Today's Obit

Except for a very few momentary flashes, I sucked at Track & Field. I hated running 65 years ago, I hate it now, and there's no reason for me to think I'll change my attitude in the earthly time I have left.

I hate it.

But I went out for Track every year because that was the off-season price you paid if you wanted to make the football team the next fall.

Along with millions of people in 1968, I watched with a bemused passing interest as Dick Fosbury provided some welcome counter programming to the John Carlos -Tommy Smith protests. Not that I was against their demonstrations, it's just that we've always liked believing in the pleasant fantasy of politics not intruding on athletics. (fat fuckin' chance of that)

An awful lot was changing in 1968, and it didn't feel like much of it was changing for the better. But the Summer Games that year kinda reminded us of something important:

When shitty things happen, it can push our thinking into a place where it's easier for more shitty things to happen. But when we change our thinking for the better, then better things can happen.

Anyway, The Foz did something very few people ever get to lay claim to, and I got to see him do it on TV - live from Mexico City.

Dick Fosbury Mar 6, 1947 - Mar 12, 2023