Black Champions; Interview with John Woodruff

fb kate black champions december first nineteen eighty four john woodruff son also think our all thirty one psalm fifty years or so i went to school in a small town in pennsylvania are cause they're considering a small town about fifty miles south of pittsburgh well cost is a small mining town there were some small farms around that particular area and growing up there was for a whole song not to not to

congestion congested and it was arranged in placed to have to have lived in a well yes i'm dan but does it next to get into for more sports until i was a junior in high school well the first two years of high school my freshman sophomore year and they didn't have any any type of athletics or track football basketball nothing like they're swimming so when i went into this with to the city has school in the city of cars they'll arm i went out for football and i stayed out up to them the week before they came here the first day and it was my mother made me quit football because i was getting home too late evenings take care my chores around the house so odd the you know the line coach of the football team was attractive to

schools remained he noticed that i was able to to keep up with the quarterback on the football team he was a he was he was as a spider when they were ahead of swirling wind speeds up and down a few of the football uniform so we invited another track and that's how it got started was so when you are it's all us in coach coachella ruling was a very mercenary and he encouraged me to go after track and woody from illinois at a headland sentiment speedy two minute to fool with football because they felt that the two sports didn't just two sports conflicted really so i say after track and nine did very well my of mine that for sheer running in my junior year and then of course in the same year so state record and occasionally mal end

of a solo also stay rooted in that in africa on and because of the way getting this close to cure stupid had no idea that as a room who has had no idea that there would be to go to college because i know financially i couldn't go cause i came from my poor family and i was ill we want to go to college but of course when the opportunity is our own became available for me to go because it took advantage of them well us to pittsburgh schools seldom approached me about going to see in the hometown o's there was a dentist who was a grand with me respect for dr campbell and he would cause he was he was stripped naked man in their respects only encouraged me to do you respect for a possible

deal well it was quite exciting for me you know to have that girl go to university and the sea to send a bill to the city of kano over a small town of about thirteen thousand people in there of course it may run into in the city of khan is the mascot about the nfl that's how out of violence are cultural which was very rural the university regents

oh yes i have adopted does seem quite what to say because i lived at the ymca full load for years and i would pitch so that i got a chance to see the city in a much quicker though the time is going and this was in a sense your career see i came along confess i know that whenever i want to go back to my last year high school missing year said i said ssn and state record for that now which was which was quite an accomplishment back in those days and of course at the end of the corps area very well and have mom also in the corner before i went to university chair i would pop down there to have to run

against the best of halfway to the good the universe pitch which had us was running as the best maori but he refused to run against me and i ran against it does have marched as a high school graduate and i beat them see so i had barely a potential and of course in what it had to you know cause i like so far enough in those in those areas in the mouth and a half mile in the quarters we did quite a bit of traveling we ran against indiana ran against so and state university reading and so all how northwestern university we had a good linens get you there well as

saying of course you know a whole idea was stolen was running for higher cuisine and it is because of that he was going to spread to say our universe in indiana i'm trying to think of the fellow that was it that was an outstanding businessman there are what was a citizen of time those four years i can't recall his name but he was oh he was outstanding was tommy tommy decker bus was there a time bomb age remember those names that they were they were going to go in the rest of the time i was growing up thirty five souls set them returned fire so the dangers it's theorized that's right had no id and all that i would make to look at the fact that the olympics memory to

every game making them a mine that has rendered that year of course the states ran out to travel for the year with a different athletic artistic wealth on the seattle reign in the allegheny mountains association track meet that qualified me to run to have at the center the semifinal trials of harvard stadium in boston and gaza one up there in income than the back to ram is our when he had the finals and i wonder and course what went to berlin where you hear any real way what was that first approach and he says well one on one i one of their innovative areas so clients see a well one the semifinals of boston

and that i can there and as our and i wonder if the finals that i know that i was going to make go to the games oh yes well and that was a great experience cause a note we all want a woman welcomes the new analysis manhattan like today only flyover by but they hope that at that time we all took the assist manhattan out of the island in new york harbor and the sale and i was aware of quite an experience because you know cars are headed up to eighty two room my roommate was a combat ronson agenda was a brother who took second to jesse and two hundred meters and we'll begin to call my family are on a trip over cause we get our workouts on the holodeck while traveling to germany

and it became overgrown well acquainted with ralph metcalf and jesse owens and they will britain the committee's johnson those are and then johnny brooks those old fellows were on the thing it was a very interesting place marilyn very clean place you know from what i recall those days you know versions well cause it's a long long time ago and coastal when arriving there were very impressed we're very impressed with the facilities that they had for us but we stayed at a place that they were big village and accommodations were very very good at lodging we stay there

