The Road To The Olympics, Leads To

Although I Wasn't Invited To Shake Hands With Hitler, I Wasn't Invited To The White House To Shake Hands With The President Either.

In The Space Of Less Than Seven Days, I Attended A Track Meet In Boston, Flew From There To Bowling Green For The National Jaycees, Then To Rochester For The Blind, Buffalo For Another Track Meet, New York To Shoot A Film Called The Black Athlete, Miami For Ford Motor Company, Back Up To New York For 45 Minutes To Deliver A Speech, Then Into L. A. For Another The Same Night.

The Lives Of Most Men Are Patchwork Quilts. Or At Best One Matching Outfit With A Closet And Laundry Bag Full Of Incongruous Accumulations. A Lifetime Of Training For Just Ten Seconds.

Only By God?s Grace Have I Made It To See Today And Only By God?s Grace Will I Ever See Tomorrow.

"she (minnie Ruth Solomon) Was Unusual Because Even Though I Knew Her Family Was As Poor As Ours, Nothing She Said Or Did Seemed Touched By That. Or By Prejudice. Or By Anything The World Said Or Did. It Was As If She Had Something Inside Her That Somehow Made All That Not Count. I Fell In Love With Her Some The First Time We Ever Talked, And A Little Bit More Every Time After That Until I Thought I Couldn't Love Her More Than I Did. And When I Felt That Way, I Asked Her To Marry Me . . . And She Said She Would."