Members of the track team at West Point in the spring of 1943. John W. Morris is on the right and
Bernard Rogers, later Chief of Staff of the Army, is on the left.
So they sent me down to the track to work it off. By the beginning of the basketball season, I was
about well when a young child stepped out in the track directly in front of me, and I stopped
quickly and pulled a muscle in the other leg. So I missed the basketball season.
Later in the spring of 1941 I told the trainer that I thought I was okay, and I would like to leave
track. He said, "Well, there's a plebe track meet coming up, and I want you to run the 100-yard
dash in this meet to see if you are okay. The coach will put you out on the side all by yourself."
I won the race, and I set a new plebe record for the 100-yard dash. From then on, I never left the
track team. That's how I got on the track squad and had a very successful career in track.
Q: Did you keep up with the basketball?
No. You see, outdoor track was in the spring, and basketball season conflicted with winter indoor
A:
track. I was doing so well, I just stayed there. I had the fastest quarter mile in the United States
in 1943 and won the intercollegiate championships.
Q: That was something you had just started to do?
As a kid back home, when I was young, I used to run all the time. I didn't know I could run fast.
A:
I would have stayed with the 100 at West Point, but General Rogers was a good sprinter. They
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