal of Sport History, vol. 4, no. 2. Bridget Mary Handley, Rhodes University thesis, 1976; UPI account, Sept. 8, 1960; Int., Don Graham; Los Angeles Times, Sept. 9, 1960.
Eight long days and nights had passed: Int., Rink Babka; Otis Chandler obituary, Los Angeles Times, Feb. 27, 2006.
That was too much of a bump-up for Morris: Don Bragg oral history, Tales of Gold; Track & Field News, Sept. 1960; Sports Illustrated, Sept. 12, 1960.
One more day of track and field: New York Times, Sept. 8, 1960; 1960 United States Olympic Book.
At his press conference in Washington: Official White House Transcript of President Eisenhower’s Press and Radio Conference, Press Conference Series, box 8, Eisenhower Presidential Library.
That night in Moscow: Incoming telegram from Moscow to Secretary of State, No. 686, September 7, 11 p.m., Herter papers, box 13, Eisenhower Presidential Library.
CHAPTER 17: THE SOFT LIFE
Only three days of competition remained: New Yorker, Sept. 11, 1960. “Once the seats [inside the Stadio Olimpico] seemed hard and narrow; at the end we had become hardened and narrowed to them,” Liebling wrote.
On the go from dawn to midnight: Handwritten daily d
iary, August–September 1960, Brundage collection; Rome Daily American, Sept. 8, 1960.
This meant the Olympic Movement: Rome, Sept. 8, 1960, handwritten notes for speech to the American Club of Rome, box 246, Brundage collection. The outlines of Brundage’s speech were on eleven note cards. The day after the speech, Brundage received a letter from Gordon E. Dawson, a retired colonel who was president of the club, thanking him for a “frank and stimulating talk, and adding: Personally I agree with you 100% on all your points. As far back as when I was an undergraduate, I was out of sympathy with the ‘big business’ aspect of college athletics at the expense of a wide program for everyone…Your words of yesterday and the final U.S. showing in this Olympiad should do something to awaken our political leaders to the need for a nationwide athletic and physical fitness program.”
Red Smith of the Herald Tribune: Red Smith, “Avery of Sparta,” New York Herald Tribune, Sept. 12, 1960.
There was…far more to the contradiction: Sports Illustrated, Aug. 4, 1980, “The Man behind the Mask,” William Oscar Johnson. This other side of Brundage, revealed five years after his death, still seemed shocking, Johnson wrote. “After all, Brundage was considered so straitlaced that a barber at Chicago’s LaSalle Hotel, which Brundage owned, would censor the stories that were being told as soon as the boss walked into the shop. In retrospect, these stories were probably nothing compared to the ones Avery himself could have provided.”
In a letter to Brundage: July 4, 1960, letter to Brundage, Burghley file, OSC, Lausanne.
Many athletes had individual stories: Int., Abe Grossfeld; May 16, 1960, open letter to Avery Brundage and Dan Ferris (AAU president) from Washington lawyer Melchior Savarese, Brundage collection, amateurism file. Savarese argued that Rafer Johnson’s injuries might prevent him from defeating Vasily Kuznetsov, and that Mathias’s request to qualify as an amateur was thus motivated by his patriotic duty to beat the Soviets. He asked how Ferris and Brundage could reject Mathias as a professional because of his acting career and yet allow the Soviets to compete even though they were sponsored by the state. “There is no question in anyone’s mind that the Communists use all things to advance the cause of Communism,” Savarese wrote. “There is no field of endeavor too big or small in which they do not dabble”; also letter from K. S. Duncan of British Olympic Assn. to Col. Ansell of British Horse Society, Nov. 20, 1959, amateurism file, OCS, Lausanne.
Most were of a pettier nature: Ints., Nikos Spanakos, Isaac Berger, James Bradford, Don Graham, Rino Tommasi.
Brundage’s view of amateurism: Brundage memo to self, undated, early 1950s, Brundage collection.
But could he ever win his “perpetual battle”?: 34th IOC Session, Warsaw, 1937 session, box 75, Brundage collection.
Led by delegate Albert Mayer: L’ Echo Illustré, Geneva, Aug. 20, 1960.
