{"id":777,"date":"2007-08-10T05:40:29","date_gmt":"2007-08-10T05:40:29","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.georgethomasclark.com\/?p=777"},"modified":"2010-06-08T05:40:52","modified_gmt":"2010-06-08T05:40:52","slug":"eddie-hart%e2%80%99s-quest-to-be-the-fastest","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/georgethomasclark.com\/eddie-hart%e2%80%99s-quest-to-be-the-fastest\/","title":{"rendered":"Eddie Hart\u2019s Quest to be the Fastest"},"content":{"rendered":"

Since his youth in the schoolyard, where he always outran other kids to the finish line, Eddie Hart dreamed of someday becoming the Fastest Man in the World.\u00a0 It is one of the most respected titles in sports \u2013 requiring a raw display of unequivocal athleticism \u2013 and rivals the significance (though not the celebrity) of being Heavyweight Champion or the all-time Home Run King.\u00a0 His informal victories against classmates not withstanding, Hart appeared to have scant opportunity to compete with the best sprinters.\u00a0 As a senior at Pittsburg High School in 1967, the skinny 150-pounder failed not merely to win the 100-yard dash in the California high school championships, he didn\u2019t make the finals.<\/p>\n

No university offered a track scholarship, and Hart toiled two years in junior college, adding ten pounds of power to his frame and enough speed to earn a full-ride to the University of California where the rapidly-developing young man captured the NCAA 100 title as a junior.\u00a0 Two years later, at the 1972 Olympic Trials, he tied the world record of 9.9 seconds in the 100-meter dash.\u00a0 He was going to Munich to face the top-ranked sprinter in the world, the Bionic Man, Valeri Borzov of the Soviet Union.<\/p>\n

<\/strong>Borzov was both an enigma and a whirlwind of publicity.\u00a0 His coaches and their political authorities withheld him from many meets involving American sprinters, who represented the enemy in the worldwide ideological battle between capitalism and communism.\u00a0 After beating everyone in Russia, Borzov was let out of confinement to win the 100-meter dash at the 1969 European Championships and both sprint titles at the 1971 championships.\u00a0 When he defeated selected rivals from the United States, Soviet officials made him a symbol of the superior socialist state, and by late August 1972 rapid representatives of the superpowers were ready to clash.<\/p>\n

At the Olympic Games in Munich there were four heats in the 100-meter competition, the first two in a single day.\u00a0 Eddie Hart easily qualified in his race about 10 a.m.\u00a0 Stan Wright, the U.S. sprint coach, carrying a schedule several months old, told Hart and teammates Rey Robinson and Robert Taylor their next heat would be in a few hours.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe wanted to go back to the Olympic Village and relax,\u201d said Hart during a recent lunch at McCovey\u2019s restaurant in Walnut Creek, California.\u00a0 \u201cStan showed a German official his schedule and asked if it was correct, and the guy assured him it was.\u00a0 I was lying on my bed in the dormitory, looking at a newer schedule, when I noticed the discrepancy and told the other guys.\u00a0 Then, as we hurried to leave the village, I saw \u2018my race\u2019 on an ABC monitor.\u00a0 It was a nightmare.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe rushed to the Olympic Stadium, and Rey Robinson had also missed his race.\u00a0 Robert Taylor\u2019s heat was about to start and he had to jump out of his sweat suit, get in the blocks and go.\u00a0 For Rey and me, it was the end of a lifelong dream.\u00a0 The officials wouldn\u2019t let us back in the competition.\u201d<\/p>\n

The only man in the world who could have competed with Valeri Borzov was Eddie Hart.\u00a0 Without his primary rival in the race, Borzov glided to victory, raising both arms at the tape.\u00a0 The Ukrainian later noted, \u201cI gave 90 percent of what I had to give\u201d and, by implication, could\u2019ve used the rest to beat anyone else in the race. \u00a0\u00a0Robert Taylor won the silver medal.<\/p>\n

