THIS IS A MAGNIFICENTLY WORKED TRIBUTE TO THE GREAT HERB MCKENLEY, WRITTEN BY MEL WATMAN, A BRITISH ATHLETICS EXPERT WHO IS ONE OF THE GREATEST STATISTICIANS AND EDITORS OF ATHLETICS MAGAZINES WHO EVER LIVED.
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“HUSTLING HERB” MCKENLEY DIES AT 85
An appreciation by Mel Watman
Just imagine the excitement, disbelief even, if Jeremy Wariner were to run a 400m relay leg timed at a shade inside 42 seconds! Yet that was the sort of peep into the future of athletic performance provided by Herb McKenley – who died in a Kingston hospital on Nov 26 aged 85 – at the Helsinki Olympics of 1952. At a time when the world 400m record stood at 45.8, he was clocked at what was then regarded as a totally phenomenal 44.6 on the third leg of that fabulous relay race when Jamaica defeated the USA in a world record 3:03.9. It was the crowning moment of McKenley’s brilliant yet slightly frustrating career; he was at last, after many near misses, an Olympic gold medallist.
Herbert Henry McKenley, born in Pleasant Valley, in the Jamaican parish of Clarendon on 10 July 1922, began his athletics career at Calabar High School, Kingston in 1937 and, after graduation while still 19, he defeated Trinidad’s McDonald Bailey (destined to equal the world 100m record 14 years later) over 200m in a Jamaican record of 21.2 to rank fourth in the world in 1942. Later that year he enrolled at Boston College in the USA and moved up to 400m, ranking equal third in the world for 1943 with 47.7.
The turning point in his career came in the autumn of 1945 when he transferred to the University of Illinois and began to be coached by Leo Johnson. Running on what was now his home track, in June 1946, McKenley was timed at 46.2 for 440y. That was inside the world record of 46.4 by Ben Eastman (1932) and Grover Klemmer (1941) but was not ratified as the first 220y (covered in 20.9) was on a straight. He clocked the same time in similar circumstances in June 1947 when winning the NCAA title in high altitude Salt Lake City (20.8 for the opening straight 220y), but one week later the world record – the first in any event by a Jamaican – was officially his when he ran 46.3 (equivalent to 46.0 for 400m) in Berkeley, this time reaching 220y in 21.0. On the same track a year later he reduced the 440y mark to 46.0 (21.0 at 220y), followed a month later by a slightly inferior world 400m record of 45.9 (21.0 at 200m), the previous mark being 46.0 by Rudolf Harbig in 1939 and Klemmer in 1941. Explaining his method of tackling the 400m, he said: “I run as fast as I can as long as I can.”
By now McKenley was regarded as the world’s top all-round sprinter. In 1946 he was the equal third fast-est at 100y with 9.6, second at 220y (turn) with 21.0 and first at 220y (straight) with 20.6; in 1947, when he ranked equal fourth at 100m with 10.4, he also had windy marks of 9.4 100y, 20.4 220y (turn) and 20.2 220y (straight) … and he was even blown to a straight 440y time of 45.0 along the boardwalk at Long Branch, New Jersey!
Two days after placing fourth in the 200m, “Hustling Herb” lined up as solid favourite to win the 400m at the London Olympics of 1948 but he made a fatal error of pace judgment as well as being over confident. Attempting to run the legs off his giant compatriot Arthur Wint, and shooting for a time of 45.6 or quicker, he went off too fast in the early stages, particularly in view of the heavy state of Wembley’s cinder track. At halfway he was some seven metres up on Wint in 21.4, only 0.3 slower than Mel Patton’s winning 200m time, but began to tie up when the finishing straight was reached. Hardly daring to believe his luck, Wint caught his flailing rival 20m from the finish to become Jamaica’s first ever Olympic gold medallist in his fastest ever time of 46.2 with McKenley second in 46.4. “At about 50 metres left it seemed like the whole stadium had fallen on me,” McKenley ruefully reflected. Hopes of a compensatory gold medal in the relay for which he was anchorman were dashed when Wint, on the third stage, pulled up with cramp. He went on to beat Wint in three subsequent 400m races after the Games and in Stockholm he set a world 300m best of 32.4, passing 300y in another best ever time of 29.6.