For the athletes from Germany’s Eastern zone: Neues Deutschland, Sept. 9, 1960; also Neues Deutschland, Aug. 26–Sept. 10, 1960.
But journalists from West Germany: Die Welt, Sept. 9, 1960; Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, Sept. 8–9, 1960.
First up was the men’s 4 x 400: Ints., Otis Davis, Cord Nelson; Track & Field News, Sept. 1960; Columbus Dispatch, Sept. 9, 1960; Nashville Tennessean, Sept. 9, 1960; New York Herald Tribune, Sept. 9, 1960; Die Welt, Sept. 9, 1960; UPI account, Sept. 8, 1960; Times of India, Sept. 10, 1960; 1960 United States Olympic Book; Olympic Diary, Neil Allen.
At six that morning, back in Nashville: Ints., Ed Temple, Lucinda Williams; Sports Illustrated, Nov. 14, 1960; Sports Illustrated, Sept. 12, 1960; “The Development of the Negro Female Olympic Talent,” Adkins; Nashville Banner, Sept. 9, 1960; Nashville Tennessean, Sept. 9, 1960; Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, Sept. 9, 1960; Pravda, Sept. 9, 1960; Rome Daily American, Sept. 9, 1960; 1960 United States Olympic Book.
Now here came Sime and his teammates: Ints., Dave Sime, Cordner Nelson, Don Graham, Ed Temple, Lucinda Williams, Jim Beatty; Ray Norton oral history, NBC archive; Track & Field News, Sept. 1960; Die Welt, Sept. 9, 1960; Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, Sept. 9, 1960; Sprinter of the Century, Rome chapter; New York Herald Tribune, Sept. 9, 1960; New York Times, Sept. 9, 1960; Sports Illustrated, Sept. 12, 1960; 1960 United States Olympic Book.
Almost every night since August 31: Ints., Cordner Nelson, John Lucas; “Testing Service to the Queen,” Gavriel Korobkov.
CHAPTER 18: “SUCCESSFUL COMPLETION OF THE JOB”
They competed for the world championship: The accounts of field hockey in Pakistan and India and of the gold medal game are drawn from: The Games of the XVII Olympiad Rome 1960, vols. 1 and 2; Times of India, Sept. 10, 1960; Pakistan Times, Sept. 10, 1960; Official White House transcript of President Eisenhower’s Press and Radio Conference, Sept. 7, 1960, box 8, Eisenhower Presidential Library; Times of London, Sept. 10, 1960; official website of the Pakistan Hockey Federation; World Hockey News, Apr. 20, 2005; Melbourne Age, Mar. 19, 2006; Indian Hockey, Sept. 9, 2004.
In the U.S. delegation, among the first to depart: Int., Anne Warner (Cribbs); San Francisco Chronicle, Sept. 1, 1960.
The boxers returned at the same time: Ints., Jerry Armstrong, Nikos Spanakos; Louisville Courier-Journal, Sept. 7–10, 1960; King of the World, Remnick; Muhammad Ali, Hauser.
Wilma Rudolph and the Tennessee State relay team: Ints., Ed Temple, Lucinda Williams.
He was joined by Dave Sime: Int., Dave Sime.
The U.S. hope was James Bradford: Int., James Bradford; also Washington Post, June 17, 1960; Rome Daily American, Sept. 11–12, 1960; Pravda, Sept. 10–12, 1960; Artie Drechsler, “The Jim Bradford Story,” Iron Game History, vol. 6, no. 3.
There was another apparent connection: John D. Fair, Muscletown USA; Terry Todd, Journal of Sport History, vol. 14, 1987 (pp. 188–189).
Over at the Palazzo dello Sport, the medals were being awarded: Ints., Bud Palmer, Lute Mason; also Newell, Robertson, West oral histories, NBC archive; Rome Daily American, Sept. 12, 1960; Los Angeles Times, Sept. 10, 1960.
Nikita Khrushchev was on his way: Taubman, Khrushchev: The Man and His Era (pp. 473–474). “Khrushchev decided to travel to New York by ship,” Taubman wrote. “He dreamed of arriving there like the first American settlers he had read about in his youth…”
CHAPTER 19: A THOUSAND SENTINELS
At their assembly point atop the Campidoglio: Official film of the 1960 Rome Olympics.
