I was reading some interesting articles tonight on the life of Jim Hershberger. The guy sounds like quite an interesting character to say the least as one article was entitled: "Kansas oilman, athlete, philanthropist and convicted fraudster Jim Hershberger dies."Apparently, he was a runner at Kansas in the 1950s who went on to fame as an extravagant oilman (He once built the biggest house in the country and had the first jet plane in Kansas) and masters track athlete before going to jail late in his life for fraud.He started a Thanksgiving dinner that fed thousands, got profiled in Sports Illustrated in the 1980s and got on a Wheaties box.Do any LetsRunners remember him? I was reading the Wichita Eagle's article on him and it mentioned that he founded the MVP Games where he competed against and beat Olympic stud Dave Wottle. Apparently, he cheated Wottle out of the winnings.
Wichita Eagle wrote:
Witnesses also said that some of Hershberger’s widely accepted accomplishments weren’t quite what they seemed. Dahl testified that Olympic runner Dave Wottle was disqualified in the 1988 MVP Games so Hershberger would win and not have to pay out the prize money.
Can anyone tell us what the MVP Games were? How was Wottle DQd?
More info on the guy here:
http://www.kansas.com/2011/11/27/2118952/kansas-oilman-athlete-philanthropist.html#ixzz1f4JU7IMIhttp://www.kake.com/news/headlines/Family_Mourns_Death_Of_Millionaire_Oilman_James_Hershberger_134565448.html?storySection=commentshttp://www.legacy.com/obituaries/news-press/obituary.aspx?n=james-w-hershberger&pid=154746162http://www.letsrun.com/forum/flat_read.php?thread=2472644&page=1