Class Note 1959
Issue
Dave Gavitt was the 1980 Summer Olympic basketball coach of the “team that never played.” In late 1979 President Carter issued an ultimatum that the United States would boycott the Moscow games unless Russia withdrew from Afghanistan. Dave had prepared for two years and was “disappointed.” He was president of the Olympic Basketball Foundation for four years and orchestrated the first U.S. Dream Team (1992 gold), which was “kind of a payback for 1980.” He was thrilled for the pros as he watched their tears on the presentation platform.
Our 10-0 Ivy League championship hockey team captain Rod Anderson narrowly missed the 1960 Olympic team after an eight-week tryout in his hometown of Minneapolis. Jack Riley (Dartmouth) was coach but that did not help as much as Rod had hoped. Herb Brooks, coach of the Miracle on Ice Olympic hockey team that won gold in 1980, was cut a couple of weeks after Rod. They played on the same line in high school and were coached by Brooks’ dad. Rod taught and coached hockey at Blake School in Minneapolis for 45 years.
Barlow Nelson had a successful 1984 Winter Olympics as co-team leader and official representative for the U.S. figure skating team in Sarajevo. With Janet Carpenter, wife of Norman ’53, Barlow says their motto was: “We do everything and anything to keep our skaters focused.” It worked as Scott Hamilton took home gold and others won three silvers. Not one U.S. skater fell during the competition, which Barlow cites with pride. In 1960 Barlow just missed qualifying for the U.S. Olympic team, finishing fifth. He judged figure skating at the international level for 52 years. He also was a team leader for the United States at two world championships.
As a U.S. Army lieutenant colonel with a Ph.D. in clinical psychology, Bob Worthington designed and ran a psychological evaluation program for the U.S. Olympic Sports Medicine Center in the late 1970s. They were looking for characteristics of world-class athletes that would predict success. While none were found, it propelled Bob into pentathlon training to see what athletes went through. His success gave him credibility with the athletes, especially in running and shooting. This led him to be the unofficial sports psychologist (which was a precursor to a now common career) for the U.S. Olympic modern pentathlon team.
Our Olympian competitor Dick Taylor was captain of the U.S. Nordic team at the 1964 Winter Games in Innsbruck. He competed in the 15k, 30k and 50k races. Although he says he should have been resting up for the competition, he carried with the team the Olympic flag from the prior Squaw Valley Games in the opening procession and presented it to the Austrians. Dick narrowly missed the 1960 Olympic Nordic team. He says he learned that making a team is great, but the real driver is a love of skiing. He taught and coached skiing at Gould Academy in Maine.
—Allan Munro, 675 Main St., New London, NH 03257; amunro1@comcast.net
Jan - Feb 2010
Dave Gavitt was the 1980 Summer Olympic basketball coach of the “team that never played.” In late 1979 President Carter issued an ultimatum that the United States would boycott the Moscow games unless Russia withdrew from Afghanistan. Dave had prepared for two years and was “disappointed.” He was president of the Olympic Basketball Foundation for four years and orchestrated the first U.S. Dream Team (1992 gold), which was “kind of a payback for 1980.” He was thrilled for the pros as he watched their tears on the presentation platform.
Our 10-0 Ivy League championship hockey team captain Rod Anderson narrowly missed the 1960 Olympic team after an eight-week tryout in his hometown of Minneapolis. Jack Riley (Dartmouth) was coach but that did not help as much as Rod had hoped. Herb Brooks, coach of the Miracle on Ice Olympic hockey team that won gold in 1980, was cut a couple of weeks after Rod. They played on the same line in high school and were coached by Brooks’ dad. Rod taught and coached hockey at Blake School in Minneapolis for 45 years.
Barlow Nelson had a successful 1984 Winter Olympics as co-team leader and official representative for the U.S. figure skating team in Sarajevo. With Janet Carpenter, wife of Norman ’53, Barlow says their motto was: “We do everything and anything to keep our skaters focused.” It worked as Scott Hamilton took home gold and others won three silvers. Not one U.S. skater fell during the competition, which Barlow cites with pride. In 1960 Barlow just missed qualifying for the U.S. Olympic team, finishing fifth. He judged figure skating at the international level for 52 years. He also was a team leader for the United States at two world championships.
As a U.S. Army lieutenant colonel with a Ph.D. in clinical psychology, Bob Worthington designed and ran a psychological evaluation program for the U.S. Olympic Sports Medicine Center in the late 1970s. They were looking for characteristics of world-class athletes that would predict success. While none were found, it propelled Bob into pentathlon training to see what athletes went through. His success gave him credibility with the athletes, especially in running and shooting. This led him to be the unofficial sports psychologist (which was a precursor to a now common career) for the U.S. Olympic modern pentathlon team.
Our Olympian competitor Dick Taylor was captain of the U.S. Nordic team at the 1964 Winter Games in Innsbruck. He competed in the 15k, 30k and 50k races. Although he says he should have been resting up for the competition, he carried with the team the Olympic flag from the prior Squaw Valley Games in the opening procession and presented it to the Austrians. Dick narrowly missed the 1960 Olympic Nordic team. He says he learned that making a team is great, but the real driver is a love of skiing. He taught and coached skiing at Gould Academy in Maine.
—Allan Munro, 675 Main St., New London, NH 03257; amunro1@comcast.net