PAGE TWO
THE CAMPUS ECHO
TUESDAY, DECEMBER 18, 1956
THE ACHING MOMENT
(Reprinted from SPORTS ILLUSTRATED
December 10, 1956.)
There were few lonelier places in the world during the
last fortnight than the red brick-dust Olympic track at Mel
bourne. The athletes who started up its empty lanes from the
starting blocks had come not only to race others but to engage
in an ultimate act of self-exploration; in the aching moments
before the gun sent them on their way each relied on his own
strength, his own courage, and his own speed. Few had more
grounds for dismay—and few knelt at the starting line with
more resolution—than Lee Quincy Calhoun, the tall (6 feet.,
1 inch), slim (165 pounds) Negro youth from Gary, Ind., who
won the gold medal in the 110-meter high hurdles.
A high hurdle stands 3 feet 6 inches tall. There are 10
of them to be surmounted in the 110-meter race and a man,
to win in modern competition, must run over them and
through the tape in less than 14 seconds—at almost a sprint
er’s speed. His timing must be exquisite and he cannot allow
a change in footing or a gust of wind to alter the rhythm of
the three driving steps he takes between hurdles. Neither
can he allow the fierce pressure of competition to alter his
composure—or his form. As he stands at the start, the 10
hurdles can seem like 10 traps, each waiting to trip him he
must clear each, but only by a fraction of an inch.
Every athlete has his own devil to fight, his own cross to
bear. Calhoun’s was the last 50 yards of the race. He is a
quiet, polite, soft-spoken youth with none of the love of show
which often seems to accompany spectacular athletic talent,
but even in high school he had little difficulty with the basic
posture of the hurdler—the loose—hipped leg split, the in
stantaneous forward adjustment of weight, the precise hand
ling of shoulders and arms which allow a man to step rather
than jump the wooden barrier. At little North Carolina Col
lege, in Durham, his talent bloomed amazingly under the di
rection of his track coach Leroy Walker. As a sophomore he
was timed in 14.3 for the 120-yard high hurdles. He was draft
ed in 1952 and was attached to the Eighth Army’s 111th Eva
cuation Hospital in Korea. Last winter, a civilian again, he be
came one of the sensations of the Eastern indoor track seasons
—he set or equaled world records in 50-60—and 70-yards
races and beat all the leading hurdlers in the United States.
But last spring, outside again to run 120 yards, he made
a disconcerting discovery: he could not maintain his blazing
speed for the full race. He entered the Marine Corps Relays
at Quantico, and USC’s one-time star. Navy Lieutenant Jack
Davis, simply ran away from him in tjie last 50 yards. After
ward Davis told a newsman, “Calhoun doesn’t have the
stamina to go the distance. He’ll never be a good hurdler.”
^Davis—who had last the 1952 Olympic hu^les race^^ar-
Jison Dijiard by anfeyelash and was ptession"ely ben^Brwin-
ning in^956—migat better have kept silent.* From^Bat day
on Calhoun, too, burned to win at'Melbourne. He dxoVe him
self through fast quarter miles to gain strength, and his
hurdling times were dramatically lowered: 14 flat, 13.9, 13.7.
Davis broke the world record with a dazzling 13.4 in one of
the preliminaries of the AAU meet, but Calhoun beat him in
the finals with a 13.6. They ran a dead heat in Olympic
trials.
For all this, a few days before the games themselves, Cal
houn had reason to feel that fate was turning against him.
—Davis, running on an uneven grass track at Bendigo, Aus
tralia, broke his own worjd record with a fantastic 13.3-sec
ond race and spoke confidently of lowering this to 13 flat.
Calhoun hardly slept at all the night before the Olympic
final. He went out to the track tkut with nervousness. But
he found himself curiously confident of victory. He burst off
the blocks and led Davis through the first five hurdles by two
feet. The pair was even on the eighth, on the ninth, even as
they crossed the 10th hurdle. But somewhere Calhoun found
the power he needed. He won by inches in 13.5 seconds. “He
shouldn’t have said it,” he said almost gratefully, of Davis
afterward. “1 just had to win.”
LETTERS TO THE EDITOR
Dear Sir:
At certain times during The
Best in Steinbeck, some mem
bers of the' audience laughed,
during obviously serious scenes,
and attempted to heckle the
performers. This kind of con
duct is deplorable. If one is
too stupid to understand and ap
preciate what a thing actually is
and what it means, he can not
help that—no one can; but, on
the other hand, if one who
knows better but deliberately
heckles performers by jeering
them, then that is indicative of
the fact that he needs to check
his manners.
