Preface HARRISON DILLARD

Having spent some 25 years as a track athlete and the next 52 as a fan, follower and sometimes official, I think it’s safe to say I’ve been around the sport in some capacity all my life. I’ve known success and occasional failure.

I’ve formed opinions about the events and the competitors, just as I am sure most people have.

The athletes I have wondered about most are distance runners and pole-vaulters. The punishment endured by those in these two persuasions would seem to me to be tantamount to torture. The worst of it is that it is self-inflicted for the most part. Rest assured that while I may think of them as being just a smidgen strange to take up such pursuits, my respect and admiration for them has no limits.

That brings me to the subject of Timothy Mack, who added his name to the list of Cleveland-area athletes who have won gold in what many consider the greatest sports spectacle in the world, the Olympic Games.

Tim’s career for the most part has been no different from those of thousands of others with dreams of reaching the ultimate level. I too have shared that dream. Much like Tim, it was essentially, as the saying goes, “just for the love of the game.” It was a means of self-expression. It was a desire to do something better than anybody else on earth. There was a price to pay in physical, mental, and emotional terms. There would be little in the way of material or financial gain.

I guess it boils down to how and by what standards you measure success. Read on to see how Tim Mack did it and to learn something about pole vaulting and some of its most storied characters.

A member of the USA Track and Field Hall of Fame, Dillard won the 100 meters at the 1948 Olympics after not qualifying in his specialty, the 110-meter high hurdles. He came back and won the gold medal in that event in the 1952 Olympics, becoming the only man to turn a double in that event. Dillard attended Cleveland’s East Tech, the same high school as Jesse Owens. The best hurdler in the world after World War II, in which he served, Dillard was inspired to become an Olympian when Owens, riding in a car in a victory parade after the 1936 Olympics, winked at Dillard and said hello.