After the eerie bus ride: Ints., Rink Babka, David Edstrom, Rafer Johnson, Dallas Long, Lucinda Williams.
Ed Temple experienced a starkly different variation: Int., Ed Temple.
On the eve of the track meet: Int., Rafer Johnson; also The Best That I Can Be, Rafer Johnson.
A huge, clamorous crowd filled: Ints., David Edstrom, Igor Ter-Ovanesyan; also Track & Field News, Aug. 1958; New York Times, July 28, 1958.
After reading day after day: Ints., Ed Temple, Rink Babka; also Nashville Tennessean, July 28, 1958; New York Times, July 28, 1958.
The most disconcerting event: Int., Gordon McKenzie; also Track & Field News, Aug. 1958; Amateur Athlete, Sept. 1958; New York Times, July 28, 1958.
The crowd the next afternoon: Ints., Lucinda Williams, Ed Temple, Rink Babka, Rafer Johnson, David Edstrom; also Track & Field News, Aug. 1958; New York Times, July 29, 1958.
The atmosphere at the end: Ints., Rafer Johnson, Igor Ter-Ovanesyan; also Track & Field News, Aug. 1958; New York Times, July 29, 1958; Amateur Athlete, Sept. 1958. In a “Memo from the Publisher” in that issue, Harold O. Zimman, writing from his office in Lynn, Massachusetts, noted: “International Olympic Committee president Avery Brundage, who has served as AAU president and U.S. Olympic chairman, was enthusiastic about the international meets as a means of spreading the Olympic doctrine of understanding among the nations of the world. He recently told me in Chicago that he had no fear that such meets detract from the Olympic Games, which, he pointed out, cover a much greater range of events.”
CHAPTER 2: ALL ROADS TO ROME
Two weeks before the opening: Department of State, memorandum of conversation, Aug. 12, 1960, Participants: Mr. Gabriele Paresce, press counselor, Italian embassy; John G. Kormann, Department of State. State Department central files, NARA-College Park.
“About what?” Sime wondered: Int., David Sime. This was not the first time that Sime had worked with the U.S. government. He presumed that one reason he had been approached for this assignment was because of an earlier trip he had taken to Burma with a delegation of athletes and performers sponsored by the State Department. One of the performers on that trip was the singer Eartha Kitt. His Burmese hosts gave him a gorgeous hand-carved ivory boat, which he said he swapped for a car when he got home.
To Igor Ter-Ovanesyan, not quite twenty-two: Int., Igor Ter-Ovanesyan. While he knew some English, Ter-Ovanesyan spoke mainly in Russian. The interview was interpreted by Knesia Boitsova.
More than half of the U.S. contingent: New York Times, Aug. 16, 1960; Associated Press report, Aug. 15, 1960.
No one looked sharper: 1960 United States Olympic Book, pp. 38–41. Casual and formal outfits for the 420 members of the U.S. delegation (including administrative staff) were donated by American manufacturers. The clothing value was estimated at $106,300.
Beneath his composed exterior: Int., Rafer Johnson; also “An Olympian’s Oral History: Craig Dixon, LA84 Foundation: Conversation with C. K. Yang and Rafer Johnson, LA84 Foundation.”
That night, after an informal reception: Ints., Rink Babka, Ed Temple, Lucinda Williams, Jerry Armstrong, Nikos Spanakos; diary of Jack Simes; Wilbert McClure oral history, NBC, “The Wonders of Rome,” an excellent documentary that aired during the 1996 Atlanta Olympics; also Amateur Athlete, Sept. 1960; Associated Press report, Aug. 16, 1960.
The Ethiopians came early to Rome: Ethiopian Herald, Aug. 12–20, 1960; Rome Daily American, Aug. 13–16, 1960; The Games of the XVII Olympiad, Rome 1960, The Official Report of the Organizing Committee.
