Posted on 07/15/2007 8:04:11 PM PDT by Dysart
In a corner of A. Philip Randolph Park, a statue surrounded by red, white and pink flowers captures "Bullet" Bob Hayes at his Olympic peak - the 1964 Tokyo games - whizzing past the competition in the anchor leg of the 4x100 meter relay.
Yet, on the other side of the city, the final resting place for Jacksonville's most revered athlete is nothing more than a bare patch of grass.
Local monuments and events honor his athletic legacy, from the annual Bob Hayes Invitational Track Meet at Raines High School - the nation's largest one-day track meet - to the Northside's Bob Hayes Sports Complex. A strip of road along Edgewood Avenue from U.S. 1 to Tallulah Avenue is named "Bob Hayes Avenue."
In 1999, the Times-Union named the phenom who rose from poverty on Jacksonville's Eastside to Olympic greatness, and later stardom for the Dallas Cowboys, as its Athlete of the Century.
But in Edgewood Cemetery, where Hayes is buried, there seems to be a legacy deferred - an empty tract with no headstone. Times-Union reporters who visited the burial site twice, once in June and again last week, observed no marker of any sort. A Times-Union photographer on Saturday found a temporary marker at the site.
(Excerpt) Read more at jacksonville.com ...
Could you ping the righteous NFL’ers? This is just wrong.
nobody "owes" him anything.
I'm a Cowboy fan, but puhleeze...the tax payers should thank him for being a good citizen right up to the narcotic delivery charges and for the fact that he wasn't a burden on anybody else.
I'm so sick of the players now wanting to claim the NFL "made" the play hurt or gave them concussions. I'm just hoping that the tax payers don't have to put up anything for Hayes that his family isn't willing to foot the bill.
Well the situation could be changed if:
1. his family follows through
2. some of his former teammates or colleagues in the league decied to pick up the ball
3. some of his fans pick up the ball.
As you say, no one should be forced to do so, ie taxed to mark his grave, but those who cared about him, family, teammates, fans can if they wish. None of us are guaranteed anything here on earth after we died. It is up to those who knew us to honor us or dishonor us as they will.
Maybe not the NFL but what about the US Olympic Committee?
I don’t see why is needs to be funded by taxpayers by some local govt assessment. Plenty of volunteers could step up. As for the family, perhaps they don't have the means?
I think that it would be great if Jerry Jones decided to put a monument on his grave. Bet most of the players would be willing to donate as well as probably all of them did not know this happened.
That is so sad.
The listing at the Pro Football Hall of Fame doesn't even have Bob in their chart.
Weird.
“It seems his family, friends,fans,and official sports bodies abandoned him after his career. Why? Likely because of his drug abuse problems. He did serve his time, his debt to society as we say, but apaprently that’s not enough for some.”
Nothing is EVER enough for some people when the subject is addiction. They’d lose their fantasties of superiority if they got off that rubbish. But I’m confused. Bob Hayes had quite a lot of sobriety at one point in time. Did he drink and/or use again?
I have no info that he did; he was getting on in years and his health deteriorating--I seriously doubt it.
One thing she is firm about, however, is the money situation. When everything is ready, she has no qualms about covering the cost.
"I have no second thoughts about it," she [Hayes' daughter] said. "Whatever it would take, whatever it would mean."
I read it as the city council wanting to fund something for Hayes.
This reminds me of the other day, listening to Fox sports radio, a caller decried the lack of blacks playing baseball. He said MLB should invest money into rebuilding baseball fields in the inner cities so the kids will have somewhere to play. I guess the taxpayer funded welfare isn't enough for the inner cities, now MLB should start a welfare plan as well.
Did a little more research and read that Hayes went into drug/alcohol rehab three times after he retired. It’s a shame his addictions robbed him of everything; including Hall of Fame honors, etc. At one point I thought he had a really strong grip on sobriety. I don’t know that his disease caused his other illnesses but it would have been impossible for it to have helped them.
