In Praise of Mr. Skeets

[Marlow]

Nice home-page-linked article on him.

Though he no longer holds the world record, nor the American record, and though he never won an Olympic or World Championship gold medal, it still holds true that no other hurdler inspired the sense of awe that Nehemiah inspired.

Truer words never spoken, at least for me. I've had many HHHeroes from Davenport to Milburn to AJ, but no other hurdler captured my imagination like Nehemiah. I was always fascinated by his technique, which is why I saw G Foster and C Jackson as 'wrong' - they simply didn't look like Davenport-Milburn-Skeets-AJ (W Ross influence?), especially in arm carriage. I have hurdled for 45 years (!!!), been coaching hurdlers for 16 and the closer I can get myself and my charges to him, the better.
Then there's his anchor leg for Maryland at the Penn Relays.
WOOOOOoooooOOOOOoooooOOOOO

[Texas]

Re: In Praise of Mr. Skeets

Nice home-page-linked article on him.

Though he no longer holds the world record, nor the American record, and though he never won an Olympic or World Championship gold medal, it still holds true that no other hurdler inspired the sense of awe that Nehemiah inspired.

Truer words never spoken, at least for me. I've had many HHHeroes from Davenport to Milburn to AJ, but no other hurdler captured my imagination like Nehemiah. I was always fascinated by his technique, which is why I saw G Foster and C Jackson as 'wrong' - they simply didn't look like Davenport-Milburn-Skeets-AJ (W Ross influence?), especially in arm carriage. I have hurdled for 45 years (!!!), been coaching hurdlers for 16 and the closer I can get myself and my charges to him, the better.
Then there's his anchor leg for Maryland at the Penn Relays.
WOOOOOoooooOOOOOoooooOOOOO

Nehemiah ran down Villanova's Tim Dale which deserves....WOOOOOO. In the 4x2 he ran down LSU's Orlando McDaneil who was like Nehemiah a hurdler. While it no doubt looked amazing, I can't o with a ..WOOOOOOOO...simply because McDaneil was no stud 200m man.

The 4x2 relay anchor that really was a ...WOOOOOOOOO. Was when Tommie Smith ran down (Fresno) New Mexico's Bernie Rivers who had a solid 8-10 yards on him. Rivers a National class 200m man back in the 60's.

Another relay leg that looked amazing but is a bit of an illusion was Bullet Bob's 64 4x1 blaze. Yes Hayes cooked but who did he really run down? Not one anchorman other than Hayes ran in the 100m final. There was no Canada with Jerome or Cuba with Figuerola.

[tandfman]

Re: In Praise of Mr. Skeets

In the 4x2 he ran down LSU's Orlando McDaneil who was like Nehemiah a hurdler. While it no doubt looked amazing, I can't o with a ..WOOOOOOOO...simply because McDaneil was no stud 200m man.

Obviously, you weren't there. Trust me. It was definitely a WOOOOOOOOOO.

[Texas]

Re: In Praise of Mr. Skeets

In the 4x2 he ran down LSU's Orlando McDaneil who was like Nehemiah a hurdler. While it no doubt looked amazing, I can't o with a ..WOOOOOOOO...simply because McDaneil was no stud 200m man.

Obviously, you weren't there. Trust me. It was definitely a WOOOOOOOOOO.

What did McDaneil run the 200 in?

[dj]

Re: In Praise of Mr. Skeets

In the 4x2 he ran down LSU's Orlando McDaneil who was like Nehemiah a hurdler. While it no doubt looked amazing, I can't o with a ..WOOOOOOOO...simply because McDaneil was no stud 200m man.

Obviously, you weren't there. Trust me. It was definitely a WOOOOOOOOOO.

What did McDaneil run the 200 in?

His best was 21.0y, from high school. Seldom sprinted.

The key to the race was that Nehemiah took the baton about 8m behind McDaniel, and was one lane to the outside of McDaniel.

[SQUACKEE]

My biggest woooo ever was at san jose state- John Carlos had run a windy 9 flat 100 yards. They put him in the 4 x 440. He caught a "normal" 440 dude-maybe a 880 specialist. Carlos passed him with 9 flat speed and i have never seen anyone passed like that since. I would guess Carlos was passing at close to 9 flat pace and the other guy was running around 12 second pace. It was amazing.

[Marlow]

I would guess Carlos was passing at close to 9 flat pace and the other guy was running around 12 second pace. It was amazing.

It would be even more amazing if he completed his leg after that sort of effort.

[rumbleyoungmanrumble]

My biggest woooooooooo was the 98EC w4X100, Arron chasing down Privalova.
Although my woooooooooo would never match the French commentary - that man had an orgasm, no doubt
Check it out on Youknowwhere.

[Brian]

Re: In Praise of Mr. Skeets

Nice home-page-linked article on him.

Though he no longer holds the world record, nor the American record, and though he never won an Olympic or World Championship gold medal, it still holds true that no other hurdler inspired the sense of awe that Nehemiah inspired.

Still don't know why he turned to pro football. Money? He was on top of his game, there had to be decent amounts coming his way. Nothing left to do in the sport? He still had the Olympic title to shoot for. Afraid of losing to his rivals/Greg Foster? Puh-leeze!

Never made sense to me back then, either, although I admit I never agonized over it all that much at the time.

[tandfman]

Re: In Praise of Mr. Skeets

Still don't know why he turned to pro football. Money? He was on top of his game, there had to be decent amounts coming his way. Nothing left to do in the sport? He still had the Olympic title to shoot for. Afraid of losing to his rivals/Greg Foster? Puh-leeze!

Never made sense to me back then, either, although I admit I never agonized over it all that much at the time.

I always thought that the biggest factor was that in spite of the fact that he was the best 110m hurdler in the world--ever--he did not have the kind of recognition that hundreds of pro football players had.

But I can see some other factors that could have influenced his decision. One was money. He was probably doing well in t&f, but in those days it was still under the table, and there were limits on what he could have made.

Remember, too, that he did not know, when he switched to pro football, that he wouldn't excel at it. If he had a real chance to become a solid first stringer with a Super Bowl team, he would have earned far more fame and money than he could possibly have by running the hurdles. As it turned out, his football career was not outstanding. But he couldn't have known that when he made his decision, and he was undoubtedly the kind of athlete who had enough self-confidence to believe that he could accomplish more at football than he ended up actually doing.

[sprintblox]

My biggest woooooooooo was the 98EC w4X100, Arron chasing down Privalova.
Although my woooooooooo would never match the French commentary - that man had an orgasm, no doubt
Check it out on Youknowwhere.

Ridiculously awesome. I'd never seen that race till today. That was the season of her 10.73.

[bambam]

To show how little football people know about track & field, I remember well the Sports Illustrated story circa 1982-83 when Nehemiah was making the switch to football. They ran him thru a bunch of tests, and told him he had to do their flexibility tests, to which he replied, "You want to test if a world-class hurdler is flexible enough for football?"

A beautiful, beautiful athlete. I wish I had seen him in person.