Black Champions; Interview with Mack Robinson

fb thank you well i came in fast in california nineteen twenty with my mother and four three other brothers and one sister make and a family of fly and that we will want that mystery and it was in those days which you might say it was a normal childhood and we who are discriminated against at that time it was so prevalent that we at the

come accustomed to it and it didn't really make make that much difference again the army look directly at you are over between ok this is just very airy yes a question it to be like amy passed in california nineteen and twenty with my mother and three brothers and one sister in recess until five in my family my mother had left a

husband and we came here i grew up in elementary school system of pasadena unlike timothy junior high school system in pasadena john your high school and i went to destin city college later ahmad emma connors is a lot to university would exceed our years so we we were a segregated era and that retirees who weren't allowed to swim of brookside part to report was two years and at that time the churches of southern california used to have what's called a union picnic and the church as with the other books i parked am we would have be a full use of the swimming pool that they have that was only time we were

able to swim and that was last year there are maybe an armed time sermon and part of my life i spent helping to bring about the us foreign policies of pasadena and other things that were happening to minorities we do well that started in elementary school we sat with games on the playgrounds to classes with hal blaine game standup tag like a tag team of cyclists snake in and the teachers' most a time when we would get me to start started off and i when i play like jason the fox and i'll have to break down that rain and then the whole class the start line that maine and i learned how to school here and sidestepping died in between and the next person then that caught me and

tag me we went back to inform the ring all over again and he was here she would break out of the rain we start to say so and as time went on that i found out that i was very fast and they're just just developed from there as a normal kid there was nothing exceptional but it just the where i grew up and i think those circular loved no shows my age probably was tested and i was you know when you find where unity is that for years has set a state and that's what i did still doesn't gee i still iran and twenty i am over also in a race and that was my first competitive race and i tied to the city wreckage and by the time they deny school season no word i had broken that record it now as in nineteen thirty two and that record

stood until nineteen fifty six yes well in junior high school you're not really a coach you placed out there and knock off so you do this than i usually ellen you try you do this and that and you do there junior high schoolers got a record for you sealing out situation and you kind of get involved in that way and you see where you're strong parts courts are a few weeks his band you go to your strong points and you continue down that avenue lissy says my high school coach was the one that

i get a lot of good and it you gave me a lot of help but i think that in reality i just developed i think that my involvement was more of a natural standpoint or rather than as say like you know some people may see in the movies where you go through all these actually it's of exercises and that phrase of this later and now so is big data's on the side and he's going to do this and he sees it as heat wheaties are aware of and at all those say well i did not have that part of the training the coaching was came from practice out on the field the coaches and actually teach you how to start and all of those things and help you to improve you'll have to go away and the funniest thing about us well at the high

school i was ineligible for the doctors declared ineligible because i had a heart murmur and they refuse to let me run track and my first year in high school and they're so rather than doing a thing as far as the hardliners actually broke my heart and i quit school ids to he just walked out of school and refused to go so i went to work on odd jobs in labor feel in and i'll work with my mother no washing windows waxing floors and things of that nature which is that was a time when she was doing so i help bring in money for the family and nineteen thirty four i went back to school and the doctors again declared me ineligible saying that that they would not be responsible for me to run track and again i was ineligible

and i went around and around with them about why they were for years and that they saw that i was determined i wanted iran there's a well if you can get your mother to release the school and a responsibility of anything ever happened to you on the track users will let you can't compete let all my mother that i wanted to run track and if i die running track that's the way i wanted to go and i said i want to sign the papers so ok with death which you want to switch the camera so she signed up and i ran i start running track and i want everybody i guess race that i was an american tour before and i became the state champion undefeated at it that year i said a school only directed in a long jump and that was a nineteen thirty four and that record was

broken until nineteen sixty six so i started out basically a good man here individuals who are were sound and never had a problem or an objective from a doctor's standpoint most of them are gone i'm the only living sprinter from the nineteen thirty six olympic games that participated in the games my guest jesse owens for draper frank why we are doing this as well i don't think i ever set my sights on a particular event or

