V 1 N. 21 A Repeat Performance of the John Lawlor Chronicles

 



Also  some of you have asked about the old car that now sits on top of this blog.  I think it is about a 1940 Plymouth that guards the entrance to a trail I ride my bike on frequently in the Comox Valley of Vancouver Island, British Columbia

This week the USATF meet will be held in Eugene, OR and I will be there, but due to restrictions at the border and fear of invasive actions on my computer, I 've decided to leave it at home coming down from Canada.  Instead I've begun going through some of our old blog posts over the last 15 years and am reposting the best or my favorites or whatever.  The first is a series of chapters below that are John Lawlor's experience as a foreign athlete at Abiliene Christian College from   1960-1963.   At around that time there was a swarm of Aussies coming to the US to run and doing very well.  The Australian track federation eventually put a stop to that exodus but for a few years they were a major influence, before the arrival of the Kenyans in large numbers.  John's chronicles are incredibly well written and very entertaining to read.   Hope you all enjoy them again.  In a few weeks I will be adding other stories we enjoyed bringing to you over the years.    George 



 

















For Each Chapter Click on the Blue Words  
After reading the chapter hit the return arrow in the
upper left hand corner of the page and you will come back to this page.
Each Chapter  be should entered from this page.


John Lawlor Chronicles Part 1   Summertime and the Living is Easy

John Lawlor Chronicles Part 2   Go West Young Man

John Lawlor Chronicles Part 3    A Banana and a Dime

John Lawlor Chronicles Part 4    High Ho High Ho, It's Off to Work  We Go

John Lawlor Chronicles Part 5    ....And The Truth Will Set You Free

John Lawlor Chronicles Part 6    Have Cab Will Travel

John Lawlor Chronicles Part 7    Dial "M" for Murder


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Early indicators of steeplechasing talent

Being able … and willing to — to leap off a still moving trolley car while facing AWAY from its direction of travel.   A death wish?   And certainly not being possessed of any precious body syndrome.  The reminiscence of him on the girders was only leavened by the fact that the teller had escaped otherwise certain death because he lived to tell that story. 
Harkening back in history unlocked many only loosely held memories for me and how primitive yet real and organic those times were. That was my main takeaway and value with those seven episodes.

  Bruce Burton, one of Western Michigan’s All Americans in cross country two yrs behind me and Al Smith, a fine quarter miler and later University prof in  Connecticut were both Aussies.  And particularly Bruce was aw shucks about his athletic exploits and like Lawlor at best generally hinted around the periphery about them.  In Australia, athletics of all kinds  — in the time of Elliott, Bailey, Landy, Lincoln, Thomas and Clarke to name but a few — I suspect were an integral part of life well beyond that in the US and was signaling, if not asserting, one’s maleness in that culture. 

But it wasn’t talked about much.   Elliott after 44 consecutive wins retired at 22 to go into business. Like Bannister, it was but one aspect of a life to be devoted to other venues.  When I met Bannister In Montreal prior to the Games, he was almost diffident. The researcher and dedicated physician.   Richard Mach




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