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Medals and Memories It was 1956. Dwight Eisenhower defeated Adlai Stevenson for his second term in the White House. Elvis Presley's "Hound Dog" topped the charts. Fidel Castro launched his revolution against Cuba's Batista regime and the Soviets put down a rebellion in Hungary.
Isle Olympians recall
Have you seen Ray Perez?
Melbourne in '56
More isle Olympic coverageBy Pat Bigold
Star-BulletinMelbourne, Australia, hosted the first Olympics ever held in the Southern Hemisphere, and Hawaii sent 10 athletes -- half of them swimmers.
The Old World trappings of the city were somewhat of a cultural shock to the boys from paradise.
The youngest was 16-year-old George Onekea, an Iolani School swimmer. The oldest was 31-year-old John Beaumont, a pistol shooter serving in the Air National Guard.
The water-loving Aussies took advantage of the home pool, winning five swimming golds on the men's side and three on the women's side.
It was the year American Al Oerter won the first of his four straight discus gold medals.Hawaii's Tommy Kono won his second straight weightlifting gold and Bob Richards won his second straight pole vault gold.
And the Soviets took 37 golds to the U.S.'s 32 in the midst of the Cold War.
Sonny Tanabe and Yoshi Oyakawa (1952 100-meter backstroke gold medalist) didn't win a medal in 1956, but they gathered memories.
Blood in the water
One of the most indelible was the bloody water polo final between the Soviets and the Hungarians.It was only a month since the invasion of Hungary by the U.S.S.R., and the Hungarian players literally "socked" it to the Soviets. The match had to be halted with Hungary leading, 4-0.
"Man, I still remember what a rough, tough game that was," said Tanabe, who sat near the top of the arena. "There was a lot of fighting in the water, kicking, grabbing and stuff like that. I never saw anything like that."
Oyakawa said he could see the blood in the pool.
Onekea said he preferred to watch track and field when not in the pool.
"I liked to watch Ira Murchison (in the 100-meter dash) because it seemed like he just exploded off the blocks, and you couldn't see his legs because they were moving so fast," he said.
Onekea swam the 400- and 1,500-meter freestyle.
Choken Maekawa (119 pounds) and Ray Perez (112) came as boxers. They were the only Hawaii boxers ever in the Olympics before Waipahu's light flyweight Brian Viloria this year.
Besides Kono, there were three other Hawaii athletes who won medals in 1956.
Ford Konno and Bill Woolsey were half of the U.S. 800-meter freestyle relay team that brought home silver, and Peter George won silver as a middleweight lifter.
Melbourne was described by all the Hawaii athletes as a city from another time.
"It was like a U.S. city before World War II," said Kono.
"It looked very old English," said Tanabe. "I really felt like I was in an English colony."
Oyakawa said the cars looked pre-WWII.
"But we didn't go out of the village much," said Beaumont, who seemed to speak for all the Hawaii athletes. "So I don't remember much about the city."
The village housing was considered satisfactory.
"We had eight or nine lifters in one house -- a two-bedroom with a living room," Kono said. "The beds were scattered all over the house."
According to Onekea, the food in the Olympic Village was ono.
"Oh, it was so amazing that you could get fat," he said. "Especially the kangaroo tail soup. It was made like a stew, and, oh man, that was awesome."
The food might have had something to do with Maekawa's failure to make weight.
Today, the Olympic Village has a communications center for its athletes, where there are lots of phones and computers.
But 44 years ago, the only communication device was the phone and, as Beaumont said, "that was too expensive."
Beaumont was the only Olympic pistol qualifier ever from Hawaii. He made his way to the Olympics via the Air National Guard at Hickam Air Force Base and wound up in an unfamiliar type of competition.
Two veteran rapid-fire competitors elected to enter the slow-fire division, leaving Beaumont a rapid-fire slot. He'd done rapid fire, but only at one target at a time.
In the Olympics, it's a lot more complicated. Using a .22-caliber pistol, the shooter has eight seconds to fire at five targets 25 meters away.
The targets reappear, and the shooter has six seconds. The targets appear a third time, and the shooter has four seconds to get all five. This is repeated four times.
When Beaumont returned to Hawaii to practice, there was no such rapid-fire range for him. But he said he'll never forget that National Guard Brig. Gen. Fred McKinney ordered one built for him.
He was better prepared when he got to Melbourne, but he did not win a medal.
"I never got another opportunity to qualify," said Beaumont, a retired aircraft maintenance worker with the Guard.
Hilo High's two contenders
Both Tanabe and Oyakawa went to Hilo High, and that fact stands out in Oyakawa's mind."Imagine two guys from Hilo both making the Olympic swim team," he said.
It seems even more remarkable now, since Hawaii has not even had an Olympic swimming qualifier since 1976.
All the athletes recall the long plane ride from Hawaii to Australia.
Beaumont said it was a DC-6, a four-engine propeller plane. Tanabe said the plane stopped at either Palmyra or Christmas Island, then Fiji before proceeding to Sydney and then Melbourne.
"That was the longest plane trip I ever took in my life," said Tanabe, who thinks the total air time was about 20 hours.
"But it was better than 1948 when they went by boat," Kono said.
Winter is just ending in Australia as the 29th modern Olympiad gets under way this week in Sydney, and local athletes are already reporting that the 60-degree temperatures feel chilly.
The Melbourne Olympics were held in a more reasonable period: Nov. 22 through Dec. 8. That's Australia's late spring.
Nonetheless, Tanabe recalled sleeping under four woolen blankets in Melbourne's unpredictable climate.
He also said the Olympic pool was not heated.
The athletes said the opening ceremonies were touching. The U.S. marched just ahead of the Soviets.
He remembered seeing Bob Richards marching in front of him and having his movie camera confiscated by officials.
"They didn't allow cameras of any kind," he said.
Onekea recalled the Cold War tension between the Soviet delegation and Western countries at the Games.
"The Russians were training in the day and going back to their ship in Melbourne Harbor at night because I guess they didn't want them to mingle," he said. "But the Australians finally said to either stay or go home."
The Soviets stayed on shore, and Onekea said he made friends with some of the Iron Curtain athletes by using "sign language."
But when time came to leave the Olympic Village, Onekea and two mainland U.S. swimmers hatched a plot to steal the Soviet flag.
"We had a plan to take it after the last ceremony, but somebody beat us to it," he said.
Woolsey now lives in San Francisco, Oyakawa in Cincinnati. Konno, Tanabe, Beaumont and Kono still live in Honolulu. Onekea lives in Redding, Calif.
George lives part of the year in Bulgaria, where he is now, and the rest of the year in Honolulu.
Maekawa died last year on the Big Island. Perez is reportedly living in Australia, but exactly where is uncertain.
The Australian Gallery of Sport & Olympic Museum is trying to locate Olympic boxer Ray Perez. Have you seen Ray Perez?
If anyone has a phone number for Perez, please contact the Star-Bulletin sports department at 525-8604 or email pbigold@starbulletin.com.
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