rnoldh
Stylish Dinosaur
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I had mentioned Dave Rickey in my post here, See post 22634 about Rickey and the 5 Olympic Gold Medals.
He was an interesting character who I had met many years ago. He was an LSU graduate petroleum engineer. But he never made a career of that. Back in college at LSU he ran track with Billy Cannon ( later a famous NFL star).
Rickey then moved to Houston where he had the idea of starting a track team back around 1966. He did it and called the team the Houston Striders. Things were very different then. Amateur athletes were not paid at all and success in the Olympics was not a guarantee of big bucks and further success.
Rickey signed up a lot of extraordinary athletes like Jim Hines, Bob Beaman, and Willie Davenport. The Olympics were in Mexico City ion 1968 and his team won 5 Gold Medals. This was the famous Olympics where John Carlos and Tommie Smith raised their hands with the black gloves.
Anyway, Rickey's guys came back to Houston, and it was a big deal, but not remotely like it would ber now. Rickey did run a few city of Houston programs but never again duplicated his Olympic successes.
I met him in the late 1980s and loved his stories since I'm a history buff. He also claimed to be quite a ladies man, but I wondered about that. Well lo and behold, when he died in 2007 I was an executor and I went though his things. There was little of value. But amazingly, old Rickey was into the ladies. In the 1970S he tried the old "Model's Scam". He would advertise that he was a talent agent and would provide free photo portfolios to those girls he thought had potential. Turns out lots of them had potential. He had hundreds of photos from that era! The very best of the he made cheerleaders on his team.
Here's Rickey in his later years:
Here are the Houston Strider Cheerleaders circa 1968:
Here my favorite (Sharon H. who reminds me very much of my current "personal trainer" A) presenting a medal to Olympic Gold Medalist Jim Hines.
Here are some more photos of Sharon ( all with signed model's releases):
And finally here is Bobby Morrow ( who is still alive), and was Rickey's best buddy.
Morrow won 3 Gold medals in the 1956 Melbourne Olympics and was a s famous as Michal Jordan in his day.
Bobby Morrow and the 1956 Olympics!
He was an interesting character who I had met many years ago. He was an LSU graduate petroleum engineer. But he never made a career of that. Back in college at LSU he ran track with Billy Cannon ( later a famous NFL star).
Rickey then moved to Houston where he had the idea of starting a track team back around 1966. He did it and called the team the Houston Striders. Things were very different then. Amateur athletes were not paid at all and success in the Olympics was not a guarantee of big bucks and further success.
Rickey signed up a lot of extraordinary athletes like Jim Hines, Bob Beaman, and Willie Davenport. The Olympics were in Mexico City ion 1968 and his team won 5 Gold Medals. This was the famous Olympics where John Carlos and Tommie Smith raised their hands with the black gloves.
Anyway, Rickey's guys came back to Houston, and it was a big deal, but not remotely like it would ber now. Rickey did run a few city of Houston programs but never again duplicated his Olympic successes.
I met him in the late 1980s and loved his stories since I'm a history buff. He also claimed to be quite a ladies man, but I wondered about that. Well lo and behold, when he died in 2007 I was an executor and I went though his things. There was little of value. But amazingly, old Rickey was into the ladies. In the 1970S he tried the old "Model's Scam". He would advertise that he was a talent agent and would provide free photo portfolios to those girls he thought had potential. Turns out lots of them had potential. He had hundreds of photos from that era! The very best of the he made cheerleaders on his team.
Here's Rickey in his later years:
Here are the Houston Strider Cheerleaders circa 1968:
Here my favorite (Sharon H. who reminds me very much of my current "personal trainer" A) presenting a medal to Olympic Gold Medalist Jim Hines.
Here are some more photos of Sharon ( all with signed model's releases):
And finally here is Bobby Morrow ( who is still alive), and was Rickey's best buddy.
Morrow won 3 Gold medals in the 1956 Melbourne Olympics and was a s famous as Michal Jordan in his day.
Bobby Morrow and the 1956 Olympics!
