Random Olympian

On our return trip from the Big 12 Indoor meet in College Station, Texas we stopped in Breckenridge to grab some quick lunch. Accompanied by a group of about ten of the OSU athletes we simply walked to the nearest place we could grab something quick. While eating, we were approached by a man wearing a lot of orange and a vest reading something about a stuntman's association. The man introduced himself as Dean Smith, who used to run a bit of track when he was younger. We caught his interest because he had roomed with J.W. Mashburn at the 1952 Helsinki Olympics. Naturally all of our levels interest increased drastically upon hearing, "Olympics." Mashburn was a 400 meter runner at Oklahoma State who won a gold medal at the 1956 Melbourne Olympic Games running on the 4x400 relay. Mr. Smith spoke of how he had run for the University of Texas as a 100 meter sprinter and had often raced against the Aggies of Oklahoma A&M. He had even run 9.7 wind-aided at a meet held at OSU's Kyle Field. He described his time at the 52' games with Mashburn and how he had also roomed with Wes Santee the great miler from Kansas. Smith placed 4th in the 100 meter dash in what he described as the closest finish in Olympic history. The judges spent 2 hours determining the placings and unfortunately for him he landed just off the medal stand. He did however lead off for the United States' gold medal winning 4x100 relay. Smith chatted with us casually describing how what bothers him most about today's sport is the lack of press. When he was racing, everything was front page news. He described today's position as, "a small article on the second or third page." We found out later he worked as a very successful stuntman in the film industry and even played some pro-football after graduating from Texas and leaving the track world behind. It was a wonderful encounter and completely unexpected. It was great to see the younger guys interacting with this man who competed in an era that none of us really know and being able to connect and share a mutual love for the sport. It was a chance encounter with an Olympian, a World Champion and at the very least now the boys of OSU know a little bit more about the history of our sport. It is important to hold on to the heroes of the past and to lift up our heroes of today. A big thank you to Dean Smith, even 60 years later he is still a positive ambassador for track and field, even at a local fast-food stop.