God's Greatest Athlete

This column was first published one year ago during the Triple Crown of horse racing season:
   I regularly take a break from writing about "politics and public schools" every so often, as a way to avert insanity (although some say it hasn't worked very well) - and to reflect on life's occurrences during my "school days" in the late 1960's and 1970's. The impressionable nature of our teen years seem to be what many of us rely on for making philosophical life decisions thereafter. The events and personal happenings which many experienced during their early part of living on earth - impacted the thought processes, ethically and morally, for the rest of our lives.
   With "Justify" winning the Triple Crown of thoroughbred racing on Saturday evening, another Triple Crown winner of 1973 came to mind. In my opinion, God created the world's most perfect athlete on March 30, 1970, the year of his birth. He died at the young age of nineteen, but made an impression on millions such that the world had never seen for an athlete. Of course, many know I'm referring to Secretariat, the great American thoroughbred racehorse who won the triple-crown of races (Kentucky Derby, Preakness, and Belmont Stakes) in 1973. One may only appreciate what God can create sometimes by watching miracle creations in action, and millions (including me) saw all three horse racing events unfold on TV that year. You may also see "God's perfect athlete" on YouTube these days, and please do... but be sure to have plenty of tissues for blotting the tears. I still get teary eyed today when I watch or read recollections of Secretariat, just as I did 45 years ago - when I witnessed history and God's Greatest Athlete.

   I was glued to the TV on that Saturday evening so long ago, getting ready to watch the 1973 Belmont Stakes, the third and last jewel of the "Triple Crown". I had just finished getting ready to go visit a "girl-friend" that evening, and was watching the race with my dad - a real cowboy. As the race unfolded - Secretariat and Sham (arguably the second best racehorse of all time in the mind of many) quickly made it a two-horse race, running neck and neck for three quarters of the mile and a half race. Sham had run second to Secretariat in both the Kentucky Derby and the Preakness, which preceded the Belmont Stakes race earlier in the spring. Many horse racing experts predicted that Sham would finally win over Secretariat in the Belmont. At about the three quarters mark of the race - Secretariat began to pull away from Sham (they were both at least 10 lengths ahead of the field by this time), finally winning by at least 31 lengths, a record, and a Belmont Stakes record time. To simply describe the race does a disservice to anyone only reading about it... One must actually see it to feel the emotions it invokes. I think the race announcer Chic Anderson said it best though as he described Secretariat entering the stretch all alone "Secretariat is widening now! He is moving like a tremendous machine!"... Yes, the tremendous machine that God decided to create. He was said to be the perfectly proportioned race horse, standing 16.2 hands with an extremely wide chest, and large, powerful, well-muscled hindquarters. His body conformation and stride biomechanics were also described as "perfect" by horse racing experts. What really set him apart from other thoroughbreds was his "heart" which weighed an estimated 22 lbs. at his autopsy. The average thoroughbred's heart weighs about 9 lbs., so Secretariat had an engine that was almost two and a half times larger. (Sham, who was second to Secretariat in the Kentucky Derby and Preakness, had a heart which weighed 18 lbs.). Seth Hancock of Claiborne Farm once said, You want to know who Secretariat is in human terms? Just imagine the greatest athlete in the world. The greatest. Now make him six-foot-three, the perfect height. Make him real intelligent and kind. And on top of that, make him the best-lookin' guy ever to come down the pike. He was all of those things as a horse. Secretariat invoked the emotions of millions during his short life, and millions more wept when he died in 1989... but rest assured - he now grazes in heaven.