THE SPORT OF ROWING were warned, was to invite Montezuma’s Revenge. In the end, every single person on the rowing team got it, though, and somehow we survived. “Before we arrived, there had been student demonstrations protesting the amount of money that was being spent on the Olympics while poor people were displaced. Thousands, perhaps tens of thousands of people simply disappeared in police roundups. “Harvard had become involved in the political aspects of the Olympics, but I wasn’t political and really didn’t care at first. For me, the trip was to try to win a Gold Medal come hell or high water. It had been beyond my wildest dreams to participate in the Olympics, and initially nothing came into my vision but that. “For a guy from Idaho, it was really magical just to be there. In the previous year, I had met my first Jew, been a minority among blacks in Philadelphia, hob-knobbed with people whose ancestors were George Washington’s peers, and here I was with members of the U.S. Team that I had watched on television. “Spencer Haywood of future NBA fame was there. So was Jim Ryun, the world record holder in the mile, George Foreman, who later became the Heavyweight Boxing Champion of the World, Dick Fosbury, who revolutionized the high jump, Bill Toomey, who won the decathlon, Bob Beamon, who set a long jump record in Mexico City that lasted for twenty-three years, and Al Oerter, who won four Olympic Gold Medals as a discus thrower. Hal Connolly was competing in his fifth Olympics as a hammer thrower. Wyomia Tyus and Mark Spitz were there, and so was I! “I learned that the world is really one place, not hundreds of countries. It was in Mexico City that I realized that the Russians look just like we do despite the Iron Curtain. I spoke with North Vietnamese who made a point of saying that we were friends.4453 “I became aware that we were all athletes first and citizens of our countries second. We all lived to compete. It was quite a realization, and I am glad that it happened to me while I was young. Xochimilco Jones: “The race course was located on the Cuemanco Canal near the floating gardens of Xochimilco. It was dredged out of swamps, and is a man-made, concrete lined rowing course that is still used today. “Apparently, after the course was completed, vegetation took hold, and eventually it became unrowable. To solve the problem, they brought in fish to eat the vegetation. Over time, the fish took over and made the course unrowable. To remove the fish, they brought in turtles. Eventually the course became unrowable because of the turtles. Finally they drained the course, removed all the animals and just poisoned the plants. We joked that we were glad that they hadn’t brought in crocodiles to get rid of the turtles. “While we were there, it rained hard with thunder and lightning. This was a wet time of year, but what was really hard to deal with was the combination of heat, humidity and altitude. Coming from Colorado, most of us got some sort of illness, some more serious than others. The stroke of the Harvard crew got so sick he couldn’t row. In our own boat, Bill Purdy had an adverse reaction to penicillin, and that caused him significant pain. Opening Ceremonies “We (Penn) decided to go to the Opening Ceremonies. It was surreal. We 4453 This was at the very height of the Vietnam War. 1228
