On owning a gold medal.
“It feels wonderful to have it. It’s great to have it, but it don’t live off of that. Some of the
Olympians still (say), ‘I’m a gold medalist.’ I don’t live off of that. I won a gold, I did something
no other athlete has ever done in track and field. And that’s kind of it because, I feel so sad that
we’re not recognized like other countries, Olympians – gold medal winners. In other countries
they are looked up to a lot. Not in America. This (1968) is the greatest team ever ... because
every race was a world record, almost. And what we went through, especially the black athletes, what we went through, no one can imagine, what happened to us, mentally, and how we pulled
through that. And how we got together as a team, as one body of people, to show the world that,
as black people, that we are going to achieve and we are going to prove that we are the greatest
athletes in the world and that we are human beings. Because we were treated like (crap), back in
America. I was in the military and I was treated like (crap) ... there were a lot of slaps in the face
that I received as a military man, being an athlete, even wearing my uniform – they tell me I
can’t go in a restaurant. So you tell me that wasn’t a slap in the face? And then, how we were
treated when we came back from Vietnam. ... There’s a lot of things that happened to a lot of us
that you don’t hear the stories. ... 1968, taking my mother to a doctor and she takes me into the
back door of this building and the reception was up front in a nice plush area and they had a little
table ... and two chairs and they said, ‘This is where black folks had to be.’ And I just got back
from Vietnam. How do you think that made me feel? Think about that, as a black man, as an
American – I don’t look at me being black, I look at me being an American. ... Now, I was in the
82nd Airborne Division, black belt karate, just come out of combat, fighting hand-to-hand at one
time. He’s very blessed that I didn’t kill him. But I had my mom with me. If my mom had not
been with me I think I would’ve probably been in jail now, or dead. Because what I’d seen, these
young man that died – I was a platoon leader the first time and I was a company commander the
second time. And what I saw and what I experienced in fighting a war that we never should have
been in, and come back to be treated the way we were treated – and to be able to win a gold
medal and be rated a physical specimen in the US Army – me, a gold-medal winner, Bronze Star
winner, and I’m treated the way I’m treated. We showed them in Mexico City. But that’s over
now. And this is the 40th year (since the 1968 Olympics) and we still don’t get our due. We never
went to the White House and people still don’t look at us as being the greatest team. ... I’m on the
alumni board (of the US Olympic Committee) and I had to fight to get a reunion we’ve got
coming up in July (2008). Once an Olympian you’re always an Olympian. You can’t take that
away from us. And we’re still family. We still see each other at least once or twice a year. And
sometimes we see each other a little bit more than that, because I play a lot of golf tournaments,
and do a lot of speaking engagements and we do a lot of stuff like this” (the Shumake
Relays).
On talk of a 1968 Olympic boycott, and the actions of John Carlos and Tommie Smith at
the 1968 Olympics, and whether those actions helped raise awareness of race relations in the
U.S.
“It helped a lot. Even though, what they were trying to say (was) – we’re tired as hell and we’re
not going to take it anymore. We’re Americans. We’re here representing America, we’re not
black people representing black people, we’re here representing our country. And then when we
go home – we can’t go into this restaurant, and we have to go in the back door, or else we can’t
come in here. That’s heartbreaking ... especially when I’m wearing my uniform and I go into a
place in Baltimore, Md. in 1962, when I first started running in America – because I came back
from Okinawa – in my uniform – Airborne – jump boots, clean, and they tell my buddy, he’s a
white kid, ‘He can’t come in here.’ How do you think I felt? That’s a slap in the face. But I’m
blessed. I went to Vietnam twice, had neck fusion, back fusion. I have agent orange – I had
cancer and still have leukemia. But I’m breathing and I’m living and God has given me a second
chance at life. So I’m blessed.”
On the 1968 U.S. track and field squad being the best team ever.
“The whole track team, not just the black athletes. I’m talking about the white and black athletes.
We were there as a team. They even stuck by us, the white athletes, too. ... The Olympic rowing
team stuck by us, they protested. You don’t hear much about it – but these guys were white. We
still live with the horror in our hearts and we talk about it from time to time. But we all say life
must go on. We still live in the greatest country in the world, no matter how people feel and what
people think, we still live in the greatest country in the world. I love America. And nothing’s
going to run me out of here and nothing’s going to tear me down to say anything bad about it. It’s
just the people in it ... The Olympic Games can bring people together. They can bring countries
together. We can prevent wars if they would listen and look at what we do in the Olympic
Games, how we come together.”
On his philosophy as a track and field coach at West Point.
“My philosophy is mainly to help kids and help to change their lives – to live a good life, to live a
life that is going to better them and to stay away from drugs and the wrong things in life. In other
words, my philosophy is helping young people grow and be all they can be. No one helped me,
the only thing that helped me was the military. I don’t know what would’ve happened to me if I
had not gone into the military at 17 years old. It made me the person I am today. And I think
every kid 18 years old should go in the military. We’d stop all the drugs, the killing, stealing.
You’d cut all that stuff out. They need to go into the military.”
