Forty-eight years before the world’s athletes began gathering in Beijing, the Summer Olympics were held in Rome.
Fair and proud disclosure: Pulitzer Prize-winning author and journalist David Maraniss wrote the foreword for the paperback edition of my book “Third Down and a War to Go.” In September 2007, when I spoke at the Wisconsin Veterans Museum, I finally met Maraniss — who lives much of the year in Madison — at a prefunction dinner party, and we talked about, among other things, his latest project. Because I spent my early years in track-crazy Eugene, Ore., where the U.S. Olympic Trials were held in 1960 (and also would be in 2008), I was familiar with many of the figures Maraniss had researched, interviewed and written about.
His book, “Rome 1960: The Olympics that Changed the World,” was released July 1, and Maraniss will discuss it and sign copies Thursday night at the LoDo branch of the Tattered Cover.
In 1960, the horrors of World War II hadn’t receded into history. Cold War tensions were rising. Germany was divided, but I either hadn’t known or remembered that East and West Germany fielded a unified, yet somewhat and awkwardly separated, team at Rome. I bring that up because I caught myself reacting that way throughout the book. I was familiar with the rough outline and many names, but knew or remembered so little about the details that I drank it all in and kept thinking: I didn’t know that!
One of the Olympics’ magical qualities is its ability to eliminate boundaries in relationships, as when German sprinter Lutz Long, at great risk, befriended Jesse Owens at the 1936 Games in Berlin. There’s some of that here, in the Cold War context.
In Rome, Cassius Clay flashily won a gold medal, but Maraniss documents the folly of later attempts to portray the future Muhammad Ali as a singular star of the Games, or even the U.S. delegation.
The U.S. basketball dominance, with Oscar Robertson, Jerry Lucas, and Jerry West leading the way, is a reminder that American hoops once were the best in the world.
But the real American heroes of the book, and not just for their gold medals, are decathlete Rafer Johnson and sprinter Wilma Rudolph.
With NBC seemingly running promotional ads at every break, the timing of the book and its release are not coincidental. But long after the flame is extinguished in Beijing, “Rome 1960” will remain worthy of any book collection’s top shelf.
Terry Frei: 303-954-1895 or tfrei@denverpost.com