A person who Jviiows better
can be corrected, but a person
who is too stupid to understand
what a thing such as The Best in
Steinbeck is, and what it means,
is incorrigible; it must be con--
fessed that the only thing that
we can do to help him is to
keep him away from such af
fairs.
After the performance, it was
discovered that the untimely
laughter was not only offensive
to those in the audience who
observed the program in the
serious vein in which it was
given, but to the performers as
as well. Robert Strauss com
mented, “What’s the matter
with the audience; they laugh
ed. Don’t they appreciate dra
ma?” Although this statement;
embarrased the students who
heard it, Mr. Strauss was com
pletely justified in making this
statement, after having given a
magnificent performance.
Notwithstanding the fact that
all of the stu^nts were not
guilty o?j((5fferHlng the petfor-
mers, I fear th^Hthe school will
have ^0 be^r the brunt of the
offense, for Mr. Strauss is likely
to say that the students of NCO
do not appreciate drama—not
some of the students of NCC do
not appreciate drama.
Oscar Wilde once said, “They
are the elect to whom beauti
ful things mean only Beauty.”
[ do not contend that we of NCC
should learn to appreciate beau
tiful things for the sole purpose
of becoming “the elect,” but I
do contend that we should at
least learn to appreciate beauti
ful things enough to become re
spectable and intelligent men
and women of the future.
Respectfully,
Gerald C. Simmons
Campus© Echo
Member
ASSOCIATED COLLEGIATE PRESS
The CAMPUS ECHO, official student publication at North
CaroliHa College at Durham, Is published monthly during the
regular school year. Subscription rates: $1.50 per school year.
Second class mail privileges authorized at Durham, N. C.
EDITOR-IN-CHIEF Robert Leon Perry
BUSINESS MANAGER Juanita Gregory
MANAGING EDITOR Andress Taylor
ASSISTANT MANAGING EDITOR Benjamin Page
ADVERTISING MANAGER Clifford Koontz
EXCHANGE EDITOR Eunice Kirton
FEATURE EDITORS Gwendolyn McCallum, Edith White,
Theodore Gilliam
lilTEKAKY EDITORS Lawrence Hampton,
Barbara Lumpkin, Shirley Williams
SPORTS EDITOR Joseph Becton
ASSISTANT SPORTS EDITOR Aubrey Lowe
CONTRIBUTING EDITOR Shirley T. James
CITY EDITOR Betsy Page
copy EDITOR Yvonne Wray
NEWS EDITORS ...., Ruth Royster, Cary Booker
REPORTERS
Elma M. Artist, Anetta Benton, Joan Burke, Andrew Evans, Lillie M. Lew
is, Elnora Joyner, Dorotha Merritt, Charlotte McLamb, Janice Beatty, Bettie
Patterson, Sigredda Richardson, Doris Cherry, Bessie Montgomery, William
Miller, Catherine Martin, and Daisy Lee Smith.
Dear Editor:
Intelligent theatre-goers were
shocked—not to mention the
words “embarrased to tears”—
at the behavior of some of the
student body at the perfor
mance of “The Best of Stein
beck” Thursday, November 29,
1956. Granted, there were hu
morous scenes in which laugh
ter was expected, but how the
students could lauglj at the kill
ing of Curley’s wife and at the
shooting of Lennie by George
in the scene adapted from Stein
beck’s “Of Men and Mice” is be
yond me!!!l!I would like very
much to have the answers to
many questions that are now
troubling my mind.
First I would like very much
for some of those base, uncouth,
“Cheshire cats” to give me the
names of any reputable plays
or novels in which the death
scenes are funny? And too, why
is it that we as a race seem to
possess a character trait in
which we laugh at things we doJ
not understand? If those ignoble
characters did not understand
what was happening they
should have left the auditorium
or they should have kept their
mouths shut! Why did they
have to show how ignorance
and stupidity gripped their
souls when it came to apprecia
ting the cultural aspects of life.
There were present at the
performance students who real
ized that they were witnessing
one of the best actresses of to
day (Miss Bennett has been
widely acclaimed for years).
However, I fear that if the
drama critic fr.oip The Durham
Morning Herald had stayed for
the excerpt from “Of Mice and
Men”, he would have made a
comment on our behavior. We
all know what impression this
would have made on the com
munity, and especially among
pro-segregationists.
