We exchange emails about ’82 Houston and, as is his style, Bill Rodgers tosses in How’d you like Papa Diacks story?
To which I replied, Diack’s situation proves you don’t have to be Usain Bolt to make millions in athletics.
He thought that was funny – Ha! – then I found the following.
Commentary from Track & Field News. February 1982.
There seems to be some difference of opinion about the future of road racing.
All agree major change in the sport is imminent, but they just don’t know how, or to where. Sadly, the big concern among many of the movers and shakers seems to be what it always is – money and/or power.
Many of those people wouldn’t know “what’s good for the sport” if it fell on top of them.
Others have a great deal of trouble recognizing TRUTH because they’ve become so cynical about those who claim to represent veracity. Who can blame them? After all, didn’t the director of one major East Coast marathon say on national television (paraphrasing here): “Hypocrisy is legitimate. Everyone knows that hypocrisy exists and they think it’s okay.”?
Isn’t that heartwarming?
Solutions to the problems which confront road racing will not be easily found. ARRA (Association of Road Racing Athletes) Don Kardong who supports unrestricted competition, has this to say about TAC (The Athletics Congress): “If we do want to continue making progress, we have to have people out there testing the water [turning pro]; people who don’t want to play any sort of game; trust account or anything else.” He concludes that we might soon end up back on “square one.”
Would we be back at square one? Like TRUTH, would we even recognize it if we saw it? Square One is the sport of a young Don Kardong, or Joe Henderson, or Browning Ross, or Ted Corbitt. Today, would a World Record holder like Buddy Edelen again have to move abroad to gain recognition?
Billy Rodgers won his first Boston Marathon in a hand-stenciled t-shirt. Now he owns a clothing company. There is no going back.
So what is down the road?
Open running will not occur this year, nor even for the next four or five years. The last time the question came before the IAAF, four countries of 160-odd voting supported the concept. Not a good sign.
The contamination rule, already negated in the U.S. in domestic competition, will be further weakened. Truthfully, there is no such regulation per se in international competition. Each national governing body manages to determine for itself what ‘contamination’ means.
Change will come begrudgingly. For instance, at the recent Orange Bowl Marathon, a late call from TAC suggested that Mexican Antonio Villanueva’s participation could jeopardize the eligibility of the other marathoners.
Sure Villanueva did take money at the Nike Marathon, but his national governing body doesn’t care and he is over forty years old. But, well, you know how stubborn a bureaucracy can be…
The definition of ‘international competitor’ will have to change, and soon. Our Amateur Sports Act defines such an athlete as one who represents his homeland in competition against another country. The IAAF – and thus TAC – seems to think because you are from another country, you must necessarily represent that country. Really now, it seems only logical you can be from somewhere without representing that place.
The fact that TAC encourages this interpretation is alarming, particularly when a half-dozen 3:30 marathoners are not allowed to compete in the Houston-Tenneco race because they are from Mexico, and can’t run with “pros.”
Runners are going to have to decide whether they are athletes or performers. Does an athlete run two marathon in seven days? I think not. An athlete competes, as does an Alberto, when he is ready to do his best to win.
An athlete (pardon my idealistic naivete) does not go through the motions simply for a payday, particularly one which he must deny exists.
There will be a World Marathon Circuit, as well as a series at other distances. It will be organized by a small clique (union?) of race directors, who will diminish the value of all competitions not involved in their promotions.
An international calendar of ‘special’ races will evolve, and these – and only these – will be allowed special privileges denied to others.
When you see the size of the sanctioning fees requested by the IAAFs and the NGBs – not to mention the administrative costs of the race management – you will understand.
Despite Kardong’s obviously bitter opinion, the trust funds just might work, and should be given a chance. (One must, however, agree with Don that applause is not necessary before the opening act.)
Alvin Chriss, the author of TacTrust, will administer those funds, and it seems like more than one man can do, even one so industrious as Chriss.
The trust itself, if abused, will be no less hypocritical than under-the-table payments were in the past. Can you hire your spouse as a coach at $25,000 per?
Obviously, your flexibility is important. Can you put a jacuzzi in the master bath? How about a BMW to get to the track to do intervals?
You might throw your back out mowing the lawn, so a gardener would be a viable deduction. Ah, yes, but the public condones hypocrisy.
At least athletes who are paid openly will earn it while competing, not negotiating. We shall see, but anyone who believe appearance fees will disappear is too innocent to be involved in American sport today.
Remember, however, TAC provides a necessary role. It is charged with maintaining and protecting the U.S. inventory of athletic stock capable of performing in the major international games of the sport. Why else would they have ignored appearance fees?
Prosecution of those athletes who take money became necessary only when ARRA made the dollars public. Under IAAF rules, TAC had to act. It has acted again. Recognizing the problem, the trust solution was formulated.
Al Chriss told Road Race Management, “It’s my judgment that 95% of the differences [about withdrawals] are solvable. I’m interested in getting [the athletes] their money and maintaining their eligibility… We moved forward because we had a statutory obligation. If the trust didn’t happen, the athletes would’ve stormed the gates.”