Gordon McKenzie, one of three Americans in the race: Int., Gordon McKenzie.
Only two of the nearly one hundred competitors: Statistics gleaned from The Games of the XVII Olympiad, Rome 1960; 1960 United States Olympic Book.
He had been especially taken: A. J. Liebling, New Yorker, Sept. 11, 1960.
Fallacy or not: Int., Gian Paolo Ormezzano. The Italian journalist recalled that he finally met Abebe Bikila years later, after the accident that had placed the great Olympian in a wheelchair, and tried to remind him about how they had been cheering him on along the marathon route, “but Bikila spoke very little English [or Italian] and didn’t understand.”
In the last seconds before the starting gun: Int., Silvio deFlorentis (Kathryn Wallace, interpreter); also Arthur Lydiard, Master Coach (pp. 72–73).
At half past five the marathoners went off: Official film of the 1960 Rome Olympics.
By then the story, real or myth: John A. Lucas, “A History of the Marathon Race,” Journal of Sport History, vol. 3, no. 2, 1976; also manuscript of The Olympic Story by Avery Brundage, chapter 3, Brundage collection. Brundage wrote of the first marathon in 1896: “When an unknown Greek shepherd boy, Spiridon Loues, followed by two of his countrymen, led the line of runners into the stadium, all disappointments were forgotten. Hailed by the princes who escorted him to the finish and then to his majesty, the king, for congratulations, Loues became the hero of the Games. There was a tremendous surge of national pride and enthusiasm, and all Greece was on fire. Greece thus became the first country converted to the Olympic idea.”
In the early going: Description of the
race drawn from Ints., Gordon McKenzie, Silvio deFlorentis, Robert Creamer, Don Graham, Dave Sime, Ed Temple, Jim Beatty, Cordner Nelson, Gian Paolo Ormezzano; Gordon McKenzie diary, 1960 (McKenzie kept a daily diary throughout his running career; little black books that recorded statistics on his eating habits, physical condition, sleeping hours, and how he felt running that day); Jack Simes diary; Olympic Diary, Neil Allen; official film of the 1960 Rome Olympics; Ethiopian Herald, Sept. 11–14, 1960; 1960 United States Olympic Book; Track & Field News, Sept.–Oct. 1960; Sports Illustrated, Sept. 12, 1960; Times of London, Sept. 12, 1960; UPI account, Sept. 10, 1960; New Yorker, Sept. 11, 1960; Pravda, Sept. 11, 1960; Arthur Lydiard, Master Coach (p. 73); Bowerman and the Men of Oregon; Los Angeles Times, Sept. 11, 1960; Washington Post, Sept. 11, 1960; Boston Globe, Sept. 11, 1960; Reuters, Sept. 10, 1960; New York Herald Tribune, Sept. 11, 1960; New York Times, Sept. 11, 1960.
CHAPTER 20: “THE WORLD IS STIRRING”
Avery Brundage once wrote: Undated Brundage memo, Brundage collection.
For the Closing Ceremony in Rome: Official film of the 1960 Rome Olympics; Ints., Rino Tommasi, Livio Berruti, Ingrid Kraemer; The Games of the XVII Olympiad, Rome 1960; 1960 United States Olympic Book; “Olympic Bulletin Newsletter,” Oct. 1960; Rome Daily American, Sept. 12, 1960; Pravda, Sept. 12, 1960; Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, Sept. 12, 1960; Neues Deutschland, Sept. 12, 1960; Washington Post, Sept. 12, 1960; New York Times, Sept. 12, 1960; Boston Globe, Sept. 12, 1960; New York Herald Tribune, Sept. 12, 1960; Ethiopian Herald, Sept. 12, 1960; Los Angeles Times, Sept. 12, 1960; Reuters report, Sept. 11–12, 1960; A. J. Liebling, New Yorker, Sept. 11, 1960.
The morning after the Closing Ceremony: Ints., Gian Paolo Ormezzano, Livio Berruti.
Many of Ormezzano’s colleagues: Statistics drawn from 1960 United States Olympic Book.
Rome 1960 Page 47