However, don’t think for a
second that this type of be
havior doesn’t exist at white
schools. The same calibre of
students who “performed” on
Thursday night are also present
at white schools because they
behave in such a fashion doesn’t
deem the behavior correct,
however.
Sincerely yours,
Richard E. Harris
Dear Editor:
As chairman of the Commit
tee on Concerts, I should like toi
extend an apology to the stu
dent body for the late starts of
two of our concerts. The stu
dents accepted the explanations
for the delays with commenda-*
ble patience and consideration,
and I hasten to assure them that
there has been no attempt on
our part to sabotage a long
standing tradition of punctuali
ty here at North Carolina Col
lege.
Detailed information as to the
location of the school was given
to the booking agents, but, alas,
reference was made to the B.N.
Duke Auditorium, (as was pro
per, but not necessarily effec
tive) and we fear that in ma
king inquiries, the performers
were not sufficiently explicit.
We shall, in the future, warn
them of those pitfalls whichi
have sent these all over the lo
cale in their quest for North
Carolina College.
Very sincerely,
Ruth H. Gillum.
Dear Editor:
In regards to morale, the
vitual blow perhaps came when
it was announced that Vesper
was no longer mandatory. I do
not hold that Vesper should b^
mandatory. I am merely saying
this: because Vesper isn.’t man
datory, many students do not
desm it necessary to attend Ves
per, be the speaker dull or inte
resting. (One should attend
Church Services on Sunday i£
only for the purpose oof fulfil
ling the commandment “Re
member the Sabbath Day andS
keep it Holy). Thus the moral
standard of the students who
leave Religion out of their life is
lowered and the students’ ideas’
become corrupted.
I believe that if there were an
all out campaign on the part of
all responsible persons to errteri
the student body into as many
situations and activities as pos
sible concerning the College,
that this act would arouse more
interest on the part of the stu
dents. For example, there are
few times when visiting stu
dents who come to our college
(Confined on Page 12)
Dear Editor:
You should be delighted a'
the action of the Student Con
gress which cut the pitifully
small Campus Echo budget from
$1500 to $1200. This seems to
indicate that the students do not
care to have a first-rate school
paper. You no doubt still have
some old-fashioned ideas about
making “All-American” again
this year, but the students don’t
care to have that kind of school
paper: after all this is a Negro
college and the ECHO has no
business attempting to rank
with the student-papers of Har
vard, Yale and the other big
universities—our yearbook doesi
not. j 1
If you stop and look at the,
situation, Mr, Editor, you’ll
soon realize how fortunate you
are. The Student Congress took
$300 of the Echo’s already small
appropriations and all but told
you to “go to Hell” v/hen you
asked them to reconsider, so it
must logically follow that they
don’t expect you to give them a
good paper; look at the work
they have relieved you of. Be
sides, the Eagle, which is to re
ceive the $300, is going to ba
better than ever this year. It’s
design is revolutionary, they
say. And it will be a third larger
than last year’s yearbook. Just
think what a collosal publication
the Eagle is going to be this year!
Your must admire the fore
sight t)f our well-dressed Presi
dent of the Student Govern
ment, Charles “Hamlet” Hol
land, who first came up with the
“brilliant” idedi of taking
from the Echo’s appropriations
and giving it to the Eagle so thfTT
we may have a super-duper
yearbook. I am sure that A1
“McCarthy” Richardson, editor
of the yearbook, can give us
one. I can hardly wait to see it.
Mr. Holland’s courage in this
matter was really terrifying.
When the Student Congress
passed a bill to restore the
Echo’s $300, in spite of his re
commendation to the contrary,
he vetoed it and steadfastly in
sisted that the cut be carried
out; it was.
And so you see, dear Editor,
it simply is not in the cards that
the Echo should be a first rate
publication: we like second rate
things around here. As a true
democrat I’m forced to admit
that it is high time for the
Echo to become second rate; the
Eagle has been that ^or years,
and we must have consistancy.
This being the case, Mr. Edi
tor, I can only pass along to you
Omar Khayyam’s advice;
“...take the cash and let the
credit go”...
Yours truly,
Jerome W. Dudley
On Stark Reality
By BENJAMIN S. PAGE
Perhaps
If I’d forget you
For just one moment’s span
And just pretend there was no
you ,
Perhaps
I’d be a man.
But
If I try to forget you
(I do not think that I can)
And convince myself there is no
you
There is this I could not stand—
There isn’t.