Sunday, December 18, 2016

Who Else is on The Sportscaster Card? - Post #002

I went through a few an unsorted stack of cards to come up with my second post about others on a Sportscaster card.  It is allowing me to learn more about the player listed and the others in the pictures.

Track and field used to be on television frequently in the 1970s.  As a result, I know most of the runners from that era and many who have had Olympic success after that.  For athletes who starred before that I don't know a lot.  Reading these great bios should be fun and informative.  Hey, I sound like the Sportscaster commercial!


Martin Lauer was a West German sprinter, decathlete and hurdler.  Quite the athlete, he ran a relay (gold medal winners), did the hurdles and the deacathlon in the Olympics.  

The card back tells a great story about the Zurich meet and its suspect timing.  I didn't realize that automatic timing was already being used in 1959.  I know that automatic timing has its own Sportscaster card so I will need to read up on that.  

Hand timing has always been suspect due to inconsistencies.  That is mentioned on the card.  Well, one can still manipulate automatic times.  I don't want to get into the details of that here. 



Laird is shown racing Willie May of the USA.  May won seven Big Ten titles while at Indiana.  He also won a silver medal in the hurdles at the 1960 Olympics as Lauer finished fourth.

The picture doesn't appear to be from the Olympics since May ran the 110-meter hurdles in Rome.  These hurdles are slightly staggered so the event pictured must have included turning.

May coached high school in Evanston, IL for a long time.  He's been regarded as one of the state's best coaches.  I ran against his teams when I was in school and I coached against him in his last year before retiring.

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