saying i was a competitive one the game start to develop a big i got involved and it was a process of elimination and i just continued to go on up the ladder and what most people don't know and the sports writers of today don't know is that i've set the first olympic record and the tryouts i broke at tunes nineteen thirty two a big record in the two hundred meters or los angeles than you and jesse owens as great as soon as he was to that day he hadn't broken olympic record i broke it and then i met just your for the first time in the finals in new york and jesse beat me one foot and he broke the record that status in law sounds so therefore you really never got a chance to get into the record

book that i was the only way we know while and the tryouts here i was competing in it to intermediaries and at that time i broke at coleman's olympic record there in the coliseum and this was first time it had been broken so i was seeing will record lauren it to an unusual about two to three weeks until i met jesse owens in the finals trials in roanoke island and new york there he beat me by one foot and he broke the record

that eddie tolan i mean that i had established and los angeles was that the first time yes i was very competitive and this year absence of the nation very well established that that's going to really guess i never point eight myself towards any any spreader that there was all i think all i was concerned about was being there and they have to be ready for me because i was ready for them and throughout my crack track career i was never on a condition i was never injured and i felt as though that and mike and mike competitive year that your way to succeed is to be ready and

stay in shape and i stayed there qualified me to go to the finals we had three regional events one was in new york one was in chicago and one reason was close and in those areas the first three individuals most qualified to go to new york to compete in the finals here in new york and then and the files in new york that's where you qualified to become a member of the team well yes and no it was something i really hadn't being about to have put too much emphasis on the thought behind it

my involvement was trying to do the best i possibly could through the process of elimination and i figured that i could be the next guy and that's where it went and why i made the team i just knew that i was a wonder that i was going to a do good and in berlin i was memorable school about it i'd never say became big editor anything of this nature and i didn't change my attitude towards my friends or for anyone else i was still myself into this is the rise in a

while it's hard to say how the family actually was feeling because they were here in pasadena and i was in the er but i'm quite sure everyone was excited now my brother that was owed that i live know he was like popcorn common out of a machine because he was so it was really appreciate and there he liked to build their money and i think it will that money on what i was going to do and there i suppose the loss of money because i did win i didn't win the finals because i'm sure that he will let the farm on it or all i think that everyone was is as enthusiastic as you or anyone else would be as close a member of the family of your family would was making its successful venture so

we had we were just normal individuals that was great you know he appeared to ray about not like in that most people think about in the movies or some kind of a program where the hero comes home and everything is laid out in a nightmare that didn't happen but yes all right when i get down to the hundred meter relay team which are qualified for i was eliminated by the coaches i wasn't even allowed to dissipate and leia trial heats or runoff race is between

is what they did was change the relay team all around they removed three of us from the relay team semi so a mighty glickman and myself we were taken off the relief team and that team was made up of ralph made get jesse owens for draper and frank why go now and one of them a trial began around office to find out who was going to be the fourth man frank black off ralph metcalf and jesse owens is already automatically selected by the coaches that have how fourth man so marty glickman sam a store and for draper they worked out a runoff to see was gonna be the fourth man and that basically they told me forget it and when they met me race against for

marty glickman won that race semi stolen was second and for draper was thirty he was three tenths of a second slower than the winner the coaches put him on foot for draper on the relay team we argue that animating hammer and they told me point blank if i animated and the two armies they never would have even put me on the boat to go over and the gore's i sound if you know jack ruby and so i i was quite vocal and i express myself and so ralph the justice said that he would back off and not

run in a relay in certain things were sort of changes will also discuss semester who was going around the coaches decided that yes it would leave office love may get roiled second for draper thirteen frank why cobb ran for a lot that actually set up was the two black surfers at two flights a nice and that's where basically you see you get the glory from normally at a track meet the fastest man iran first or last the second man runs first or last the source man runs second and the next man he runs thirty therefore you say i was in between is lost in a fastest to pick up any slack but one

of you may develop and the coaches have decided among themselves is that the way it was going to be and there was a lot of it inside fighting there have a lot of hard feelings but coated decided that's the way it was going to be the same way with eleanor holmes the judges officials didn't like the american officials didn't like the fact that eleanor holmes was given first class treatment by the captain of the boat suv on topic and she had done cocktail wire where she'd normally drank and she was still the fastest former that we had as far as that is in the world that time but somebody got mad about something and they just pour off the teen period we try to sign a petition to have or reinstated athletes about the officials said no

