From: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Date: Mon, 4 Sep 2000 13:08:03 EDT
Subject: t-and-f: day 11 wit and wisdom
To:
>
>New choice . . . JOHNSON.
>Why?
>Started (?) the sunglasses craze . . . a ridiculous trend that has 'athletes'
>all
>over the world parading around $200 eyewear indoors, posing for camera ops a
>la
---------------------------
Allan Johnson was a generation removed from starting the sunglasses craze.
As I remember, and I may be starting late--help me, Ed Grant--it was
Charlie Greene who made sunglasses a t&f fashion statement. That was in
the mid-'60s, before "fashion statements" existed.
Greene wore what he called re-entry shields. (If you only know of space
trips through NASA shuttle launches, ask your parents.) From Greene, the
Speed City sprint group in San Jose picked up the look, including Tommie
Smith, Lee Evans, John Carlos, Peanut Gaines, Sam Davis and about another
half dozen sprinters there. (See a great photo of the group in a spring(?)
1968 issue of T&FN.
After that crew, we had a bunch of dull sprinters in the U.S., we lost the
look, and the next time I remember sunglasses making an impact was in the
1984 Oly Trials in LA, when a javelin thrower, Duncan Atwood, wore them to
avoid getting blinded by the sun as it set behind the rim of LA Memorial
Coliseum.
Dave Johnson
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
