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To: Wharf Rat who wrote (54215)	9/18/2006 11:33:12 AM
From: Wharf Rat	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 104145

Bob was probably my first sports hero; before Mickey, even. Came from the next big town up the valley, his dad was a doc, OK :>) Put the decathlon bug in me. Wanted to be on the podium. Ha. But that's what heroes are for. Timeline edited severely 1948 After huge celebration and parade in Tulare, presented with "Key to the City" by Mayor (and Admiral) Elmo Zumwalt. 1951 Plays football during junior and senior years at Stanford. In USC-Stanford football game, Mathias returns Frank Gifford's kickoff 96 yards for a touchdown. . 1996 Sim Iness dies. He was Mathias' high school classmate and winner of the discus gold medal during the 1952 Olympics. 2 golds from a town of maybe 25K :>) en.wikipedia.org ===================== As reported in the Tulare Advance-Register From Friday, Aug. 6, 1948's Advance-Register: Mathias wins Olympic title! Bob comes from behind in rain to take honors Tulare's Bob Mathias Friday afternoon won the Olympic decathlon under probably the most gruelling weather conditions ever forced upon Olympic athletes. Fighting darkness and mud he ploughed home in the 1,500 meters after hurling a slippery javelin. The points he won in those final events in Britain's "triple twilight time" hours behind schedule won him the world's title. His total was 7,139. Dog tired, but happy, the 17 year old Tulare youngster mounted the victory stand to accept the victory token for the United States. ... The climax came in the 1,500 meter run when Bob jogged around the grueling metric mile and came home grinning in the stretch as he toted the United States colors to the 1948 Olympic decathlon championship. — Noyes Alexander, Advance-Register sports editor From Saturday, July 26, 1952's Advance-Register: Mathias wins. 7,887 points new world record Tulare's great Bob Mathias today became a two time Olympic Games champion. The handsome son of Dr. and Mrs. Charles Mathias of Tulare won the 1952 Olympic decathlon at Helsinki Finland, with a total of 7,887 points. It was his greatest decathlon performance ever and set a new world record, superseding the 7,825 point record he set on the Tulare high school field July 1 and 2. The Tularean completely outclassed a record field of 28 contestants from all parts of the world that started the grueling grind yesterday morning. The performance also was more than enough for a new Olympic record. Mathias shattered the former Olympic mark of 7,312 points, set by Glenn Morris of Simla, Colo., in the 1936 games at Berlin Germany. ... Mathias' victory touched off a home town demonstration in Tulare. It was launched by an aerial bomb which gave the signal for a noisy parade led by the city's fire trucks and police cars. — Tom Hennion, Advance-Register editor From Friday, Aug. 6, 1948's Advance-Register: It's a great thing, but no surprise! It is no surprise to us that Bobby Mathias of Tulare stands today as world's Olympic decathlon champion. We knew it all along. We felt it in our bones. We told the world he would. But the world, as usual, was skeptical. The nation's sports writers, the state's sports writers, were unresponsive to continued sales talks on a 17-year-old schoolboy from "somewhere" in the great Central valley of California. They had to be shown. And they were shown. At the Pasadena games they began to prick up their ears. At Bloomfield, N.J., they had the scales rudely pealed from their cynical eyes. From then on the publicity job for Mathias and Tulare was a downhill snowball. From now on it will be the nearest thing to perpetual motion we have yet seen. The credit for the unprecedented achievement of Bob Mathias must first go to Bob himself, because, after all he's the one that did it. Credit must go to his parents, his Tulare coaches, his faithful followers who urged him on and to his brother, Eugene Mathias, and Olympic coaches who, after he reached London, conditioned him and pointed him for the acid test. It's the greatest thing that ever happened to modern-day Tulare. — editorial by Tom Hennion, Advance-Register editor tulareadvanceregister.com