May God rest his soul.
http://www.azcentral.com/arizonarepublic/sports/articles/0816pagetwo0816.html
http://tinyurl.com/322p2k
Norm Frauenheim
The Arizona Republic
Aug. 16, 2007 12:00 AM
He was always way ahead of everybody. That's why they called Bob Hayes the World's Fastest Man. Go ahead and argue with the title. There was Jesse Owens before him and Carl Lewis after him.
But it was never more appropriate than during the end of an era, just before high-tech sole on tartan track replaced spikes on cinders. Hayes didn't turn those tracks into cinders. It just seemed like it.
Look at the pictures: Hayes is so far out in front in winning the 100-meter dash at the 1964 Olympics, or so far away from the nearest defensive back as a Dallas Cowboys receiver, that he is virtually alone. Nobody can catch him, capture him or perhaps know him.
But fast shouldn't mean forgotten and, sadly, that is what is happening to an athlete who is unique on any clock and in any time.
Hayes is buried in an unmarked grave in his hometown, Jacksonville, Fla., according to the Florida Times-Union. A street, sports complex and high school track meet are named after him. But there's no headstone above a patch of grass where Hayes was buried after he died nearly five years ago, Sept. 18, 2002.
It's hard to believe that the Cowboys, or the NFL, or the United States Olympic Committee or USA Track & Field hasn't provided a headstone. How about the NFL Players Association? The union is under attack these days for not doing enough for retired veterans. A Hayes headstone would be a small but powerful answer to Mike Ditka's complaints.
Hayes' unmarked grave is sad because it represents a life that went unappreciated.
His receiving records in Dallas - 20 yards per catch and 71 touchdowns - put him in the Cowboys' Ring of Honor. Football historians put him in their book because he changed the game by forcing defenses into sophisticated zones. But there was never induction to the Pro Football Hall of Fame, probably because of a 10-month sentence on cocaine charges in 1979. Sports Illustrated's Paul Zimmerman quit the selection committee over a slight he argued was an outrage.
By then, Hayes knew too much about slights. Other than his unrivaled speed, he knew little else. He grew up in Jacksonville during segregation. In late 1950s and early 1960s, the old Jacksonville Journal, an afternoon newspaper, published two sports sections, White and Black.
For the White schools, there were big headlines and photographs. For the Black schools, there were only the results, which the papers acquire on the phone from correspondents.
Just before Hayes burst onto the world scene in 1961 and then 1962 at 9.3, 9.2 and then 9.1 in the 100-yard dash as an 18-year-old freshman at Florida A&M, he was at Jacksonville's Gilbert High.
Even then, there were whispered stories about this kid, "R. Hayes," on the streets and sandlots of downtown Jacksonville.
At all-White Robert E. Lee High, however, there was a kid making big news with a 9.9, sometimes 9.8, 100-yard dash.
In the small print at the back of the paper, however, R. Hayes, Gilbert, kept showing up at 9.5, 9.4.
An old copy editor was responsible for taking results for the Black schools. Finally, he said, he asked the Gilbert correspondent, a coach, about R. Hayes.
"Is this R. Hayes really running a 9.4, 9.5?"
"Yes, sir, maybe faster."
"Well, why haven't you told us more about him?"
"Well, sir, we never thought it was that big a deal."
"You've got to be kidding. Why?"
"Because, sir, he's been doing it in the sand."
While at Florida A&M there's a story he was clocked at 9.0 in 1962 at a Black-college meet in South Florida. But his time was officially listed at 9.3. His coach reportedly told him nobody would believe 9.0 because all of the officials were Black.
Two years later, Hayes won Olympic gold in a pair of borrowed spikes. He blamed boxing gold medalist and future heavyweight champ Joe Frazier for kicking one of his own shoes under a bed. He didn't realize half his spikes were missing until he reached the Tokyo stadium. Luckily, somebody had a pair that fit.
Then, there was his 1964 anchor leg on America's 4-by-100 relay. Hayes had a running start. But what a finish. With the world watching him and the clock, the slowest estimate of his 100-meter split was 8.9.
Unbelievable, but true.
As unbelievable and true as an unmarked grave.
There's now an effort to raise funds for a headstone through donations. It will be done, I'm certain.
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