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In reply to Walco
Ewart you see what I have been saying about the running style of Wint and Novlene? Walco note that quite some time before the Olympics McKinley had the 400m record and I believe is the only man to hold the fastest time in 1,2 and 400m simultaneously. He went to the Olympics saying if he is in front after the bend there is not a man on earth who can catch him.
By the way I noted here recently that my main beef with Prof. Beckles' 'Gayle is the Don' speech is when he said prior to Weekes' 5 consecutive tons West Indians were NEVER the best at anything. For the premier historian in the region that was terrible no matter if error or deliberate.

In reply to Brerzerk

Context.

In reply to FuzzyWuzzy
do you mean he was speaking in a cricketing context? If so he should've mentioned Maas George Headley the 1st and only batsman in the history of cricket to score 4 consecutive centuries in his 1st four tests all before he was 21! If you are asking me a different question I don't know

In reply to Brerzerk

Herb McKenley

Herb McKenley lit the bright flame of top-class sprinting in the hearts of his countrymen half-way through the 20th Century. His anguished journey from one disappointment to another, through two Olympic second places – although he finished in the same time as the declared winners – was followed with empathy by all Jamaicans. But when he dug deep and propelled himself and the Jamaican team to gold in the 4x400 at the 1952 Olympics with a run for the ages on the third leg, we all knew that he had overcome; that he was free at last.

Renown and humility found harmonious dwelling in this man whose deeds are writ large not only in the Jamaican lexicon, but also deep in the hearts of Jamaicans everywhere. By the time he arrived in Helsinki for the 1952 Olympics at age 30, he had all Jamaica behind him with high expectation. Today, if track-and-field cognoscenti think of Jamaica as “The Sprint Factory” – and they do – there is one reason, one cause for this enduring effect. Its name? Herb McKenley.

The beginnings were promising. Born July 10, 1922, Herbert Henry McKenley was known as a top sprinter while running for Calabar High School. He earned a track scholarship in 1942 to Boston College and won the US National AAU championship over 400 metres in 1943, a title he retained until 1949. Running at Berkeley, California, for the University of Illinois on June 28, 1947, he became the first native of Jamaica to set a world record for 440 yards with 46.3 seconds. By the Olympic season of 1948 he was in sparkling form. But he was beset by a string of disappointments that nevertheless gained him more sympathy and support from his growing network of fans.

In the 1948 Olympic Games, it was widely expected that Herb would win the 400 metres race. Arriving in London as a passenger on the Queen Elizabeth, he was confident that having crossed the Atlantic to run the 400 metres he was not going to be beaten in it. But having already run out of the medals in the 200m final, McKenley dramatically misjudged his final surge in the 400m final and was overtaken 50 metres from the 400 metre tape by his long-striding team-mate Arthur Wint.

Come the 1952 Olympic Games in Helsinki, Finland, and once again Herb’s name was on everybody’s lips with great expectation. But disappointment visited again. This was the scene of twice coming second in the same time as the winner. Entered in all three sprint events, he came through with an extraordinary finish in the final of the 100 metres and was hailed by commentators as the winner.

But then the American sprinter Lindy Remingino, who thought he had come in second, was judged to take the 100 in a time 1/100th of a second faster than Herb.

Heartbreak! It was so close that they had to use a set-square on the photo-finish to decide it.

McKenley was shocked and disappointed, as was Jamaica. “The fairest thing would have been to declare a draw," McKenley said. "But I will not protest."

Four days later, in the 400m final, team-mate George Rhoden led into the home straight and McKenley, more cautious than four years earlier, and diagnosed with anemia after the race, just failed to catch him. Both were timed in 45.9 seconds.

But in the 4x400 metres relay, with a performance of sheer greatness, McKenley finally garnered the elusive gold.

Taking the baton for the third leg 10 metres in arrears and staring defeat in its face, McKenley sped to the greatest performance recorded in the 4x400 metres relay to send Rhoden and the Jamaican team to the podium for gold and place Jamaica on a path to Olympic glory. It was the fastest time ever recorded for that distance.
Jubilation! In Jamaica The Gleaner headline blazed
Jamaica Beats The World.

Congratulatory telegrams and cables raced across the wires. The Governor Gazetted a public holiday. The photographs that were published on the front page of the Daily Gleaner, are still etched in my mind; the quartet of Arthur Wint, Les Laing, Herb McKenley and George Rhoden standing on the Helsinki track before the race, their heads bowed, their arms draped over each other’s shoulders in prayer; and another picture of the quartet after the race, with a happy Herb McKenley smiling broadly. He had much to smile about. A world record performance, it was a race for the ages.

Jamaica ranked fifth with two gold and three silver medals in that Helsinki Olympiad. Indeed, this was the start of Jamaica’s dominance in track and field, a dominance that still bewilders sports anthropologists. Jamaica had arrived.

Herb McKenley is the inspiration for that dominance. As his fame grew, doctors, perplexed by his astounding ability, discovered he had very low blood pressure and a heart twice the size of the normal athlete’s, both of which allowed him to recover quickly after exertion.

But McKenley’s big heart was always in Jamaica… and Calabar. In 1950 he submitted to the Jamaica Amateur Athletics Association an eight-point programme to develop track and field. Accepted, the programme which included advice to establish branch offices, led to the development of athletics clubs across the island.

So back he came to Jamaica and Jamaican athletics. He was appointed Supervisor of Athletics in Jamaica effective August 1, 1954, and coached the national team from 1954 to 1973. He also coached the West Indies Federation team for the 1960 Olympics in Rome.

He was both manager and coach of the Rest of the World team versus the Soviet Union in 1971. As a coach, sports administrator and leader of the team to several Olympiads, he motivated generations of Jamaicans to reach for greatness on the track. And he went back to his old school, Calabar, coaching the athletics team to 17 of 18 victories, and not seeking pay for his efforts.