long little hats and the food was excellent and costa sued the us provided for the american came by the members of the the assist braman i was a giant german luxury liner that at the time and they are the one to prepare the food prepared food for us but everything was very very well done than anything was clean it in the german report on the show we go well why did you were like i feel i have a good chance you know because you know any anybody who will win the united states has it made an excellent chance to win over a winning an olympics because the competition is so keen and in the united states and also to make the team so few representing if you're representing the united states in your events and go to let that you have an excellent chance of winning the olympics

yes classes were people here that will lie where girls spin we're not good when you're working there as hot as a fuzzy athletes work today affect them on training wheels a lot of fun in the present day you know it gets hard work you know and we have to be really really give a kid that goes back going back do my time i guess i was i guess i was a gifted athlete at the us born with the natural speed of the natural ability and the things it's had to sell a line for me i had no idea that i was gonna make it i had no idea that was those that france with that good but it just it just happened cause it'll have an ointment you use that school in one in college didn't

make the team in glendale epic you know i had to have extraordinary ability at that the kick the time or twice iran that the primaries because i won the one that that race i ran in the semi finals and i won that race and it goes around in the finals and you know yes so on the final race was it was to run a little bit different quite a bit different than miles to some of the player independent india some of our arm in the primary i took the lead in the state in the lea and won the race and i did the same thing the semifinals but i decided i would rather the more conservative in the files i had a son i wasn't i wasn't politically that i felt that i would use i'll fall and fallen behind the leader and follow him back to a certain point in the race and then in and tried to help and intended to contractual

winner is my point well of course syllabus from canada caller who had been in that who have been unveiled the city two olympics he set the pace any set a very very slow pace which was to slow from for me so as his own and after running the first four hundred meters in the stunning stunning the first of the set of the second of her the last lap or the second foreign leaders i got boxed in because around a scarecrow a ride around the hour and you tweeted i can get out of the box i had to prep we start thirdly that whole seal so when the racing no there was no family are

it was a it was a good feeling cause i didn't realize that just exit is what i accomplish until after rove with but it was a you were excellent villain in kosovo aren't always had that feeling that it anytime i got analysts are well and i felt that i could win it to see so companies of winning every race that i that i got it that's just ahead to say to me as well those things i think it's the us to stand out on a big deal about the authorities estimate that wasn't with how how how well it was working on how well organized to the germans they really really put on they really put on a show because toughness and with some of the old timers who'd fallen previous olympic games they say there was a thought that was the finest services

settlement the games that they'd ever witness the one in berlin well i saw a story just before winter long that was doing as it was doing when they see that was only later they'll have to live with these days mack was machen our very close as we were roommates remote roommates going over on on the ss manhattan and of course when we owe every game overweight when we travel to norway see mac was on the same thing with with me so are he was very physically was very good athlete and now he really really made a big legal progress of throws jesse to setting a world record in that in the two hundred meters as he was made was that good metcalf and that

was that he was like he was like a father to us janelle was he was the older he was your birthday on the tapes taken in that ever been in the thirty two olympics you see i was twenty one but it was twenty seven and indeed there was a lot of aversion if we had any questions of the new concern this concerning our at our event or our athletics and in general see mcevers it took to answer his question jesse of course just was very fine man very questionable individual and a very good effort is your mills a lot of talk too much too to speak to jesse do in the course of a day as i got to know him more after the games were over they came back to the station johnson they didn't know what

the year after he won the hijab i got to know him quite well he was very fine verify man very personable sell because he trailed will travel one the same thing with me when we went and when we went to norway after that has a big agency what i wasn't i was a nice trip you know see you know after the game two and it broke a separate some of the sled and that various parts of europe and can use it to places where the runners and matt mack robinson and myself we were the three that went up to norway with a tank with that was that the ticketing and nicholas update the year the people very very nice and they think the atmosphere had a lot to do the withdrawal will our performances because everything's clean air was crisp and i'm sure we'll performed very very well up there germany well

they they hadn't them and many of many of my daily dissonance in blacks because i can recall recall the difference and wall street will boy walk up to me with a santa my face i get to sixth season of us if the cove clinic an office a dozen that because a period of allah blogs people so you see a moment in a way to the people with long blonde haired people places you know will slash you know it made you know but it was in this in the atmosphere in the navy which you live up there you know and it was intimidating endeavor but it doesn't seen black people say oh yes they were very very friendly they were very nice but a bit concerned as we walk closer to curious in the richest oh oh we were there about three four days within we'll return back to paris returned to do when i return to

paris and then they track meet him in paris france then somewhere we took to build back to america with jesse came back to have as he came back on this as he came back on the colloquy queen mary well cause you know with the back in your you know they had a big could be deer tick through the parade in this man an american male guardian of the forest and so they had a big pay for me in montana kozol oh well it was a biblical susan biggest ever happen to me it is the biggest thing ever happen to that town cause every every every tom the canary turned out for the parade see other states

