Winner: Droppin’ Dave
With the opening ceremony having taken place just a few nights before, tonight’s theme was the Olympic Games. Droppin’ started slowly, but finished fast, and was awarded the gold medal. Close behind, earning the silver was Coffee Bill.
Just wait until Rio in 4 years, when golf is added to the Games. The Coffee man should shine then. With Daphne and Darin absent, it fell to the Driver to moderate the game.
Self professed Olympics expert Pluto was also absent – claims he needed a shower, which sounds a bit lame. Rumor has it that when he was given the quiz later, his results wouldn’t have placed first anyway. Maybe he was missing because he couldn’t handle the pressure.
We learned that the winners trophy had been vandalized sometime during the week, and the winner’s name was changed. This is very disturbing and a full investigation has been undertaken. There is only one clue to go on – the name that was inked in. This is the name that shall remain nameless, but she knows who she is.
Good Question:
In which event did an individual first win four consecutive gold medals?
Answer: Discus
It was Long Island’s own Al Oerter who accomplished this amazing feat. More amazing because he successfully defended his gold medal 3 times over 12 years while he held a full time job as a software engineer with Long Island’s Grumman Corp. They don’t make them like that anymore.
Oerter, a sandy-haired bear of a man who weighed as much as 297 pounds and stood 6 feet 4 inches, won Olympic gold medals in 1956, 1960, 1964 and 1968.
Oerter’s sweep was all the more remarkable because in each case he broke the Olympic record, beat the world record holder, overcame an injury and was not the favorite to win.
Alfred Oerter Jr., was born Sept. 19, 1936, in Astoria, Queens, and grew up on Long Island, in West Islip. At Sewanhaka High School, he was a sprinter and then a miler.
One day, he recalled, when a discus landed near his feet, he casually threw it back so far that the coach immediately made him a discus thrower. He became the national schoolboy record holder and went on to the University of Kansas, where a classmate was Wilt Chamberlain, the basketball great.
Harold Connolly, an American hammer thrower who also won an Olympic gold medal, once told the sports columnist Stan Isaacs:
“In the opinion of many of us, he is the greatest field-event athlete of the century. There’s a magic about him when he’s competing. He’s nervous before the meet. He doesn’t eat well and his hands shake. But once the event is about to start, a calmness settles over him. The other athletes see it, and it intimidates them. They watch him, and they are afraid of what he might do.”
In his third Olympics in 1964, an injury occurred six days before competition was to begin. While throwing a discus — a 4.4-pound disc resembling a miniature flying saucer — he slipped on a wet concrete discus circle and tore rib cartilage on his right side (his throwing side), causing internal bleeding and severe pain. Team doctors told him to forget the Olympics and not throw for six weeks. He refused.
“These are the Olympics,” he was quoted as saying at the time. “You die before you quit.” He competed and won.
A side note: Our own Rosebud worked for Grumman at the same time as Al Oerter. Back in the day, Rosebud was a corporate comer and was appointed chairperson of one of the business unit’s Promotion Review Boards. One of the members of that Board was Al Oerter.
source: nytimes.com
Blogger’s Note: Rosebud and Pluto are headed to London for the Games and then a bit of southern England. For their on the scene Olympic reports or to follow their trip as it progresses from pub to pub across southern England, you can try: wegetaround2.com
Assuming they find available wi-fi, should be up and running from around Aug 8.
