Oh, no big deal, just runnin' around in a circle a times wearing a hat. Yep, it's me in a hat. I think I'll trail the pack for a bit. OK, this is boring. brb, sprinting to the finish and winning by three thousandths of a second. Oh what, you don't think I'm going to win this? OK, [runs faster] [wins gold medal] THERE, TAKE THAT.
The man in the hat, as you can see in the video, is American sprinter Dave Wottle. He's of particular significance to our camp because he ran track for Bowling Green, 30 years before the track program was eliminated in 2002 for budgetary and Title XI reasons. It's been said that Wottle wore the hat because it kept his long flowing blonde locks from flapping all over the place, and nobody needs that because of wind resistance. But even when he went short-hair on us all, he kept the golf hat because it was "his look."
The 1:45:86 time in Munich's 1972 Olympics tied a world record set four years prior, both of which were broken several times since. (That time would have put Wottle sixth in the 2008 Beijing games.)
And even beyond MAC alum, this is just a great freakin' finish. It was considered a rather sizable upset over Yevhen Arzhanov, the Soviet who settled for silver. Perhaps with good reason it's not remembered as one of the moments of all-time Olympics, or even the moments of 1972 (the USA basketball protest and the terrorist attacks are kind of bigger), and like many MAC fans, that's not what we're looking for.
This one can be ours. Outs with a hat.
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