well at a poem a big be grateful for it was the biggest it was a large has prayed that the river have in that small towns and everybody turned out for and there it was it was it was a wild wonderful sensation that was when i realized what i really a couple copies based on the weight of people that turned out to see me as a as if you know that's what i know well i had a very very good record because i want every iran won every major factory in this country i won they have the a half mile in the ncaa three years succession very sedentary thirty nine oh one the year icy icy for a championship in a half mile and a quarter thirty seven thirty i won the

pan american games is when a set the world record in them and then that cotton ball in dallas texas in nineteen thirty seven says that the record they clearly don't believe that i'm a one forty seven eight there's nobody there were never on that festival music they claim they were going to give me that were affected after i left dallas texas and when to tell for a long awaited ipad on one of summer summer tours came out in the paper they found a tractor be six feet sure you know although when that when i set the records came out the paper that the next day and ours they claimed the record would be except because the chief engineer of the southern authors university made it fact within one thousand of an inch but we played it they found a second successful you know

yes but do you mind or running was very difficult for me because the last track in question oil man's sky rancho mostly at madison square garden an adult ewalt fact used to be a city streets city street in the cabin and that was it was a wooden pole would track but with different very difficult for me although iowa it was able to win the new rules games in the head and a half mile in nineteen forty could mean a modified in winter that the ticket palin know i'm elana gordon yet because i have a lot of her for trouble trying to negotiate group of billboard truck well of the difficulty for me was the fact that bush the track was short from easy because a much drags the half if it to get out of fighting gamut from an it will just burn of quizzical never been around anybody at home so in nineteen forty horror of my mother my most successful

lately some fifty four he's a rebel well the difference is that the indoor into running and running around in your tracks as much smaller tracks than the apple trek job or trackers it is a quarter mile track because track is going is conducive to outlaw running the city casino running is us up at something extremely that unless you are and you've trained born into a taxi and on a regular basis you have difficult question of the surface on some runners who are where they displayed his take you in your state they do very well and as i mentioned earlier jamie herbert was very good at johnny boykin was very good

at that bracket all you've also the most those schools around newark are you for good writing was in oregon who tracks seaweed we did have that habitat beckett universe pittsburgh sea and so it made a very difficult for me at all while ago it was a straight away isn't so sure that any time any time i try to pass some by the time i reached the opponent that will buy a lot of terror and so with a momentum that i feel that what i had to turn over the wood i would swing way up on the top and of course i wouldn't lose five five six years but there's a lot of trade with those it was a very large prey that was wrong sponsored

by the mayor mayor mayor laguardia and of course we were all we were all real writing in various of the various vehicles as we pass through the past into the city to a news ticker tape parade and it was going nowhere exciting thing for for all the ship you'd never know know multiple level that the nineteen eighty four saying yes i did when i was a wonderful wonderful experience i thought that those games or what was the finest finest games with whoever put on i mean i know that i know that no other country in the future will ever be able to match those games because it was very well organized the pageantry for the opening ceremony was subpar and the closing some are patched it was super panic in the family and events the track events were excellent that

everybody perform are wonderfully well well it's a i wasn't but i was very impressed with a half from the man of the the the athlete when they have amounted to that would be a ticket with him to the country that get votes from now half of all he was supposed to run them out but he pulled out the city he ran in the primary and then eats it wasn't wasn't going to run in this is in the mouth but he did it he did an excellent job you would continue can check check check that out but he was he did a very fine job because israel is well a question

having won the olympics as a freshman who in returning back to the universe he will close it could affect my life that much because i went right on back to school that had a completely more years of college before before graduation and of everything of ads for everything became routine again with me see because although are at university i was always kept on the spot because if it was a track star to school and know they've always figure like until mcgonigal me season it always fear my point first and then they would fit in at the ever athletes points on the team now to whereby we would win the meat cause we had a paper color pink panther and it would it would come out every week jesse and goes that's what i would say that would when they would say to my point how many points that would win in the vincent i work at a stadium and it had figured at least

florence and corsica spot our commander pressure and i got to sing i've got the crucial from school but they had in mind and you know but that's it but that way was easy i disagree we experience beauty you know i think that you know it's only the discipline that you're receiving in your training i think that i think it helps our athletes are in an unknown and even been taken part in other feels when that person sports is that sports is good athletic sports as good for all individuals in their respects i think and i think didn't think it helped help so i know i've got to help me

this is true well tended to be a champion takes a lot of dedication are a lot of self self discipline a lot of hard work our consciences cutting edges and every respect fb