nonsense against this controversial a lot of talk about the association between our officials and they are the german government and which was in charge of the games and they were unhappy with the amount of blacks i was on the team in whenever the billowing in general the recent in recent years new revenue increases in the finals the two years wow if rather hard to describe i think because it's kind of like a flight

you got two less than air thirty seconds to two enemies now there's not a great deal of thinking that you can do you just listen for a gown and when it goes off you're off and there you're doing a dynasty out there and before you know it also updates on the races or blood it is it's a good feeling to be there you know we had sixty four individuals that i was in the two hundred meters in the very beginning and they have to be eliminated too eight so when you look at your inside of the eight hour sixty four that's not bad and maggie gone down and you're number two other eight and which covers the whole world to me it's great i have no qualms about finishing

second i've enjoyed place and second my silver medal has a lot of meaning and to me and i believe it has much meaning and it but i think that they're going to make was taken away and the fact that i wasn't really given an opportunity to win the ball because i was not close by the coaches i think you're right why wasn't

given an opportunity to have a shot at the gold because i was not coach by the coaches know as i ask any question of needs baja ourselves particularly down in history i was out there on my own i did need a pair of spikes i didn't have an opportunity to talk on the radio with bill henry who was broadcasting back to california and i would bet time i certainly would have asked friends and fast enough to send me a pair of spikes or send enough money to be able to buy their shoes you see i left california with a hundred fifty dollars mr takei my train ticket cost ninety nine dollars round trip from pasadena california at that i know that i have less than fifty dollars when i landed in new york and i'm a dod monday team and we might have less than

thirty dollars so linda first i'm actually away from home not knowing what tomorrow was going to really i was trying to hold onto a dollar or two in order to meet any priscilla mason i might have left a tie but i certainly was thinking that i would be you look dapper with spikes and things of this nature has so that's what happened to me still does that very well i would i would have not gone that deep into the ground because the

short supply and therefore it made a lot of difference i just would like to have an opportunity to have been given to have been given that there's like i did get a pair of spikes after the games and i went to aa on a tour and i went out to norway and i was given up they're spiked by the norwegian tracked love it there it was that it has been the norwegian gave me a pair of spikes

at that time he says he rarely written your mr wade we went there he goes on a relay team of was a cornelius johnson a johnny winter of a l six and myself and we were a thousand yard race you know we seemed club geithner's made a pair of spikes iran or three hundred yards instead of the two automakers in that race and we set a war record four thousand yards now cornelius johnson a normal high jumper it around a

fantastic haven't made his elf it's rather fantastic to automate is iran is an exceptional first three hundred page i would do it we all it has overshadowed by sales in it that's so we settle record for a thousand yards and then norway i came back to paris and then to automate is there i rarely twenty point eight and two hundred meters the olympic record was set by jesse owens in and bring them at twenty point seven so we ran one tenth of a second apart as fourth time goes but in that race i didn't have competition and i was approximately twenty yards ahead of the field so i was and i

basically just breeze again do you say nice and i was surprised when i got the food that there was no strain on my face whatsoever and i think competition might've mates and if you made not by the spikes did i know we because i was up on my toes and i was able to dry and we i felt feel as though that i have some kind of how you in again to sell it might've been somewhat different than thirty six olympics changes you know oh you know we didn't have a single team sports in america was still largely certain conditions that old says i was thinking in the sense that among the athletes themselves

are changing conditions in the most especially when loudly return from a trip to the games we didn't have enough trying to actually we could come together as a body to maybe try to form or an organization or actually discuss the policies that went on during the games we are we all went our separate ways i was really happy to get back home myself i left that last part of june and heroes almost september getting back home and it was a long time and that was a good feeling to be back home but to a degree a disappointing god

because the employer that was given by it the city itself early forties here at that particular decision well i don't know too much about the final decision as to

jackson vomit and baseball was concerned he had established himself as the outstanding athlete by being the first individual to score four letters at ucla has never been done before and allison baseball basketball football and track and then he went into the service and he was a second lieutenant and when he came out he started playing ball with the kansas city monarchs and black professional teams and i suppose i'm the sculptures out what's most teams also man corina what they say ricki was interested and bring about some changes and through his scouting report very thing they could find a selected jacket making forty six that year he played for the montreal they won their late that year

