byRBR AdminCapturing the sights, feelings and thoughts of the 1968 Olympics is a life focus fo Mike Fanelli. If you want to see Mike Fanelle 365 days a year, become a track buddy on his website.
Here is Day 2 of the 1968 Olympics, fifty years later, plus one day…
The 100m final, 1968 Mexico Olympics
HINES HOT HUNDRED…day 2 of the 1968 Mexico City Olympics’ feature event was the metric century AKA the 100 meter finals…a gunslinging duel to determine who gets to wear the belt buckle emblazoned ‘World’s Fastest Human’
There is nothing in sport quite like the total hush that comes over a sold out Olympic stadium as the dashmen are called to their marks. There’s also nothing quite like the voluminous uproar of that same crowd, the instant that the starter’s pistol cracks.
The field for this one was totally stacked. Not at all surprisingly, Mel Pender, one of the greatest starters EVER, was the first man out of the gate. Even at the ripe age of 30, the Army captain utterly owns the first forty. At the midway point he is caught by Charlie Greene and the man from McClymonds, James ‘Ray’ Hines. Greene begins to cramp and considers pulling up, while Hines powers forward. The electric eye captures golden-shoed Jimmy in an F.A.T. world record time of 9.95 and the belt is all his. Jamaican great, Lennox Miller, gets up for silver while the bespectacled Greene hangs on for bronze…Pender sixth.
BACKSTORY: Hines graduates from high school in Oaktown, California and is coached at Texas Southern by triple 1956 Olympic sprint gold medalist, Bobby Morrow. Following these Games, Hines would immediately thereafter be a sixth round draft pick of the Miami Dolphins. He serves an erstwhile career in the NFL which also included a stint with the Kansas City Chiefs. Thereafter, Hines has spent most of his post-Olympic adult life, working with inner city youth…solid.
Postscript part deux: the Hines 9.95 mark would stand the test of time until 1983 when Calvin Smith took that standard down a couple of hundredths to 9.93…another ‘solid’.
