V 1 N. 25 Fred Abington, An SEC Runner Before The SEC Was a Contender

 

In my previous post about the old photo in New York City,  my long time correspondent John Perry sent a photo in from the 1968 Olympic trials in which he names one of the runners, Ray Arrington.  That name rang a bell in the dust covered cells of my cerebral cortex.  Ray Arrington,  Ray Arrington,  where did I hear that name?  Didn't I do an article about Ray Arrrington?   I looked through the archives of Once Upon a Time in the Vest and there was no mention of Ray Arrington.  Then another cell vibrated and the name Vanderbilt came up.  Not Vanderbilt the wealthy American family but Vanderbilt the university.  So I put Vanderbilt in the search engine and up came the article and the name Fred Abington.  There was the connection.  Abington was the runner from Vanderbilt, and he has an incredibly interesting life story.  I'm not sure if he is still alive, but those cortexian cells say he is not.  But his story is well worth reading.  I ran it a long time ago, but most of you I'm sure have forgotten.  For those of you with nothing to do of which I'm sure there are a few, here is an 'exercise' for the living room couch while watching NIL dweebs get hundreds of thousands for doing what we did for nada or at least not cold, hard cash.  Try listing all the jobs you have had in your lifetime. Start with the earliest days of your childhood up until you finally pulled the plug on pecuniary rewards for your blood, sweat and tears.   I got up to thirty-six.  

George

Fred Abington Story   link clik here

Bruce Kritzler	5:49 PM (27 minutes ago)
to me

George,

Ray Arrington was Wisconsin middle distance guy, late 60’s.

Fred Abington sounded like a man who enjoyed life and learning.