I SIT DOWN to write today fewer than 24 hours ahead of Thanksgiving dinner. While gratitude is this holiday’s theme, surely the season writ large is a time of focus on hope for the future — and for some immersion in re-viewing “holiday classic” movies.
On the track front, I fervently hope that over the next year we’re not in for a reboot of “We’ve Seen This Movie Before.”
Naturally, I’m eager to see how Grand Slam Track and Athlos — dare I even include the still mysterious to me Duael series? — come across in their organizers’ brave bids to innovate and “revolutionize” the original sport. I sincerely wish them nothing but success.
A year’s end is tailor-made, as well, for taking stock. Sports promoters too are well advised to reflect and learn from the past. I am more than leery about the exclusion of field events, yet that’s a major topic for another day. I trust Michael Johnson, and those on board at or competing with GST in the track innovation marketplace, are working hard at dissecting the histories of their numerous new-approach forebears and their meets/series that, sadly, did not make it.
I’m not peddling pessimism here — but a couple cautionary synopses.
• The International Track Association (ITA). Its first meet went off in March, 1973, a year seen as ripe for a reset after the Munich Olympics. Promoter Michael O’Hara, who had a role in shaking up hoops and hockey with leagues that challenged the NBA and NHL aimed to turn track on its head with a pro tour in what was, officially, a strictly amateur era. The sport’s federations seethed in opposition and banned from the Olympics any athlete who joined the envisioned contracted band of 50 or so pro competitors.
Yet stars stepped up: Lee Evans, Larry James, Ben Jipcho, Kip Keino and Bob Seagren. Mile hero Jim Ryun’s matches with his Mexico City vanquisher Keino were planned as show cappers. Commercial sponsors got in on it. I was a kid yet dimly remember Post Cereal singlets.
At a 1975 ITA fixture, shot put character nonpareil Brian Oldfield blasted a stunning 75-0 (22.86) throw, never credited as a WR yet only six putters to this day have ever thrown farther.
What went wrong? The ITA folded in August of ’76 after Montréal Olympics heroes chose under-the-table pay at “amateur” meets over the ITA. High jump WR holder Dwight Stones allegedly quipped, “Why take a cut in salary?”
After 51 meets attended by half a million spectators with a purported 300 million TV viewers, the ITA went away.
Apparently organizational missteps, some clownishly gimmicky events and an aura as much circus as serious hurt the tour. Select quotes from gifted Sports Illustrated scribe Ron Reid as he mostly panned the second ITA meet, in LA:
“A good crowd of 12,280, paying $58,600, turned out but, by and large, their hearts but feebly throbbed.… Despite their acclaimed professionalism, the meet officials were no better than their bumbling amateur counterparts. The starter fired his pistol for the gun lap with two laps to go, and as Keino approached the finish line he was waved on for another go-round.… Lee Evans’ try for a World Record in the 500-meter run [was] bollixed by a tape that graced the finish line one lap too early. The meet also dragged on behind schedule; emcee Marty Liquori fought a losing battle with inexperience; and the 60-yard dash finish was a perfect mess.”
• The Track And Field Association (TFA). In June ’99 on New York’s Long Island, the TFA’s promoter, Brian Vandenberg, backed by 30 investors and “prepared to lose more than” $10M over the next four years, per the Washington Post, debuted his hoped-for revolution, the ProChampionships.
A-list stars competed — Maurice Greene, Stacy Dragila breaking the women’s pole vault AR twice, PV men Nick Hysong and Lawrence Johnson, destined for an Olympic 1-2 the next year, and many more. The fields were strong and deep.
Poor scheduling must have hurt. Up against local events including a Yankees-Mets game, horse racing’s Belmont Stakes and the NBA’s Knicks hosting the Indiana Pacers during an Eastern Conference finals, just 3184 fans turned out for the track meet. Reportedly, 56,000 went to Yankee Stadium, 85,000-plus to Belmont and 20,000 packed Madison Square Garden for the hoops game.
ESPN aired the meet, the time slot purchased by Vandenberg, and the promoter estimated his enterprise lost $1.5 million.
The ProChampionships promised 8 more meets in ’00. They never happened.
Boston Globe writer Barbara Huebner’s post-mortem after the lone TFA meet could have been written today. “Whether track & field, languishing as a spectator sport in the U.S., was a winner remains to be seen.”
Pull for a happy ending this time, track & field fans.
