Even I don't get around much anymore - not even 15 blocks downtown to the Armory where I ran utterly undistinguished half-mile races on its splintered drill floor. (2:24 for the 880 at the Bishop Loughlin Games). Every Friday in February indoor track filled Madison Square Garden on 50th street [before the fools destroyed Penn Station]. The prime event was the Wanamaker Mile where (mostly Irish milers dominated). For me the magic moment was John Uelses of the Quantico Marines team vaulted 16', breaking the world record with a new flexing fiberglass pole. The place exploded.But track crowds have dwindled. The 5,000 seats at the Armory are the best that we can expect for world class runners in the X-Games era.
George Vecsey tells the story. So good to see his retirement is not complete. His blog is wonderful but it's in the daily paper that he really belongs. Millrose Games Move Into New Era - NYTimes.com:
by George Vecsey
"An event called the Millrose Games is being held in a 5,000-seat armory in Upper Manhattan on Saturday.
Robert Caplin for The New York Times
The Armory in Upper Manhattan, where the Millrose Games will be held Saturday.More Photos »
Multimedia
Jose Lopez/The New York Times
Eamonn Coghlan competing in the Wanamaker Mile, which he won seven times, at the Garden in 1985. More Photos »
Does that mean it is really the Millrose Games?
“At first, I was thinking, ‘This is a joke,’ ” Eamonn Coghlan said in his Irish lilt. “But after I talked to people, I realized you have to keep the tradition going.”
The Millrose Games were once the center of indoor track and field, and Coghlan was the most gloried name.
He won the Wanamaker Mile — even that name comes tumbling out fast and euphonically — seven times, earning himself the nickname the Chairman of the Boards, for the steeped wooden oval track that circled cacophonous Madison Square Garden, where officials in tuxedos clicked their stopwatches..."
No tuxedos will be worn in Washington Heights on Saturday, but Coghlan will be there, honoring the current generation that runs around ovals in the middle of the winter.
'via Blog this'
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