West and East, two political systems: Note for the files, regarding negotiations between the NOCs of the GDR and FRG, 10-8-59, Herbert Vollstadt, secretary. German National Archives; Report on the Annual Meeting of the NOC-West in Hannover, Mar. 3, 1960. Heather L. Dichter, “Building Walls, Dividing Teams,” Sixth International Symposium for Olympic Research 2002; G. A. Carr, “The Involvement of Politics in the Sporting Relationships of East and West Germany, 1945–1972,” Journal of Sport History, spring 1980.
Ewald, at age thirty-six, had moved: New York Times, obituary, Oct. 26, 2002; the Independent (London), obituary, Oct. 25, 2002.
While Cerutty, known for his special diets: Int., Cord Nelson; Why Die?, Graem Sims.
Pete Newell, the U.S. Olympic basketball coach: Amateur Athletics, June 1960; Newell oral history, NBC archive; 1960 United States Olympic Book; Associated Press account, Aug. 21, 1960.
The track-and-field team faced: Account of U.S. track-and-field team in Switzerland and on its way to Rome from: Ints., Rink Babka, Dallas Long, Rafer Johnson, John Thomas, David Sime, Jim Beatty, Joe Faust; Sports Illustrated, Aug. 29, 1960; Nashville Banner, Aug. 21–23, 1960; New York Times, Aug. 21–23, 1960; Associated Press accounts, Aug. 21, 1960; Track & Field News, Sept. 1960; oral histories, Ray Norton, Oscar Robertson, Pete Newell, NBC archive.
CHAPTER 3: NO MONARCH EVER HELD SWAY
When Avery Brundage…arrived in Rome: Brundage handwritten diary, Aug. 1960; Brundage “To whom it may concern” letter of recommendation for Edward Cernaez, Sept. 10, 1960, Brundage collection, University of Illinois; cablegram, U.S. embassy to State Department, Aug. 18, 1960, NARA-College Park; Associated Press account of arrival, Aug. 17, 1960; The Nineteen-Ten Illio, box 299, Brundage collection.
The first order of business: Minutes, Rome session 1960, Executive Board Meeting, IOC, Rome file, IOC Olympic Studies Centre, Lausanne; also letter from Otto Mayer to the Marquess of Exeter, Mar. 9, 1959, Otto Mayer file, OSC, Lausanne; also box 50, Brundage collection.
Then, at a decisive session in Munich: 55th Session, IOC, Munich, May 25–28, 1959, box 79, Brundage collection; Chinese question, protest letters, box 129, Brundage collection.
In the run-up to the Olympics: Outgoing telegram, Department of State, Embtel 558, 5:20 p.m., Aug. 11, 1960. State Department central file, NARA-College Park. Douglas Roby was in regular contact with State during the China dispute, keeping his government apprised of what he was thinking and where he could be reached at all times. It was a delicate situation because IOC custom forbade blatant political operations by members, and the U.S. often complained about the political connection between Eastern bloc delegates and Communist leaders in their countries. It was for this reason, according to a June 17 memorandum of conversation involving a State Department official, “Mr. Roby, as he had done previously, requested that we keep in confidence the fact that he has had discussions with the Department of State on these matters.”
opening dinner of the 57th Session: Olympic Bulletin, Sept. 1960, no. 21, Solemn Inauguration of the 57th Session of the IOC, Olympic Studies Centre, Lausanne; remarks of Avery Brundage, Rome, Italy, Aug. 20, 1960, Brundage collection.
The next morning, in his room at the Hotel Luxor: Letter to Brundage from Michael Scott, delivered Aug. 21, 1960, South Africa file, box 144, Brundage collection; Letter from Otto Mayer to Antony Steel, Aug. 10, 1960, Mayer file, OSC, Lausanne. In concluding his letter to Steel, Mayer wrote: “Furthermore, I must say that our agenda is already so heavy that some other most important problems have to be discussed, that we shall have hardly any time to bring other items on the table. I am sure that you will understand our point of view and that this problem can be postponed for our next session.”
Appended to Emery’s letter were news clippings: Apr. 14, 1960, letter to Brundage from Ira G. Emery of South African Olympic and Commonwealth Games Association, Johannesburg, South Africa file, Brundage collection. Certain passages had been underlined in the clippings, including a section that said detectives discovered files on Otto Mayer and Brundage when they raided Brutus’s home.