Having been appointed to a government job as athletics coach, McKenley was one of many who were swept from grace when another party took the reins in 1962 and introduced Jamaica to a new term, “political victimisation.” Ironic then that, encouraged by Prime Minister Hugh Shearer, his one attempt to run for political office was under the banner of that same party. He took his defeat at the polls with characteristic grace and threw himself with even greater devotion into his coaching activities.

He taught his athletes the elements of running – from start to finish. He produced coaching regimes for each athlete in his care, and drilled the value of wind-sprints and running longer distances for endurance. He taught the technique of quarter-mile running with the oft repeated caution, “take it easy on the backstretch.”

Above all, he taught the value of teamwork, pointing out for instance that a win in the relays was better than a win as an individual since it produced more points at the annual school’s athletic championships, Champs.

And he taught the elements and discipline of baton-passing, that the Olympic baton-change (with the receiving hand open on the hip) was safer but the American baton-change was faster, and then insisting that his charges use the safer one. After all they did have to get the baton around the track!

But he also recognised that his name and his presence meant something and so he leaned heavily on his ability to inspire, pulling out old scrapbooks with photographs of his exploits for each wide-eyed devotee, and thus lighting the fire in the soul of his young charges, as Daniel England confessed.

An Olympian’s Olympian, McKenley is still the only male athlete to have reached an Olympic final in all three of the classic sprint events, 100, 200 and 400 metres. He was the first man to run the quarter mile under 45 seconds. He was at various times world record holder at 300 yards, 440 yards, 300 metres and 400 metres. At a time when outdoor track meets were usually run on dirt or grass, he ran the quarter-mile under 47 seconds on 65 occasions.

After he hung up his own celebrated spikes he paved the way for the annual expeditions of Jamaican high school teams to the Penn Relays. With his encouragement and considerable input, Jamaica high school teams first ran at Penn in 1964.

Now, each year they play dominating roles, adding vibrant new life to the Relays, where vociferous, flag-waving fans – many cheering for Jamaica – create an intense, international atmosphere. With all that – including admission to Jamaica’s new Track and Field Hall of Fame, and national honours from Jamaica – McKenley remained humble. Felled by illness in 1998, and seeing the get-well messages come pouring in, he was to say with pure sincerity that he had no idea that so many people remembered him and thought so well of him.

Herbert McKenley, Olympic athlete, coach and pride of Jamaica, ran his last lap on November 26, 2007, at age 85, and his body was laid to rest by a grateful Jamaica in the National Heroes’ Park.


//

In reply to Ewart

Thanks Ewart, beautifully written.

one of the best pieces I have read on any topic. Just fantastic

RABALAC!

Thanks Ewart. I knew Herb personally and happy I did. Wonderful guy and an inspiration.

In reply to Brerzerk

That's an amazing feat to have the fastest times in the 100, 200 and 400 simultaneously. As for McKenley's 400m strategy, it's interesting that he lost in 1948 because he went out too fast and "lost" in 1952 because he kicked too late.

In reply to sgtdjones

Cosigned. Thanks for sharing, Ewart.

In reply to Ewart

Lovely - question - name another school anywhere on the planet that had a track and field coach and a cricket coach with the credentials of McKenley and Headley?

In reply to Ewart
Thanks for sharing that excellent piece Ewart

and I still believe as much as he (Herb)is celebrated, Arthur Wint, our first Olympic gold medalist, is vastly underappreciated by Jamaican journalists and sports (track) enthusiasts.

In reply to JoeGrine I think a lot of the admiration for Herb relates to his coaching and mentoring.

In reply to camos

The personality of both men as well.

These are some of the Jamaican world class athletes who have not gotten their just due from the Jamaican media and sports enthusiasts:

George Kerr - still our only middle distance Olympic medalist
Deon Hemmings - government, while you are at it, what about her statue?
Lorraine Fenton - easily our most successful female 400m runner
Marilyn Neufville - Jamaica's first and only outdoor female world record holder.

In reply to JoeGrine

the man died in poverty!

In reply to Chrissy

Culpepper High.

In reply to JoeGrine

The statue at the entrance to the National Stadium is a combination of the features of the four who won the 4x400 at Helsinki, but it reflects mostly Arthur Wint.

It is not a matter of underappreciation. It is a matter that while Wint became High Commissioner to London, and later head of Lucea Hospital, he was not present in local athletics.

Herb, on the other hand, came back to Jamaica after his exploits and built track and field intimately over several years.

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In reply to Ewart
Jamaica track n field owes both McKinley and Dennis 'DJ' Johnson tremendous debts of gratitude. DJ invited legendary SJSU and US sprint coach Bud Wynter to JA to run seminars. NB Both John Carlos and Tommy Smith who raised their fists in Mexico '68 were both SJSU students at the time. A docu on Peacock as well as a feature on DJ in Sports illustrated give insight on the greatness of Bud

In reply to JoeGrine
JG I think Wint won medals in the 800m

In reply to Brerzerk

Wint's Olympic medal haul:

1948 = Gold 400m - Silver 800m
1952 = Gold 4x400 - Silver 800m

Taking away his relay gold, only Usain Bolt has a better individual events Olympic Games resume that Arthur Wint and yes, that includes Donald Quarrie. Again, Wint is vastly underappreciated by the Jamaican sporting mass. We can say Herb did this and that locally, however, that does not remove the fact that this great athlete and public servant's work had not gotten it's rightful billing.

A step below on the under appreciated run are:

Hemmings
Fenton
Kerr
Neufville!

In reply to JoeGrine
I wholly agree only today's women are/can change that, was thinking the 800 is a middle distance event re your point on George Kerr.