That athletes should even consider such a move against TAC speaks volumes about that organization’s historic disregard for its constituents. But it’s time to forgive wrongs, actual or imagined. Let us not forget them, and let us not allow TAC to think that we have.
People forget how we battled to get paid.
Benji Durden hasn’t forgotten.
I had Alvin Chris harassing every non-ARRA race I was scheduled to run, trying to keep me from being able to run including the Savannah Half Marathon. The only time I can remember him being successful was for the Columbus Marathon. They did let Sinclair run who had also taken prize money at the 1981 Cascade Runoff 15K where it all began.
There was no consistency. I was invited to run the 1981 Sports Fest Marathon even after I was a banned athlete. I ran it because of the ironic image.
The “TAC-Trust” was a sham, but eventually it was clear I had to play along with it. I collected receipts from everyone I knew to show I had spent all of the prize money I had won on my living expenses.
I hadn’t, of course, there’s probably some dollars in my IRA account that came from back then.
Eventually I got a very short term loan (less than a day) from the Bank of Boulder for the amount I had won, put that in “TAC Trust”, handed over my big collection of receipts that added up to more than the money in the “Trust,” got the cash out of the “Trust,” paid off the loan with a small amount of interest and was welcomed back as a non-banned runner.
Benji Durden 9/29/2020
Kiwi-American Anne Audain turned pro first. Her journey never fails to amaze.
My memories of ’81/’82 involving the pro stand in USA road racing began in April ’81 when Jeff Galloway invited me to stay at his house for two weeks after my third place finish in Crescent City Classic 10K New Orleans, my first USA race. He told me about the “ rumors “ a group supported by Nike was going to offer open prize money at an event in Portland, Oregon, in June. Then he put me in touch with Creigh Kelley who helped find me accommodations in Denver and paid me “under the table” dollars to do some speaking locally to help me survive.
Fast forward. I win $10,000 for first place in the Cascade Runoff 15K, June 28th. I am immediately given a lifetime ban by the New Zealand Amateur Athletic AssociationAA , I am in trouble with the immigration folks as am only on a visitors visa and the IRS is interested.
USA race directors however ignored my ban and I continued to race that year until immigration sent me back to NZ in Nov to get an appropriate visa that would allow me to earn $$ in USA. In NZ the “powers that be” at NZAAA didn’t even want me to attend an international track meet.
I set the 5000m World Record in March 1982 but was told it would not be recognized due to my ban. I arrived back in USA in April and continued racing, still banned. I traveled to Australia Sept 82 to race in the Commonwealth Games still banned internationally. I was reinstated one week before winning the 3000m Gold Medal and received my World Record plaque there.
It was quite a fifteen months journey.
I have a lot of folks to thank! June 1981 changed my life!
Bill Rodgers had this to say today.
I spoke out a lot about the need to professionalize Track/Field/Road racing. The BAA knows that. ARRA later split over a difference of opinion as some participants did not want appearance money to play a role in these sports. A number of high profile US road races wouldn’t bring me and some other top road racers back to their races -some we had won in earlier years!
BR 9/29/2020
Yeah, I told him and I’m one of the guys you spoke to.
Don Kardong’s memory is still tired from the battle.
The fight for athletes’ rights in the early 1980s was incredibly draining, but thanks to the stuck-to-it-iveness of runners like Benji and Anne (among many others), things eventually changed.
TACTRUST was ridiculous, but it did serve as a bridge between the sport as it was and the open competition of today. I’m not sure anyone thought of it as anything more than a temporary solution that both sides could live with, at least for a while.
Today is much better for top runners, although the pickings are pretty slim. In terms of circuits, the World Marathon Majors is one, the PRRO Circuit is another. But much of the sport is defined by independent events with not much connection to each other. I think the sport would be much stronger if more of the big prize money events would get together. And of course the pandemic has added another level of weirdness to our sport.
I wouldn’t say I look back at the events of early 1980 fondly, but I do think we made significant progress, and I’m proud of the part I played in that.
By the way, speaking of covid, politicians in the state 25 miles east of Spokane (Idaho) are pushing to make wearing masks voluntary, not that most people in that state are wearing them now.
The argument is that people should be free to make their own decisions. If it was just a matter of an individual’s own health, I might agree. But wearing masks is a way to protect the people we’re around, not just ourselves. It would be like saying let’s remove speed limits from the highway and let people make their own decisions about how fast to go.
But I won’t publish that opinion, or some people might actually think it’s a good idea.
Stay positive, test negative, Jack.
Don Kardong 10/03/2020
Billy suggested I look at this article. No problem – Kenny Moore is The Boss.
Any questions, write them on a post-it note and put the note on a twenty-dollar bill and send it to me and I’ll answer your question right away. One question per bill, please. A single envelope is fine.
You old runners know about the envelope.