McKenley would not improve on his best times for 400m and 440y but in 1949 he was equal fastest in the world at 100m (10.3) and top ranked at the curved 220y (21.0) and 440y (46.5). In 1950 he was timed at 20.8 and 20.6w for 200m (turn) and equalled his 300m record of 32.4 but a 400m mark of 46.0 left him no 2 as a fellow Jamaican, George Rhoden, succeeded him as world record holder with 45.8. McKenley, in effect a full-time professional athlete in an era when the sport was supposedly strictly amateur, ran no fewer than 94 individual races (51 at 400m/440y) in 1950!
Rhoden (46.0 400m) continued to hold the edge in 1951 with eight sub-47 marks to McKenley’s four and a best 440y time of 46.4, and it was Rhoden who triumphed in the 1952 Olympic 400m. For once McKenley decided to ditch his blazing first 200m strategy; this time he hung back (22.7 at 200m) but despite closing along the finishing straight he had to settle for another second place (46.20 to Rhoden’s 46.09; 45.9 each on hand timing). That was in fact his third Olympic silver as four days earlier he had so nearly captured the 100m title, failing to catch Lindy Remigino by just 1/100th (10.79-10.80, or 10.4 for both on generous hand timing). McKenley himself thought he had won and the American outsider was almost apologetic about the judges’ decision. “Gosh, Herb, it looks as though I won the darn thing.”
There was one more golden opportunity for the man who had already made history by becoming the first athlete to reach Olympic 100, 200 and 400m finals: the 4x400m relay. The chances appeared slim by the time the baton reached him for the third leg as Jamaica (Wint 46.8, Les Laing 47.0) were some 13-14m behind the Americans. It was then that 30 year-old McKenley displayed the full extent of his talent – yet it was astonishing that he was in Helsinki at all. Only two months earlier he went down with mumps, was confined to bed for three weeks and lost 20 pounds in weight. A month before the Games he finished last in his heat at the American Champs. He was found to be anaemic and McKenley contacted coach Joe Yancey to inform officials in Jamaica that he was withdrawing from the team. Fortunately the said officials instructed McKenley to make his way to Helsinki anyway, and – just in time – he regained form.
But the McKenley who stormed round that third leg was not just a man in form; it was a man inspired. Olympic 400m hurdles champion Charles Moore wasn’t exactly dawdling as he covered his lap in 46.3, but McKenley not only cut back that huge deficit but managed to hand over just ahead and Rhoden (45.5), with Mal Whitfield breathing down his neck, completed the job as the world record was smashed. The previous fastest ever relay split was 45.4 by Rhoden in 1950; McKenley’s time was 44.6.
McKenley later turned openly professional, running 46.6 for 440y in Australia in 1954. Back in Jamaica he was a hugely influential and inspirational figure. He served as national coach until 1973 and for 12 years was president of the national governing body, leading a youth programme which produced such global stars as Don Quarrie, Lennox Miller and Merlene Ottey. He underwent a triple heart by-pass operation in 1998 and died from complications of pneumonia.
Personal bests: 9.6 100y (1946) & 9.4w (1947), 10.3 100m (1949), 20.8 200m turn (1950) & 20.4w 220y (1947), 20.6 220y straight (1946) & 20.2w (1947), 29.6 300y (1948), 32.4 300m (1948 & 1950), 45.9 400m (1948 & 1952), 46.0 440y (1948), 55.8 500y (1949), 2:01.6 800m (1950), 4:01.5 1500m (1940).
• In his tribute to Herb McKenley at the legendary 400m runner’s state funeral in Kingston on Dec 8, Jamaican Prime Minister Bruce Golding announced that a statue would be erected by the government at the entrance of the National Stadium in honour of one the country’s greatest athletes. Among those present at the service were Hasely Crawford from Trinidad, Juliet Cuthbert, Grace Jackson, Don Quarrie, Usain Bolt, Sherone Simpson … and 83 year-old Les Laing, a colleague of McKenley’s in the 1952 Olympic gold medal 4x400m team. The other surviving member, George Rhoden (81) was too ill to attend.
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