Olympic Gold Medal winner Bobby Morrow, who died this week at age 84, and I met after he returned from Melbourne Australia. The Abilene Christian College, now University, sprinter had won three gold medals and his 400-meter relay team set a world record.
Sports Illustrated named him 1956 ‘Sportsman of the Year.’
We ‘howdied’ a couple mornings each week before we both worked out at Phil Kendrick’s Abilene gymnasium. I was Mister Elam, eleven years older.
Bobby worked out to stay ready for more international competitive running. I worked on my sailboat racing muscles twice a week before I went to work selling oilfield supplies. My regimen included sit-ups on an inclined board with a 20-point weight held behind my head. Wanted to increase stomach muscles so I could hang outside a 15-foot racing dinghy when the wind blew strong.
He worked up a sweat. I worked up an upper stomach hernia.
Bobby’s notoriety also furnished a fun comparison for Frank Grimes’s local editorial page. I had quit working at the Abilene daily newspaper, but Time magazine still paid me to wire story ideas to Manhattan. Heard that Mr. Luce and I both rated ‘Mr. G’ as one of the Great Writers.
Still remember Frank Grime’s chuckle about the new pedestrian walk sign installed at the newspaper’s street corner. Editor Grimes first identified the crossing problem–not much time between signals. He then wrote, “Even Bobby Morrow couldn’t run fast enough to cross the street before WALK changes to DON’T WALK.” When Mr. G. came to work the next day, thanks to his comparison to sprinter Morrow, city electricians were busy adjusting the WALK sign.
Mister Morrow, you were also one of my world’s Greats.