and jack was signed in nineteen forty seven to the brooklyn dodgers was the atmosphere original series or think maybe that one and people generally feel awful history of black people being kept as many people just didn't get an opportunity to wow during those days you know there was some very much movement towards immigration as for sports and other activities as concern alan i was not involved in basically a political movement at that time so we just came along and basically had to accept what the standard had been laid before us the major change that came about was in nineteen forty seven after jack was signed and the baseball

we came out of the kitchen and came out of the upstairs maid downstairs maybe show for butler and gardener and when you look around the country and you see what positions we now are able to hold i think that you have to contribute to that to that success subject in baseball are intelligence now can be used and not wasted and corporations in every aspect of the world is looking for the best talent that they can get you had no professional players and any professional sport of today now at that time i should say now we are dominating the professional sports and we have quarterbacks that can't be quarterbacks is

your readers are willing to give us their chance and we're going to get you and i want my iphone roasted stand and kids don't give up because if you give up and say you can't then you want a quitter never awareness well as the brother of a man who had to give it has so much to the world to the united states i had watched the situation goal by and which i did not feel that jack had ever been given proper recognition when roberto

clemente hang down and the other outstanding athletes have had statues made of them and place in various points of the country and those sites and would so individuals felt it was proper nothing had been done for jack and i had this idea on my mind since about nineteen seventy and seventy two four month before jack guy i was talking with him in new york and i said to him or do you think of me having a statue built of you well after so many years ago on by and nobody had actually come up with an idea or had done anything about a statue life size

i thought it was time that he'd be recognized and i said about setting up a cooperation non profit in order to build the statue for him the statue now is that the ucla jackie robinson baseball stadium and i am very pleased and proud through the help of my wife to develop the program and which is vacuous than california conversation with in nineteen seventy two said that conversation chose love

i had been thinking about the statue of him for a long time because no one else had ventured to do it and so i asked him what he thought about having a statue built of him and he told me well sounds good if you think you could do it why go ahead well for months later with him dying there was a setback because at that time i was sure that someone would come up with this idea i am etlinger an automated on and then that here's sarah lenton years later nothing happened and i say well no one seemed to be adjusted so that it's going to be done i'm gonna try to do it and i started out and

i start soliciting funds from friends across the country and people whom i thought would be willing to make a contribution to help build a statue which i estimate of the cost of a hundred thousand dollars and the statue is up but financially i'm an old but it his statue has been paid for but there's an awful lot of other extra money is that it's needed and i'm still working on that phase but as a beautiful life size statue of jack it's an on deck position and i think of the brutal statue an authentic time anyone is out en masse as a southern california or to ucla and ask where the statue isn't at the direction says the heart to get here let's talk about what you need to do it after what has happened after modernist

people are inherent think the tradition certainly mutual funds that mission or listen to today's sports well we have some fantastic sports stars and today the thing that i see that it's different than work to enter sudan how much money we're going to make and we don't put enough back into the sport's in a self help when a young people with children on the streets those children are your idols and they're looking up to you you're gonna have to stay away from the drug scene and i talk to young people and show them a better way to go you know when that when you have your idol becomes involved and a serious problem in effect to them in various ways and you would say oh no he would do that

she wouldn't do that or whether you're really disappointed or you might say well and yet your feelings sort of the responsibility that the champion reason becomes a champion relationship between for champions but i think a champion i should turn his rewards back to young people and give them a pat on the back you see yasser doing something that you feel would help him to improve take the time they would take a minute it too and show him a point that would change his approach or attitudes around about the game that he's

involved and i see a lot of youngsters myself that out when i go to attract me i look for specifically that look for our motion made motions and all those things and if i get an opportunity to see that to see that individual i speak to them and a healthful manner but i don't try to james a coach's decision where that athlete but some odd points of keeping his arms straight forward our motions and leg motion and realizing went to move up on a on your competitor or what position you want to be an at the picnic time little things that a youngster who's competing is not fully aware of what he's doing he's so bet on achieving until he does not realize how much he is

losing by just a few more points