Borzov used the 200-meter heats as warm-ups, virtually jogging down the stretch as he looked back at men he knew he\u2019d beat in the finals while harvesting his second gold medal.\u00a0 Eddie Hart would have only one chance to run against his rival, on the anchor leg of the 400-meter relay.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy goal had been to win the gold medal in the 100, not beat Valeri Borzov,\u201d said Hart.\u00a0 \u201cIn the relay, Gerald Tinker ran one of the greatest third legs ever and gave me the baton with a four-meter lead.\u00a0 That meant the race was over.\u00a0 Borzov and I finished the same distance apart, but more than anything it was a moral victory for our sprinters, as well as our basketball team, which had twice fairly beaten the Russians in the gold medal game, and each time the officials put time back on the clock.\u00a0 It was a farce.\u00a0 Everyone on our basketball team refused to accept their silver medals, and it\u2019s in their wills that none of their relatives will ever collect them, either.\u201d<\/p>\n

In the early 1970\u2019s there were many whispers from the world of track and field that Valeri Borzov benefited from steroids and other chemical wizardry.\u00a0 What does Eddie Hart think?<\/p>\n

\u201cBorzov\u2019s coach was Remi Korchemy,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Korchemy moved to the United States years ago, and several of his athletes here have been suspended for using steroids. He\u2019s also been convicted in the BALCO steroids scandal and sentenced to probation.\u00a0 Was Korchemy channeling his athletes into similar performance enhancing drugs 35 years ago?<\/p>\n

\u201cI definitely think so,\u201d said Hart.\u00a0 \u201cBut for me, there\u2019s no sour grapes.\u00a0 I kept it in perspective.\u00a0 It was time to move on.\u201d<\/p>\n

Sporting controversies at the 1972 Olympics will forever be overwhelmed by images of two Israeli athletes murdered in their dormitory while they tried to help nine teammates kidnapped by the Black September group of Palestinian Arab militants.\u00a0 Within 24 hours, following a failed rescue attempt at an airbase by German authorities, the rest of the Israelis were shot then blown up by a grenade.\u00a0 Despite the tragedy a decision was announced: the Games would go on.\u00a0 A memorial ceremony was held.\u00a0 Sounds from Beethoven soared over 80,000 mourners in the stadium.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe were all saddened by the tragedy,\u201d said Hart.\u00a0 \u201cBut we were so focused on what we had to do as athletes that we learned a lot of the details only after we got home.\u201d<\/p>\n

Since track and field athletes of Hart\u2019s generation could not make a living in professional track, he accepted a fifth-year scholarship as an assistant coach at Cal and in a few years became coach at Alameda City College and later also taught physical education and health at Laney and Merritt colleges.\u00a0 Now he invests most of his time in the Eddie Hart Foundation that offers a variety of youth programs in education, motivation, and behavioral modification as well as assistance in revitalizing his hometown of Pittsburg.\u00a0 One of his key projects is renovating the Pittsburg Creative Arts Building on the campus of his high school.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis was once a state of the art facility,\u201d Hart said.\u00a0 \u201cJames Brown and Stevie Wonder and many other great performers played there.\u00a0 But over the years things started to wear out, and the school started using it as a detention center.\u00a0 We\u2019ve been working with other groups in town for two-and-a-half years to change that.\u00a0 We\u2019ve already raised about $300,000 but still need a half million.\u00a0 We\u2019ll get there.\u201d<\/p>\n

On this August afternoon at McCovey\u2019s \u2013 a memorabilia-filled diamond named for San Francisco Giants slugger Willie McCovey, a hall of fame master of mammoth home runs \u2013 Eddie Hart and his son Eddie, Jr. were hosted by three executives from the National Electrical Contractors Association.\u00a0 The men from NECA stressed they represent both management and workers, and want to ally with Hart to form an electrical trade academy.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m certainly interested,\u201d he said.\u00a0 \u201cMinority kids need to become more involved in the trades.\u00a0 That\u2019s something they could use as a goal, even if they eventually have to go into something else.\u00a0 That\u2019s what I teach the kids: when things don\u2019t go your way, deal with it.\u201d<\/p>\n

<\/strong><\/p>\n

<\/strong><\/p>\n

<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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