1979, my Freshman Year in high school, just starting to gain serious interest in track. Followed Sebastian Coe in Sports Illustrated and the sports page. The Moscow Olympics were still on the horizon. I ran the mile so I followed the best (Coe, Ovett, Walker, Flynn, Wesinhage, Coghlan, etc..) closely. In the meantime I watched a lot of track on tv whenever it was on during the indoors season and found the sprints, hurdles and field events to be very exciting as well. But it was the mile that I was most interested in.
I was invited to go to Des Moines Iowa the last weekend in April by our girl's track coach. I had no idea what the Drake Relays were. This was the year of Steve Scott's return to the Relays (Special Invitational Mile) after sitting out the year before because of illness. He promised that no matter how fast the field ran that day, he would return and break the record. Consequently, nobody in the history had broken the 4:00 mile on Iowa soil except on relay legs. This included guys like Jim Grelle, Jim Ryun, etc...
Again, I had never been in a stadium of that size to witness an athletic event so I was just thrilled to see all of the colors, events and great athletes up close for the first time. Merlene Ottey, Herschel Walker, Mel Lattany, Randy Wilson, Mike Boit, Mark Nenow and the general circus like atmosphere that just went on all day with Jim Duncan calling the races as the field announcer.
Then the Special Invitational Mile; High winds on the backstretch. At 500 meters to go, Steve pulled out and passed the field before hitting the bell just like I had seen many times before on tv and I knew what I was seeing when he first made that move. 3:00 at the bell. The 18,000 capacity crowd stood up and roared as he had committed his effort causing the hair to stand up on the back of my neck. All I could think was My God, what were these people doing, this is so cool.
And then he responded.
As the roar followed him around the track, Duncan pleaded "C'mon East Side, Let Him Hear You"!!!! And off the final turn, Duncan would shout out the time every couple seconds while the noise level increased with every stride. Scott broke the tape in 3:55 and change!!!! Incredible last lap in those conditions.
Sunday's Des Moines Register quoted Scott, "I could not have done it except for the 18,000 people that picked me up and carried me the last lap". Such modesty for someone who was one of the best in the world. I was seriously impressed and hooked for life.
I've been to a lot of big meets including some international events since and have seen some great competition, maybe even better, but I'll never forget that first big mile race that I witnessed. The athlete, the atmosphere and how much the spectators appreciated his talent and effort even when the conditions weren't the most ideal.