Anthem Night

"Ladies and gentlemen," the announcer said, "the Dutch national anthem!" At the Millrose Games in Madison Square Garden, 16,000 track fans rose respectfully while the band tootled an unfamiliar tune in honor of The Netherlands' miler, stringy Willy Slykhuis (rhymes, roughly, with dike mouse).* Then the band played the Swedish national anthem, for Miler Ingvar Bengtsson, and a baritone sang The Star-Spangled Banner. The crowd sat back to wait for Slykhuis and Bengtsson. No foreigner had ever won the Wanamaker Mile, but now that the mighty Gil Dodds had retired, the invaders seemed to have a fine chance to break the pattern.

The only real U.S. hope in the six-man field was a young (21), skinny and bespectacled University of Wisconsin junior named Don Gehrmann, making his bigtime indoor debut. For weeks, track circles had buzzed with rumors about Gehrmann's sensational time trials in Madison: his coaches claimed to have clocked him in 4:06.1, only .8 sec. off Gil Dodds's indoor record. If that was not a mistake, Gehrmann could be the best miler on the boards.

Something Blue. Ever since he ran the mile for Milwaukee's Pulaski High, Don Gehrmann had preferred to hang back with the pack, then knock off the leader with a terrific sprint in the stretch. But this year Guy Sundt, Wisconsin's track coach, had taught him to run a different kind of race. With supreme confidence, Gehrmann was planning to ignore Slykhuis and Bengtsson. He would run against the clock, not the competition: a fast 58-second first quarter, a 2-minute half, a 3:04 three quarters, and a record-breaking 4:05 finish. The race called for circling the Garden's banked board track eleven times.

The gun caught Gehrmann just getting down to his mark. He had to pour it on to catch up, but at the quarter the red Wisconsin jersey was out in front--in 59.5. Track veterans, remembering Gil Dodds's windmill style, were struck by the contrast; like a good rumba dancer, Gehrmann hardly moved from the waist up. He was all legs, eating up the boards with a long (8 1/2 ft.), smooth and relaxed stride. Crumpled in his right hand, Gehrmann clutched something blue--a handkerchief, for luck.

Something Wrong. Gehrmann wasted no time looking back. The loudspeaker told him what he wanted to know: at the half, he heard his time (2:02), noted that Willy Slykhuis was second, pressing close. Ingvar Bengtsson, loaded with penicillin for abscessed teeth, had faded fast and was out of the running.

At the eighth lap, the Dutchman seized the lead. Then something really went wrong with the calculations of Wisconsin's Gehrmann; his time at the three-quarters mark, with Willy still out in front, was 3:08, four seconds more than he had planned. Said Gehrmann later: "I knew then that I couldn't beat 4:05.3. I figured I might as well take it easy, and beat him in the stretch."

Gehrmann did. Entering the 34-yd. stretch, he went up on his toes like a sprinter, passed Slykhuis with 5 yards to go, broke the tape a foot in front. Time: 4:09.5. Said Gehrmann after he had caught his breath: "I'm sorry my time wasn't better. My pacing was a little off tonight."

Indoor Blaze. The band was not through. Before the two-mile race, it struck up the Belgian national anthem--for balding, ruddy-faced Gaston Reiff, Olympic 5,000-meter record holder. It was a jockeying race from the start: first, Philadelphia's Curt Stone took the lead, then FBI man Fred Wilt, then Sweden's Erik Ahlden, then Reiff, then Stone, then Reiff. The Belgian, running with a choppy, high-knee action and occasionally dropping his arms to rest, fought off three challengers in the last quarter mile, finished in a blazing 8:56.1. It was the fastest indoor double mile since Greg Rice retired in 1943.

* Who complained later that it was not the national anthem (Wilhelmus van Nassouwe) at all, but just a patriotic song (Wien Neerlandsch Bloed).

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