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Press Box Dave Reardon |
Clay’s feats were
under Scruton-yGORDON Scruton is 71 years old, and there isn't much Hawaii track and field history of the past 60 that he hasn't seen, either as a competitor or an official.
The other day he spoke of the late, great Jimmy Hutchinson, one of the toughest and most talented runners to come out of Hawaii. Scruton and "Hutchie" were teammates at Punahou in the late 1940s.
Hutchinson's best event was the 880-yard, or 800-meter, run. It was then and remains now a test of speed, guts and smarts. It is a tactical race where the patient runner in second or third place after one lap often finds himself breaking the tape ahead of the rest 400 meters and 50 seconds later, while the rabbit who led falls to the track in last place.
Hutchinson was so good, he was on his way to making the U.S. Olympic team for the 1952 Helsinki Games. But an injury caused by a spiking in practice prevented that, and he was never the same.
In those days, "The spikes were very long and sharp," Scruton recalls.
Thus, one of Hawaii's few Olympic track and field hopefuls never made it to the Games. What talent has so rarely given an island trackster, fate took away.
Distance runner Duncan Macdonald (1976) and steeple-chaser Henry Marsh (1976, 1984, 1988) did survive the arduous path to the Olympics, but neither medaled once they got there.
Hutchinson, Macdonald and Marsh are the rare exceptions among Hawaii high school track and field athletes. A very few each year advance to compete in college. International track stars from here over the years? The same as the number of modern-day NBA stars who hail from the islands -- zero.
That all changed last weekend with Bryan Clay's victory in the decathlon at the U.S. Olympic Trials. The nation's new champion in the labyrinth that defines track and field first competed here.
This is like America's greatest surfer coming from Iowa, or its best ice hockey player hailing from Florida.
"Without a doubt," Scruton said, when asked if this is the greatest achievement ever by a Hawaii trackster.
Scruton was as close as you can get to the action in Sacramento, Calif. Officiating at his first Olympic Trials, he was a member of the decathlon pole vault and high jump crews. It took all of the restraint a 71-year-old man can muster for him not to crack a smile, not to spill a "Go, Bryan!"
The strange thing is, Clay's a star, but he's not a superstar -- not yet, anyway. The accused cheaters are still dominating the sport's headlines, leaving little room for the feel-good stories like that of Clay, who has overcome obstacles like asthma and lack of size.
And just wait until NBC gets ahold of the fact that Clay's high school coach, Martin Hee, is a former decathlete and a multiple gold-medal winner at the Transplant Games since he received a kidney in 1995.
So far, there's a lot less buzz about Clay than there was about Brian Viloria four years ago. That's probably because Hawaii has much more tradition in boxing than track.
But for two days next month, Clay will be on the world's center stage. He will know what it's like to be Michelle Wie. Yes, that one about billions of people in China not caring about our sports is true. But this is an exception. Track and field -- especially the decathlon -- catches the world's attention.
Clay knows what's at stake. He's been preparing for this since his Castle High School days.
"It has sunk in," Clay said. "But there's still another meet."
The one that "Hutchie" never got to.
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Dave Reardon is a Star-Bulletin sportswriter who covers University of Hawaii football and other topics. His column appears periodically. E-mail him at dreardon@starbulletin.com