Roslindale Op/Ed Http://TownOnLine.com
Hank Brandli grew up in Roslindale, MA and now lives in Melbourne,
Fla. He will be sharing his memories of his hometown with Transcript readers
over the next couple of months. He can be reached at hbrandli@spacey.net
March 14, 2002
“ The Worlds Fastest Human “
Every four years, when the
Olympic hype goes on, I remember my youth in the 1940's in Roslindale,
( a suburb of Boston). I was always fascinated by running fast and
racing. During the 1948 Summer
Olympics,
the man who won the 100-meter
dash was Mel Patton. The sports media labeled
him: "Pell-Mell" Patton,
and he was my idol. I used to
hold miniature Olympics in my
backyard. My buddies and I used to love
to
compete in the dash, broad jump, high jump, and the
shot put.
Most of all, I used to love
to race on the street especially in, or after, rain so I could run
barefoot. No one
could beat me! On my tenth birthday, I went to the local
school yard at the Phineas Bates School where races
for different age groups were
held every fourth of July for prizes. Ice cream ("Hoodsies") were
given away free.
I can still taste the
chocolate and vanilla delicacy that we
ate with flat wooden spoons.Before we dug into the
small tub, we licked the
cover and peeled back a thin separator that revealed a photo of a Hollywood
movie star.
I had just moved from the
Mozart School district to the Bates district.
I won my age group races very easily
and won a toy machine gun
that shot sparks out of the barrel. I
truly felt I was the "worlds fastest human"
in that school yard. But, there was an older boy – who always won
the older divisions. His name was Eddie
West (his younger sister
Dottie was in my 5th grade class). He
kept chiding me that the following year he
would be racing against me
because of a quirk in the age groups. I was thrilled with the challenge! I had always thought about racing Eddie
West. He was a supreme athlete, but I
felt I could beat him. I couldn't wait! Ironically, that year while
playing a pickup game of baseball in
the schoolyard, Eddie broke my collarbone trying to break
up a double play.
That fall, I entered the
sixth grade. The time sped by, and then
it was the summer. I got my obligatory
crew cut (my Mom called it a "wiffle"), and I had been accepted
to Boston Latin School ( The oldest
public high school in the U.S.-est in 1835). The races were held in the school
yard ,and no one else was going to compete against Eddie
West except me! I can still remember that race on the black
top more than 50 years later. I was wearing bell bottom dungaries, a white T shirt,
and brown high top (worn) Ked sneakers.
The distance was probably 50-60 yards.
We got down into the starting position and the teacher said "get-set--go".... I knew right away after 10 yards or so that I was easily going to beat him. I did beat him and he was terribly
upset. All of his buddies who were
older than me couldn't get over the fact that a young kid had beaten Eddie
West.
I entered Boston Latin
School. I was very cocky about running,
but, also now I was into the "big leagues" ....
the Boston School District. My mom , who is now 93 years old and resides in a lovely nursing home in Needham always used an appropriate quote or
two about situations in life said at the time: "It's better to be a big fish in a small pond than a small
fish in a big pond".
I was not going to run that
first year because the studies were so difficult. All the male students were expected to study three hours every
night. I decided to concentrate on my
education. However, during the
following year, since I had apparently
made it , and seemed to be able to cope with the curriculum, I would try- out for one of the
teams.
My mother encouraged me to
try track. There was a boy in my class,
named Bob Freeman. He had made the
track team in the seventh
("sixie" at BLS). I beat him
racing in the school yard all the time-- even though
he had special track shoes, I still had my "Keds". So, I thought to myself: " I think I 'll go out for the
dash." The tryouts were held in a
basement corridor. I don't remember the
instructor's name, but there were hundreds
of boys who were trying-out
for that team.
At Boston Latin they called
it "sixth and fifth" class.
The classes were going to have a
series of tryouts - which they had for any team. It was almost a one-shot
deal. You either made it or you didn't.
The coaches had a series
of races with five boys
abreast running down the corridor. The
men kept narrowing the winners down, until they could pick some. I won the first few heats very easily, but
there was another boy who was winning
also.
Ironically, he was a
"sixie". Well, it came down
to five boys in this one heat. I don't
even think it was the final heat. But
sure enough, this boy was next to me.
His name was Dick Levine. Dick
and I became somewhat
friends later on, but he probably
doesn't remember. I was on the
basketball team and he was a football player.
To get back to the race. We got down and I looked over at him and figured
since I had beaten everyone, there would be no problem in this race. The starter said "ready... on -your
-mark, get set, go" ... and we started running down the corridor. Normally, I used to pull away from anyone,
but right next to me, Dick Levine,
stayed right there! We were both way
ahead, but, I could not pull away from him.
He remained right with me. He
started moving ahead of me. I tried, I
gave it everything. I envisioned
"Pell-Mell" Patton in the Olympics.
I tried - I
ran - yet he was about a foot
ahead of me.
He won! And I knew if it had gone on a little
bit further, I might have caught him.
Maybe not. But that was the last time I ever ran a dash. My dreams of the "World's fastest
human" were shattered - in the basement of Boston Latin School.
POSTSCRIPT--In the summer Olympics in Atlanta, 1996 the
worlds fastest human criteria was turned topsy
turvey by Michael Johnson. His time for the 200 meter dash was 19.32 seconds (i.e.a faster
speed than the 100
meter dash record speed ). Michael’s speed makes him the ”World’s fastest human(of all
time)”.
Dr. Dick Levine (Urology)
graduated from BLS & Tufts University. He’s retired and has homes in
Natick, Mass. and Port Clyde, Maine.