"His dad got good tickets for the meet."
So did Rat's dad.
Fifty years ago: A look back at the USA-USSR track meet during the .
Fifty years ago this month, the first Walmart store opened in Rogers, Ark., the Rolling Stones made their debut at London’s Marquee Club and Andy Warhol’s Campbell’s Soup Cans exhibit premiered in Los Angeles.
The Cold War also was at its height in 1962. On July 21 and 22 that year — less than three months before the Cuban Missile Crisis that brought the United States and the Soviet Union to the brink of nuclear war — the best track and field athletes from the two superpowers competed at Stanford Stadium in Palo Alto, Calif.
Many, including John Radetich of Philomath, consider it the greatest dual meet of all time.
Radetich, 63, a former Oregon State high jumper and world indoor record holder in the event, today serves as the volunteer high jump coach for the Beavers track team. He retired in 2006 after 29 years with the Boys & Girls Club of Albany.
Radetich offered his recollections of the historic meet held a half-century ago this weekend at Stanford.
Sweet location
In June 1962, Radetich was a 13-year-old middle-schooler whose jump of 4 feet, 11 inches tied him for first place in the Redwood City (Calif.) All-City Meet.
The aspiring high jumper was eager to attend the U.S.A.-U.S.S.R. track and field meet the next month at Stanford.
“Most Americans didn’t know very much about the Russians,” he said. “They were a mystery to us.”
His dad got good tickets for the meet.
“I think they cost $6 for both days,” Radetich said.
Radetich and his dad were among 72,500 spectators the first day and 81,000 the second. It was a two-day attendance record for a non-Olympic meet. (The new and smaller Stanford Stadium that opened on the same site in 2006 seats 50,000 and does not have a track.)
“Stanford Stadium was a pretty sweet location,” Radetich said. “I recall spending two almost perfect days in the California sun, watching some amazing athletes compete in this storied event.”
Among them were future Dallas Cowboys wide receiver Bob Hayes, who sprinted to victory in the 100-yard dash, and Wilma Rudolph, who won the 100 and anchored the winning U.S. 4x100 relay team.
“The long jump dual between Ralph Boston and Igor Ter-Ovanesyan was hotly contested,” Radetich said. “Igor had just taken the world record from Boston in a previous meet, so Ralph was looking for a win. Boston did win, but in my research I found out that Igor had pulled his hamstring and had four shots of painkillers so he could still compete. That’s how important the meet was for all of the athletes.”
Hal Connoly of the U.S. set a world record in the hammer with a throw of 231-10.
“The event was actually held in the stadium, which was unusual for the time,” Radetich said. “Perhaps the huge crowd spurred him on.”
High jump hero
When the high jump competition started, Radetich focused on the duel between the U.S. champion, John Thomas, and the Soviets’ Valery Brumel.
“Thomas had a very graceful, controlled approach,” he said. “He looked like a deer prancing up to the bar and springing into the air. Brumel looked much more powerful and attacked his approach and takeoff. I think Thomas cleared 7-2 and went out at 7-3. Brumel had one miss at 7-2 and then cleared 7-3 and then jumped a world-record mark of 7-5.
“In my mind, I had a new hero, a jumper I would try to emulate. Some 11 years later, I would eclipse his indoor mark with a jump of 7-4¾ at the first International Track Association meet in Pocatello, Idaho.”
Radetich’s mark was the first world record for a jumper doing the Fosbury flop, the style introduced by his OSU teammate, Dick Fosbury, in the mid-1960s.
Radetich still considers Brumel, who died in January 2003 at age 60, one of the greatest high jumpers of all time.
“Until (Cuban jumper Javier) Sotomayor came on the scene, in my eyes, he was still the king. His jump at Stanford was off of a grass takeoff and he landed in sawdust. He didn’t have the sophisticated high jump shoes and he was using a less efficient (straddle) high-jump style.
“When I think of my days jumping, when we were jumping between 7-5 and 7-6, our takeoff was on bouncy synthetic surfaces and we landed in cush foam pits. The flop style would not have been survivable in Brumel’s time. Brumel had a best jump of 7-5¾. If he had not been injured in a motorcycle accident in 1965, who knows how high he might have gone.
“So, in conclusion, I now have to say that the two greatest high jumpers of all time are Brumel and Sotomayor (whose jump of 8 foot, one-half inch remains the world record). I feel that Dick Fosbury, the 1968 Olympic champion, was the most influential high jumper in modern times.”
Bridging the gap
One of the two starters for the U.S.A.-U.S.S.R. meet was Berny Wagner, Radetich’s future coach at OSU.
“I borrowed his copy of the meet program, along with his track official pass and a very interesting editorial from a local paper about the ramifications of this meeting.”
Wagner, who suffered a stroke several years ago, still lives in Corvallis.
“I try to visit him on a regular basis and keep him up to date on the current OSU high jumpers and the status of the new track that is being built,” Radetich said.
Among the memorabilia Radetich gathered for this story was Wagner’s men’s scorecard from the meet. It showed the U.S. men beating the Soviets, 128-107. The Soviet women prevailed 66-41.
The scores seemed irrelevant at the end of the meet.
“Besides the heated competition, what I remember most clearly is that after the meet, instead of each team marching off as a separate unit, both teams left the field arm in arm,” Radetich said. “Sport once again bridged the wide political and social gaps between the two world powers.” |