Yet Brundage was a chronic doodler: From examination of voluminous handwritten notes in Brundage collection; handwritten notes from Rome IOC meeting, box 249, Brundage collection.
But beneath that argument ran: Letter to Carl Diem, Sept. 27, 1935, box 129, Brundage collection. In the letter, Brundage asked Diem for information that might help him fight the attempted boy
cott. “The more definite data which you can furnish to me which establishes the fact that Jews are going on about their business in Germany so far as sport is concerned, and that the pledges made to the International Olympic Committee and to me are kept, the better equipped I will be to offset the vicious propaganda which is being released in this country.”
An earlier letter from Diem had praised Brundage for remarks he made on radio in support of the Berlin Olympics. “The transmission to Germany had unfortunately been troubled so that we were not able to hear by ourselves your words, but the telegraphical news say that you sent a warm appeal for a strong and intensive preparation for the Olympic Games and that you declined the newly fomented baiting against the American participation,” Diem wrote.
In the manuscript of an autobiography: For The Olympic Story, by Avery Brundage, chapter 8, box 330, Brundage collection.
A week after he returned to America: New York Times, Oct. 5, 1936, “Brundage Extols Hitler’s Regime—At German Day Observance Here He Says ‘We, Too, Must Stamp Out Communism’—20,000 Cheer Him Wildly—He Praises Olympic Spirit of Reich as Greatest Since Greek Era.” Brundage chose this setting to make his first speech upon his return from Berlin. During his time at the Olympics, he said, he “found Germans friendly, courteous, and obliging.”
CHAPTER 4: MAY THE BEST MAN WIN
Paolo was five years old then: Int., Paolo Pedinelli at CONI headquarters, Rome. Decades later, Pedinelli came to work at the Rome Olympics site as historian and archivist. He regarded every chunk of loose cement near the Stadio Olimpico as an irreplaceable jewel.
The U.S. men’s team was housed: Ints., Lance Larson, Jim Beatty, David Sime, Ed Temple, Nikos Spanakos, Jerry Armstrong, James Bradford, Ike Berger, Rafer Johnson, John Thomas, Joe Faust, David Edstrom, Otis Davis; also Jack Simes diary, Ray Norton oral history, NBC archive.
After a few days at the village: Int., Anne Warner (Cribbs).
There was a decidedly sexist tone: Ints., Abe Grossfeld, Anne Warner, Ed Temple, Lucinda Williams; UPI report, Aug. 23, 1960, “Muriel Nearly Outpoints Gina”; Frances Kaszubski correspondence; Dennis H. Phillips correspondence; Rome Daily American, Aug. 23, 1960; New York Times, Aug. 23, 1960; San Francisco Chronicle, Aug. 27, 1960, “Bikinis Confound Swim Expert.”
Within a few days, Clay had established himself: Ints., Nikos Spanakos, Jerry Armstrong, Ed Temple, John Thomas, Rink Babka; Wilbert McClure oral history, NBC archive; “An Olympian’s Oral History: Paula Jean Myers Pope,” AAFLA.
Igor Ter-Ovanesyan and his Soviet teammates: Int., Igor Ter-Ovanesyan (Knesia Boitsova, interpreter), also Pravda and Izvestia, Aug. 17–24, 1960.
The Soviet public relations campaign: Rome Daily American, Aug. 24, 1960; UPI dispatch, Aug. 24, 1960; Int., Anne Warner (Cribbs); Bill Mulliken oral history, Tales of Gold.
Concealed under the green carpet: Description of Foro Mussolini based on author observations under expert guidance of historian Paolo Pedinelli.
…an address and benediction from Pope John XXIII: Description of papal address to athletes based on New Yorker, Aug. 31, 1960; Ints., Lucinda Williams, Joe Faust; Williams oral history, NBC archive; Baltimore Sun, Aug. 25, 1960; Rome Daily American, Aug. 25, 1960; Boston Globe, Aug. 25, 1960.
