And so we bid farewell to Harrison 'Bones' Dillard, R.I.P.

'Who the hell was he?', I hear you mutter and I don't blame you because that was exactly what I muttered when I saw his name on the obit page of The Telegraph.  Well, he was the winner of the 100 metres at the London Olympics in 1948 in a time that equalled that of Jesse Owens in Berlin.  He also shared a win for America in the 4x100 relay.  This took my notice because back in the day, er, in fact, way, way back in the day, my favourite sport was athletics, in general, and hurdles in particular.  'Bones' Dillard went on to win the 100 metre hurdles at Helsinki in 1952.

  Harrison Dillard (centre) on the Olympic podium following his 100m victory in London in 1948 Credit: Mark Kauffman/The LIFE Picture Collection via Getty Images

I still remember spending an inordinate amount of time after school hours practising with hurdles, working out exactly how far behind the start line I needed to be (about an inch, I seem to remember!) in order to hit the first hurdle at exactly the right place to clear it cleanly and come down the other side also in exactly the right place ... and so on down the line.  In retrospect, quite ridiculous, really, but there was somethimg immensely satisfying about sprinting down a row of hurdles and clearing them all at maximum speed.

So, farewell, 'Bones' Dillard, you were obviously a great athlete.

 

 

Comments

[Whitewall]

I tried low hurdles in high school as high hurdles were, well, too high. The first thing I learned was to set each hurdle in the proper facing direction which made each hurdle easier to clear. A wrong facing hurdle is actually a wall as I learned on my first day.

[David Duff]

OUCH!!! I don't even want to think what that was like!

[JK]

https://www.powerlineblog.com/archives/2019/11/tom-cotton-by-acclamation.php

Sorry about this Bob.

[JK]

https://arktimes.com/arkansas-blog/2019/11/16/the-mahony-mystery-needs-answers-including-from-the-arkansas-republican-party

https://www.arkansasonline.com/news/2019/nov/13/senate-challenger-exits-race-20191113/?news-politics

https://www.swarkansasnews.com/2019/08/senate-hopeful-looks-to-make-impact-in-rural-areas/

That toplink's for you Bob - I expect you and your'n might better check y'alls candidate's strip joint bar tabs to make sure 'action for delinquency' ain't amongst whatever else there may be.

Cotton in 2024!

[JK]

https://arktimes.com/arkansas-blog/2019/11/25/democratic-party-still-in-dark-about-mahony-sees-no-path-to-field-a-candidate

Oh darn.

Probably the best part is in the comments.

[Glesga]

David, I still have my 1965 best performance school sports medal.
I keep it in my grannies little Gallacher's Wit & Wisdom Menthol Snuff Box.