Spring Break
Who were they?
Adam Murphy
Issue date: 10/9/08 Section: Still Standing Tall
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A simple gesture nearly 40 years ago inextricably tied gold medalist Tommie Smith and bronze medalist John Carlos together. For the rest of their lives, they would be known neither for their medals nor their numerous world records, but for their protest at the 1968 Mexico Olympics.
There was no great plan to make a statement to the world, said former SJSU professor Harry Edwards and organizer of the Project for Human Rights. Edwards was instrumental in influencing Smith and Carlos to take some kind of action during the Olympic trials, according to SJSU alumnus and Project for Human Rights co-founder Ken Noel.
Smith and Carlos were not political activists, but athletes.
"Carlos and Smith are joined at the hip in history, they will always be together, but they couldn't be more different," Edwards said. "Tommie Smith's world as a child was one of hard work, the seventh child of 12 from a farming family that moved to Northern California when he was 6."
Smith said his father prided himself on hard work. He said he carries that same kind of pride around with him at all times.
It helps explain the thinking of someone who would risk everything for what he felt was right.
"Dad and Mom where my backbone," Tommie Smith said of his parents. "Their intrinsic attitudes of work ethic and non-secular beliefs kept me to do the right thing."
Like Smith, John Carlos' main influence was his family.
"My father was a serious-minded individual in regards to family protection, support, care," Carlos said. "He would never solve your problems. He would give you some tools to solve the problem, but you had to be the man to step up to the plate to resolve those issues."
Tommie Smith wore sunglasses in all of his events. He wore them not to stand out, but to hide.
"I try to convince myself that if I can't see out too well, then nobody can see me very clearly, either," said Smith in an interview with Frank Deford of Sports Illustrated in 1967.
The Olympians could not be more different, even on the stand. Smith was shy and affable compared to a boisterous and confident Carlos. Smith's posture on the Olympic pedestal was rigid and forceful, while Carlos was at ease, his body loose and relaxed.
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