Il Paese…offered further detail: Department of State Foreign Service dispatch from Stanislaus B. Milus, Refugee and Migration Section: “There are enclosed for your information translations of three articles from Italian newspapers which may be of interest, as they deal with anticipations of propaganda efforts of both the East and West concerning the oncoming Olympic Games to be held in Rome,” State Department central file, NARA-College Park.
The West German press corps: Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, Aug. 25, 1960.
August 24…had been a full day for Avery Brundage: Brundage handwritten schedule, box 249, Brundage collection.
The myth of white supremacy, Scott argued: Address for presentation to the International Olympic Games Committee, Rome, Aug. 1960, by Rev. Michael Scott, representing South African Sports Association and Campaign Against Race Discrimination in Sport, box 144, Brundage collection. Scott concluded: “In order to bring to an end as far as is possible by official action this anachronism of racial discrimination in international sport in this world of 1960, we feel we must ask you, for the sake of Africa and for the sake of posterity, not to allow the South African team to compete until it is truly representative of all the South African people and until the assurances that were given…have been carried out.”
Here is but a small, random sample: The Games of the XVII Olympiad, Rome 1960, Volume One, sports equipment, table 1.
Everything set to go, except…Virgilio Tommasi: Int., Rino Tommasi.
Reaching the Olympics along the road to Rome: Int., Gian Paolo Ormezzano (Kathryn Wallace, interpreter).
CHAPTER 5: OUT OF THE SHADOWS
Carrying the flag for the Greeks: Depiction of the Opening Ceremony of the XVII Olympiad based on Ints., Rafer Johnson, John Thomas, Anne Warner (Cribbs), Igor Ter-Ovanesyan, Livio Berruti, Gian Paolo Ormezzano, Rino Tommasi, Dallas Long, Ingrid Kraemer, David Sime, Isaac Berger, Nikos Spanakos, Lance Larson, Otis Davis, Ed Temple, Lucinda Williams; also Los Angeles Times, Aug. 26, 1960; Washington Post, Aug. 26, 1960; UPI account, Aug. 25, 1960; Associated Press account by Eddy Gilmore, Aug. 25, 1960; New York Times, Aug. 26, 1960; New York Herald Tribune, Aug. 26, 1960; Baltimore Sun, Aug. 26, 1960; Chicago Tribune, Aug. 26, 1960; Die Welt, Aug. 26, 1960, Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, Aug. 26, 1960; Neues Deutschland, Aug. 26, 1960; Pravda, Aug. 26, 1960; Izvestia, Aug. 26, 1960; Rome Daily American, Aug. 26, 1960; China Daily News, Aug. 26, 1960; New Yorker, Aug. 31, 1960; also incoming airgram from American embassy in Rome to Department of State, Aug. 27, 1960, State Department central file, NARA-College Park: “The Chinese ambassador telephoned to the reporting officer on August 25 stating that in spite of his best efforts with all authorities, the IOC had had its way, and it was going to be necessary for the Chinese teams to march in the opening ceremony under the inscription ‘Formosa’ without any mention of the name ‘Republic of China’”; also manuscript for The Olympic Story by Avery Brundage, chapter 12, box 330, Brundage collection; Neil Allen, Olympic Diary (pp. 34–36); Kieran and Daley, The Story of the Olympic Games (pp. 330–332); 1960 United States Olympic Book (p. 28); Golden Girl, Betty Cuthbert: “I rested up the next day as well. I had no choice. The opening ceremony was on, and those of us with events early in the programme weren’t allowed to march”; Red Smith’s Sports Annual 1961 (pp. 112–114); The Games of the XVII Olympiad, Rome 1960, vol.2 (pp. 13–18); Newsweek, Aug. 29, 1960; Life, Sept. 19, 1960; Olympic Review, Sept. 1960 (pp. 79–81).
CHAPTER 6: HEAT
Friday morning was infernally hot: “The Games of the XVII Olympiad, Cycling Regulations,” Olympic Studies Centre, Rome; Rome Daily American, Aug. 27, 1960.
