Hestrie Cloete's windmill arm movements.

[stevehj197]

Re: Hestrie Cloete's windmill arm movements.

About 10 years ago I received, from Sports Illustrated, a special magazine edition that did nothing but have small pictures of every SI cover since 1954. I compiled a year-by-year summary of every track&field cover by year for about 40 years... steady decline was very evident. I wrote T&FN a letter about it and the printed it.

[Per Andersen]

Re: Hestrie Cloete's windmill arm movements.

Thanks Steve for telling me about Barksdale and S.I. Unfortunately I only saw my first S.I. when I lived in Oslo in '65 and could borrow it at the U.S. embassy. The picture I had was in the English mag World Sports.
Re the low profile of Track in North America I find it pretty ironic to listen to all the references on N.F.L telecasts to receivers and defensive backs with track background. If you knew nothing about sports in America except the N.F.L. you would have to think that track is a pretty important sport. Go figure.

Re: Hestrie Cloete's windmill arm movements.

Steve: You're absolutely right, of course. The decline in SI's coverage of t&fn has been precipitous. From the 1950s through about the early 1980s, a reasonable number of SI covers (and stories) were devoted to track/running. In the last twenty years that has declined to just about zero. A clear and painful reflection (or so SI presumes) of American sporting taste.

[6 5.5hjsteve]

Re: Hestrie Cloete's windmill arm movements.

make that "we" , meaning T & F, bagged another one. 3 years out of their first 5 years, T & F had their Sportsman of the Year. And that has been it except for Ryun in '66, Decker in '83, and Moses (1/2) in '84. Last 19 years, nada. Sadly, this says a lot.

[6 5.5hjsteve]

Re: Hestrie Cloete's windmill arm movements.

make that 3 out of the first 5 years.....he bagged one in 1958 too.

[6 5.5hjsteve]

Re: Hestrie Cloete's windmill arm movements.

minor, minor correction..... Sports Illustrated started in 1954, not 1955.

And 2 out of their first 3 years, their Sportsman of the Year was a Trackster !! 1955 was Brooklyn Dodgers' Johnny Podres; if you cannot figure out 1954, well, you are beyond help. And 1956 is pretty easy too.

[6 5.5hjsteve]

Re: Hestrie Cloete's windmill arm movements.

Per, I am going by memory here at it was a loooooong time ago, but Sports Illustrated, back in its early years, had some color photos of different HJ styles, and one of them was of Barksdale. It must have been sometime between 1955 ( SI started that summer i think ) and probably 1958 at the latest.... I bet it was '55 or '56.

So there is a project for someone. This is a pretty clear memory in my head of all this.... I remember looking at the picture and thinking his modified scissors style was weird but cool.

As for the other.... " Dumas and Faust..." I get, it, I get it !

[Per Andersen]

Re: Hestrie Cloete's windmill arm movements.

No I wasn't thinking Joe & Charlie. It was their last names that had some literary connotation like with that Hemingway guy whose first name is not Ernest but jumped for the U.S. in Paris this last summer. I should not have mixed in this arcane lit stuff when we were talking High Jump.
So does anybody out there have a picture of Bob Barksdale of Morgan State who went over the bar on his back, in the late 50s. He was maybe an early precursor to Fosbury. I once had a picture of him but could not appreciate it and then my mom threw out all my non Track&Field News mags.

[6 5.5hjsteve]

Re: Hestrie Cloete's windmill arm movements.

hey, Per said it, not me ! That's why I posted my response. Perhaps he was being facetious.

Re: Hestrie Cloete's windmill arm movements.

Tell me you're kidding Steve. Dumas . . . Faust . . . literary . . .

[stevehj197]

Re: Hestrie Cloete's windmill arm movements.

Per, I do not "get" the comment about "pretty literary team of Dumas and Faust." Faust had a reputation (perhaps later ) of being a bit of antelligent flake, but whatr's this about Dumas ?

I remember as a youngster laughing at Dumas' supposed comment (quoted in T&FN), talking of the Melbourne competition vs. Chilla Porter, when they both had jumped about 6"10" and were both trying for about 6'11", when he said, if they both had missed, " I thought they would flip a coin and I would surely lose."
And I believe T&FN prefaced that quote with the comment:


" Dumas, whose physical feats far outweigh his mental, said..:"

[Per Andersen]

Re: Hestrie Cloete's windmill arm movements.

Yes hjsteve you beat me too. I jumped 1/2 inch over my own head ( I am 6'3 ) and was within a foot of the w-rec until a Mr Thomas from B.U. ruined that for me in the spring of '60.
These days the knee will not tolerate any rolling or straddling although a back lay-out scissor is still somewhat possible if the bar goes no higher than 4'2. By the way a pretty literary team the U.S had in '60 with Dumas & Faust.

[6 5.5hjsteve]

Re: Hestrie Cloete's windmill arm movements.

ah HA then, I beat you in HS by a whopping 3/4" !! Who knows what greatness you might have achieved if you had continued........

Re: Hestrie Cloete's windmill arm movements.

You've got NO reason to feel bad; my PR is a mammoth 5'10" (I never hjed after HS). If I'd been competing in the 1870s, I would have been very good!

[6 5.5hjsteve]

Re: Hestrie Cloete's windmill arm movements.

you too tafnut.