Jim Trueman`s death was imminent when Bobby Rahal received a call from Doug Shierson, who backs the racing efforts of Al Unser Jr. Rahal, of course, had driven Trueman`s car to an emotional victory at the Indianapolis 500, and now, 10 days after that triumph, he heard Shierson say: ”When we were at Indianapolis, we didn`t know at the time that there were 32 cars in the race that never had a chance. But I have no problem with that.” The remark was a testament to Trueman, a well-liked man who succumbed to cancer June 11, and a spur to the mind of Rahal, who dedicated his win to his long-time supporter.
”I`m very much a fatalist,” Rahal recently said. ”As a race driver, I think things happen I don`t have control over. So as a race driver, was I predestined to be here? I don`t know. The problem with that kind of question is any answer I give will be very incomplete. I believe in God. But at Indianapolis, was someone pulling strings? Or, as Doug Shierson says, did 32 of them not have a chance? I don`t know. But I am sure there is a God, and I thank Him for calling it to happen while Jim Trueman was still with us. It was one of the greatest gifts given a person, and it certainly gives you food for thought.”
More from the driver
Rahal on his feelings during the last lap of his victory: ”I was trying to calm myself. I did understand what was about to happen, but I was trying to curb my emotions. The longer you have been in racing, you know things can happen. Then I started to celebrate a little bit coming off turn four. I knew I could coast in then and still win. But I`m a very emotional person, so I kept telling myself: `Don`t go crazy. Don`t make a fool of yourself.`
” . . . On the meaning of his victory: ”I have a lot more inner calm. I`m still striving to do more, but there`s a magic, an instant credibility in saying, `I won the Indianapolis 500.` I`m a lot more busy, but that`s just the surface. For me personally, it put me over the top. I feel inside that the pressure is off. For many years I was considered one of the better drivers in the country, but I never think I got the recognition I deserved. It`s like being off Broadway and on Broadway. There are probably many good actors off Broadway, but until you get to Broadway, you`re not recognized. I refer to myself now as an eight-year overnight success.”
The author
Richard Ford`s latest novel is entitled ”The Sportswriter,” but it has little to do with that vocation. Instead, it is a compelling look at mortality and alienation and middle-aged angst through the eyes of Frank Bascombe, who just happens to be employed by a glossy sports weekly. Why that setting?
”Well, I always wanted to be a sportswriter, but no one would give me a job, and sports always seemed to me so representative of life in general,”
explains Ford. ”Then it just developed. I was surprised how much was sheltered by this guy being a sportswriter. It gave me a chance to write about the things I cared about.” Why was that so? ”Sports and sportswriting are so ingrained in American life, particularly in the language. I do not think sports is a metaphor for life, but to an extent it is all around us. I don`t think that`s profound. I do think it`s literally true. And since we express ourselves in the language available to us, and since so much of our language is tinged with sports, I found I could say all the things I thought about life at 40 with a sportswriter as the base.”
The Olympian
Tracy Caulkins looked little changed from when we saw her in Los Angeles, where she won three Olympic swimming medals. But her mission in Chicago was much different. She was here to talk about the ”Miller Lite Report On Women In Sports,” a comprehensive survey detailing women`s feelings on everything from their body image to the effect of sports participation on femininity. The results, not surprisingly, confirm that women in athletics is an accepted fact and that women have rejected that old saw that says they don`t sweat, they glow. A whopping 94 percent disagreed that sports participation diminished femininity. Sixty-two percent felt better about their bodies than they did five years ago. And 93 percent thought young girls who compete in athletics are better able to compete in later life.
Caulkins began her career when the attitude toward women in sports was just emerging from the Dark Ages, and she hoped these results would help girls realize that athletic participation is not only acceptable but also beneficial. ”I can`t imagine what Billie Jean King and Donna de Varona went through,” says Caulkins, referring to a pair of pioneering athletes. ”And what this survey shows goes along with what`s going on in society, where women are entering areas traditionally thought of as men`s. Young girls are getting more and more female athletes as role models, and having those role models backed up by this kind of data will hopefully get to the grass-roots level–to coaches, educators and parents who can encourage their daughters. For so long we didn`t have that support. We were oddities. But now it`s okay for women to lift weights.”
News, notes and nonsense
The morning after his victory, Rahal bolted awake at 4 o`clock, sat up in bed and thought: ”Is it over yet?” He then turned on the TV and watched a replay of the race on EPSN. Says Rahal: ”I knew I`d done it, but it was almost surrealistic.” . . . Sox general manager Tom Haller is the focus of an essay on minor-league baseball Ford has written for Rolling Stone. And even though it once turned down his application for a job, Sports Illustrated has hired him to do a piece on the Super Bowl media next January. . . . Caulkins serves as an analyst for the swimming events at the July 5-20 Goodwill Games, which will be telecast locally on Channel 66.
And finally, Rahal said this to wife Debi as they flew home 48 hours after his victory: ”I still can`t believe I won the race, but I sure like to think I did.”