One of the U.S. cyclists: Ints., Bob Tetzlaff, Jack Simes, Allen Bell.
The Danes were among the better teams: Depiction of collapse of Knud Enemark Jensen drawn from: Ekstra Bladet, Aug. 27, 1960; Politiken, Aug. 27–30, 1960; Politiken, Sept. 20, 1998, “The Doping Case That Changed the World,” Lars Bogeskov; Politiken, Apr. 9, 2001, “The Doping Mystery Without a Solution,” Lars Bogeskov; Int., Bob Tetzlaff; Life, Sept. 1960.
Though weak from strep throat: Ints., David Sime, Igor Ter-Ovanesyan.
Across the warm-up field: Int., Rafer Johnson; UPI account, Aug. 26, 1960; “An Olympian’s Oral History: Craig Dixon,” AAFLA; China Daily News, Aug. 20–26, 1960.
Doubts about the Tigerbelles persisted: Ints., Ed Temple, Lucinda Williams; Frances Kaszubski correspondence.
Most American sportswriters were looking elsewhere: Int., John Thomas; Track & Field News, Aug. 1960; Nashville Banner, Aug. 27, 1960; Washington Post, Aug. 27, 1960; UPI account, Aug. 26, 1960; Tim Horgan, “Six O’Clock Jumper,” Amateur Athlete, Aug. 1960.
This was a mysterious character: Obituary, Assembly, June 1983, Registe
r of Graduates, West Point, 7204A, John Valentin Grombach; Studies in Intelligence 48, no. 3, Mark Stout, “The Pond: Running Agents for State, War, and the CIA”; Cecil B. Lyon Papers, box 10, folder 25, Georgetown University Special Collections; Grombach file, box 26, Brundage collection; Senate Internal Security Subcommittee record group 46, Grombach file, NARA-Washington.
Left alone in the dressing room: Int., Nikos Spanakos; also New York Herald Tribune, Aug. 27, 1960; Los Angeles Times, Aug. 27, 1960; Ring, Sept. 1960.
CHAPTER 7: QUICKER THAN THE EYE
Not much had gone as planned: Ints., Lance Larson, Anne Warner (Cribbs); Time, Aug. 15, 1960, “Game Try”; Sports Illustrated, July 26, 1996, “Olympic Flashback: The Beginning of an American Dynasty.”
Watching from the press section: Account of 100-meter freestyle drawn from Ints., Gian Paolo Ormezzano, Lance Larson; also Tuttosport, Aug. 28, 1960; New York Herald Tribune, Aug. 28, 1960; New York Times, Aug. 28, 1960; R. Max Ritter, “The Case of Larson vs. Devitt,” Amateur Athlete, Dec. 1960. Ritter began his article: “I now respectfully submit to you the evidence which caused me as the United States representative to protest this hastily announced result of the 100-meter freestyle race, and I ask you to judge for yourselves if I was the ‘willful’ official who dared to question this result or if I was justified in trying to protect the interest of a competitor, who, in my opinion, had been placed unfairly and in an irregular manner.”
When U.S. officials began preparing their appeal: Ints., Jim McKay, Bud Palmer, Frank Chirkinian; “CBS News Reveals Coverage Plan for 1960 Olympic Games in Rome,” CBS News archive; New York Times, Aug. 21, 1960, “CBS Plans Same-Day Telecasts of Rome Olympic Games.”
By coincidence, an experimental U.S. communications satellite: Associated Press report, Aug. 12, 1960, “U.S. Launches Echo 1 Message Satellite”; Baltimore Sun, Aug. 29, 1960, “Survival Tests Passed by Echo”; San Francisco Chronicle editorial, Aug. 23, 1960, “A Look at ‘Echo’ Raises Questions.” The Chronicle editorial took note of the civil war raging in the Congo, likening it to a proxy war between the superpowers, the U.S. and Soviet Union, and concluded: “Russians and Americans should look at their satellites and be ashamed. So long as satellites are designed primarily to spy on or kill other human beings, we are not in a position to proclaim the glories of Western culture to underdeveloped peoples.”
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