The Cavalier daily :: Tuesday, February 13, 1968 :: University of Virginia Library

Dr. Harry Edwards teaches
sociology at San Jose State College,
and on the side he organizes
Black Power demonstrations on
campuses all over California. Last
November in Los Angeles, he and
a few of his students drafted a
resolution calling for a boycott
of the upcoming Olympic Games
by America's Negro athletes.

There have been prior attempts
to boycott the Olympics, and they
have never progressed beyond conferences
such as Edwards'. What
made this one special was that
two of the students who supported
the resolution were Tommie Smith
and Lee Evans. They can cover
200 and 400 meters faster than
any other men in the world.

Recently this reporter traveled
to Washington for the National
Invitational Indoor Track Meet
and found that not one of the
outstanding Negro athletes in that
meet intended to follow Smith
and Evans by participating in the
boycott.

Ralph Boston is a 28 year old
broad jumper from Tennessee. In
1960 he won the gold medal at
Rome in his event, and in 1964
was accorded the honor of carrying
the American flag in the ceremonies
opening the Tokyo Olympics,
from which he brought back
a sliver medal. He hopes to carry
the flay into the stadium at Mexico
City this fall.

"A PROTEST such as this is
an individual thing. I understand
the feelings that have engendered
the boycott movement and I could
not disagree with any athlete who
chose to express his dissatisfaction
in that way. But for myself
I just don't think the political
situation, with Wallace running for
President and all, would be helped
by this type of thing."

Earl McCullough is a student
at the University of Southern California,
and co-holder of the
world's record in the 110 meter
high hurdles. His answer to the
query concerning his position on
the boycott made it clear that it
had been asked of him by extremists
of both sides and that he
was fed up with being in the position
of damned if he did and
damned if he didn't.

"I've said all I'm going to say
about that. If I make the team I
will compete; as for the others,
that's their problem."

PERHAPS the outstanding performance
in the Washington meet
was turned in by Ricardo Urbina,
a half-miler who graduated from
Georgetown and now studies law
there. Urbina's studies and recent
marriage have kept him from attaining
the conditioning he
normally demands of himself before
entering a race.

But the half-mile that night was
being run in memory of Carl Joyce,
a former Georgetown runner and
coach, and Urbina thought it
would be nice if Carl Joyce's widow
could present the trophy to another
Georgetown runner. So on
the last lap, Urbina made his
move and passed one of the nation's
best in Larry Kelly of
Tennessee, to win by a foot.

All of which serves to point
out that Ricardo Urbina is, in
the finest sense of the word, a
gentleman. He refused to enter
Friday night's New York Athletic
Club games because of that organization's
discriminatory membership
policies. But he does not
support a boycott of the Olympic
Games.

"I don't believe it's proper to
humiliate the country over a matter
that should be settled internally."

JOHN THOMAS, another two
time Olympian, agrees with Ralph
Boston that the decision to participate
in a boycott is entirely an
individual matter. Thomas believes
that his decision will not matter
until he is assured of making the
team, and he refuses to divulge
his personal feelings on the issue.

Reaction from the white athletes
was predictably negative. Bob
Seagren, Southern Cal's world record
holder in the pole vault,
termed the boycott effort "ridiculous."
Seagren cannot understand
how a man could forfeit the painful
practice that made him Olympic
material, the years of training with
the gold medal as the foremost
goal.

He confirmed that teammates
O.J. Simpson and the aforementioned
Earl McCullough would not
boycott, and attributed to them the
information that Smith and Evans
were having private misgivings over
their decision.

Tennessee's Larry Kelly, an
Olympic hopeful in the 800 meters
felt that "if there is any field in
which the Negro enjoys equality,
it's athletics. They would be cutting
their own throats."

Perhaps the most poignant expression
of the confusion, pressure,
and agony inflicted upon Negro
athletics by the boycott came from
Miss Willye White, an Olympic
medalist in the women's long jump.
"To me it makes no sense. What
does boycotting the Olympics have
to do with Cassius Clay getting
back the heavyweight crown?"

But that pressure, coming from
black and white extremists, can
only increase as the months go
by through the tumultuous summer
ahead. The humiliation that
Ricardo Urbina spoke of could
well become reality if the Olympic
team is hamstrung by the absence
of athletes forced to become pawns
in a political struggle.