The Truth about Rono

If it was a recidivist alcoholic ex-flim-flam artist other than Henry Rono, Nike would probably be lauded for doing a favor to whomever it was to help him get his or her life out of a death spiral.

I am not 100% certain of the timeline, so if you wish to correct me, please eductate me instead of s--t on me, but at the time Mr. Rono was in the early phases of straightening out and hadn't really proved by then that he could be, say, a VP of product development for Nike.

Athletics aside, I have tremendous respect for Mr. Rono for having the character not to feel sorry for himself and quit on himself forever, but for staying in the race and getting back into the running. Oscal Wile said that American lioves have no second acts...good thing Mr. Rono's Kenyan, because he;s on his thrid and it's a happy ending after a sad 2nd act.

And athletically, that's the reason I'm calling him "Mr. Rono." Wow.

Nice one John!

I remember I was such a Rono fan as a teenager that I wanted my folks to get my a WSU singlet for my birthday (and I lived in Michigan). I think they got me a t-shirt, but it wasn't the same. Don't get me wrong, I was also a Herb Lindsey fan and all the other top Americans, but I fell in love with the Africans early.

A year or two later, when the UTEP guys started really going nuts, my nutty friend and I got this idea we wanted to start our own little track club to honor them. We called it "MuTuBu TRAX Team International" and we had these cool black, orange and white Nike singlets made up to look like that (I still have mine, 20 years later). The "MuTuBu" was for MUsyoki, MotschwareTU (ok, we spelled it wrong) and NyamBUi, and the TRAX was track, road and x-country. We thought we were so cool...

But it was F. Scott Fitzgerald, not Oscar Wilde, who denied second acts in American lives (and who would have had to retract his statement if he had lived to see G. Gordon Liddy, Gary Hart, Oliver North, etc.).

Henry worked for City Center Parking in Portland. They hire many recent African immigrants to the PDX area. Go to any of their lots or Smart Park and you are likely to see Ethiopians or Eritreans working there.

Scott Douglas wrote:

But it was F. Scott Fitzgerald, not Oscar Wilde, who denied second acts in American lives (and who would have had to retract his statement if he had lived to see G. Gordon Liddy, Gary Hart, Oliver North, etc.).

This was, of course, before the invention of television, mass media exposure, and spin doctors.

Ain't progress grand--?

Thanks for the correction -- I'm a Fitz fan, I shoulda known...but if Fitz had lived to see ther rise, fall, rise, fall, rise, fall, and semi-rise of Richard Nixon....

Not another thread on Rono!!! People get a life. Rono WAS a free wheeling, high falutin millionaire liberal and he IS nothing but filth. Get over it.

Troll alert. Believe me I know one when I see one. Catman, "Move On".

Very Orwellian to be trolling for trolls and alerting everybody.

Just calling it as I see it. It's really more interesting if you pick a way to irritate than to say such things as you have been saying. I for one don't believe any of your "positions". "Move On".

HEY DS MA GET IN TOUCH WITH ME IF YOU CAN, please.