The Prince of Put

TRACK & FIELD

Into the shotput circle at California's Occidental College strode Dallas Crutcher Long III, known to his friends as the Prince of Whales. Hefting a 16-lb. iron ball in one hammy hand, he crouched low, tucked the ball behind his right ear, and began to inch back his left foot like a second-story man feeling his way down a ladder in the dark. Suddenly, he dipped and flung himself bodily across the ring. A grunt, a gasp--the shot soared through the air and thudded into the turf 66 ft. 3 1/2 in. away. For the second time in twenty days--and the third time this spring--Dallas Long had smashed the world record in the shotput.

Strongest Ever. At 23, Long is no longer the fuzzy-cheeked, 255-lb. prodigy who stunned track experts by tying Parry O'Brien's world mark in 1959 when he was only a freshman in college. Married and a father now, he has put on 10 lbs., and his graduate studies in dentistry keep him busy 60 hours a week. He competed only twice all last season, and his haphazard practice sessions this year are limited to two nights a week. "It's always in the dark," says Long. "I used to climb the playground fence at the grammar school down the block, but the night watchman didn't like that much. So now I use a piece of sidewalk in the park."

Out of shape or not, Long is still the strongest shotputter who ever lived. In four years at the University of Southern California, he topped 60 ft. an astonishing 69 times, won three straight N.C.A.A. championships, and capped his senior season with a record toss of 65 ft. 10 1/2 in. Nobody has approached that mark since--except Long himself. Last April he got off a put of 65 ft. 11 1/2 in. And one day last month, he showed up at the West Coast Relays in Fresno, limping on a bandaged left foot. "I was working out with pulley weights," he explained. "They weren't heavy enough for me, so I had a guy standing on them. The darned steel cable snapped when the weights were all the way up. They came crashing down on my foot--and drove it into the floor like it was a nail." Whereupon Long warmed up by hurling the shot 65 ft. 3 in. on his first try, then uncorked a toss of 66 ft. 7 1/4 in. -- a full 3/4 in. over his own listed world record. But it went for naught: Fresno officials had unaccountably neglected to put a steel ring around the shotput circle as international rules require.

Prospect of Gold. The bait that lured Long back into competition this season, of course, is the prospect of a gold medal at the 1964 Olympics. He will not lack for competition in Tokyo. Randy Matson, a 19-year-old Texas A. & M. freshman, already has a 64 ft. 10 1/2 in. throw to his credit this spring. But by the time the Olympics roll around, Long may be hurling that 16-lb. ball all the way into orbit. "I've always felt that somebody would hit 70 ft. some day," he says. "And the way I'm going, I ought to do it this year."

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