The Ultimate Act of Sportsmanship

Known as “Sportsmanship” this statue located at Olympic Park on Olympic Boulevard and created by Mitch Mitchell in 2002, captures a moment of pure sportsmanship, where one runner stops to help another who has fallen.

The runners in question are John Landy and the then relatively-unknown Ron Clarke.  The race was held at Olympic Park Melbourne, in front of a 22,000 strong crowd and was the final of the National Championships, a pre-cursor to the Olympic Games to be held later that year.    

John Landy was the second person to achieve to sub-4 minute mile and at the time held the World Record for the fastest mile, at 3 minutes and 58 seconds.  There was a lot of expectation on Landy to set a new world record in this race.  What happened next is best described by the lad depicted here on the ground, Ron Clarke – who at the time of the race was the World Junior Champion.  Below is an excerpt from his autobiography, The Unforgiving Minute, as only he can best describe what happened:

“For two and a half laps the crowd watched enthralled.  Robbie Morgan-Morris went through the first lap in 59 seconds followed closely by myself, Alec Henderson, John Plummer and the favourite [Landy].  At the half-mile Robbie was still there and the time was 2:02:0.  I loped along behind him, anxious to finish at least among the first three runners and improve my best mile time.  Soon after the third lap I took the lead and then on a bend occurred an incident that stunned everybody... Alec came up on the inside of John.  He evidently tried also to wedge his way through between me and the kerb, and in doing so accidentally clipped my heel.  I lost balance and went sprawling on to the track while Alec staggered on to the verge of the arena, recovered and ran on.  John had no other choice but to jump over me, his spikes lacerating my right arm as he did so.  I was in such a daze that I felt no pain.  Within seconds the whole field was jumping over me or running wide.  Then John did a foolish, but typically thoughtful thing - he came back to say he was sorry and see if I was alright.  The mile title, his bid for the world record, even the approaching Olympics... all were forgotten as the champion made his spontaneous gesture to the raw stripling floundering in the cinders.”

More than 60 years later this spontaneous gesture has never been forgotten.  Let’s also not forget, that despite losing 6 or 7 seconds by stopping to help, Landy made up a huge deficit during the final two laps to go on to win that race in the time of 4 minutes and 4 seconds.

Both gentlemen went on to appear at the Olympic Games later that year.  Melbourne boy, Ron Clarke then only 19, was chosen to light the Olympic Flame during the opening ceremony but did not compete. 

Also born and bred in Melbourne, John Landy did compete at his local Olympic Games.  Sadly, he sustained an injury during promotions in the USA so was not running at 100 per cent at the 1956 Games in Melbourne but still took home the Bronze medal in the 1500 metre (or 1 mile) race. 

What became of the two of them? 

Ron Clarke, the son and brother of two Essendon Football Club players, eventually moved to Queensland’s Gold Coast in 1995.  A trained Accountant, he went on to become Mayor of the Gold Coast in 2004, retiring from the position 2012.  He passed away from kidney failure in 2015 and is survived by his wife and two sons after losing his daughter to breast cancer in 2009.  His influence helped to establish a second Queensland based AFL team, the Gold Coast Suns.  During his athletic career, spanning more than a decade and various distances between 1 to 6 miles, Ron Clarke won 12 Australian Championships and 12 Victorian Championships.  He brought home a Bronze medal in the 10,000 metre at the 1964 Tokyo Olympics and 4 Silver medals from 3 Commonwealth Games (Perth 1962, Kingston 1966 and Edinburgh 1970).  A 44-day tour of Europe in 1965 saw him compete 18 times and break 12 World Records including the first man to run 3 miles (4,828 metres) in under 13 minutes (12.52.4) and was the first to run 10,000 metres (6.214 miles) in less than 28 minutes (27.39.4).   

John Landy studied Agricultural Science at University.  Following his retirement from athletics, he wrote two natural history books (Close to Nature, 1984 and A Coastal Diary, 1993).  He served for eight years on the Victorian Land Conservation Council (1971-1978).  In January 2001 Landy was sworn in as Governor of Victoria, a successful post he held for more than 5 years, retiring in 2006.  During the final months of his Governorship Landy was also the final baton runner at the 2006 Commonwealth Games, presenting the baton to her majesty The Queen at the Opening Ceremony which was held at the Melbourne Cricket Ground.  Landy, now aged 90, resides in the former gold mining Victorian town of Castlemaine with his wife Lynne.  He has a son and a daughter, both of whom live overseas with their families.

Melbourne's Tributes to the 1956 Olympic Games

We’ve been missing our tours at Melbourne Sports Tours so we’re making a series of blog posts for you and taking the opportunity to talk about some of the things that there’s rarely time to cover whilst on tour.

For our first article, we headed to Melbourne’s Sports Precinct.  Most folks know the area for team sports and entertainment and with so much going on in this area there is always lots to talk about here.  Which probably explains why there’s never enough time to cover everything as thoroughly as we’d like!

Given that it occurred before many of us were born, you’d be forgiven for forgetting that our favourite stadium also hosted an Olympic Games, way back in 1956.  The XVI Olympiad, also known as The Friendly Games.

There are numerous tributes and monuments acknowledging the 1956 Melbourne Olympic Games which are dotted around Melbourne’s Sports Precinct.   Some you may already know; some you might have forgotten and maybe one or two will come as a surprise. 

Melbourne Cricket Ground

Given that the majority of events took place at the Melbourne Cricket Ground, it is little surprise that there are many tributes around the stadium.  First up, and probably the most obvious, is The Olympic Stand of the MCG.

The current Olympic Stand was built in the early 2000’s to accommodate the Commonwealth Games.  It replaced the Northern Stand that was built in 1955 for the Olympic Games and which was later renamed the Olympic Stand.  Inside the Olympic Stand, you will also find the Olympic Room which is a multi-purpose room.  During the footy season, the home club will use it for their Presidents Dinner but year-round, on non-match days, the room and adjoining spaces can be hired for meetings, conferences and such-like.

Located between Gates 2 and 3 of the Olympic Stand is a plaque, carved in granite, it lists all the Gold Medallists from the 1956 Melbourne Olympic Games.

There are numerous other tributes to the Melbourne Olympic Games inside the stadium but we’ll have to wait until their tours resume to have a better look at those!

Betty Cuthbert Statue

Betty Cuthbert was just 18 years old when she competed in her first Olympic Games, on home soil here in Melbourne.  She was born in 1938 in Merrylands in Sydney’s West and died in Mandurah, Western Australia in 2017 aged 79.  Betty Cuthbert won 3 gold medals here in Melbourne, in the 100 metres, 200 metres and also the 100-metre relay and was the first Australian of either gender to win 3 gold medals at a single Olympics.  It is little wonder she was known as “The Golden Girl. 

Injury prevented her from attending the 1960 Olympics in Rome but she returned in 1964 for the Tokyo Olympics to win a 4th Gold Medal at the first Olympic 400 metre Women’s event.  In addition to this statue, there is also a lounge inside the Olympic Stand which is named in her honour.

Shirley Strickland Statue

Shirley Strickland, also known by her married name Shirley de la Hunty, holds the Australian record for most Olympic medals for running sports, with a total of 7 medals across 3 Games.  3 of those medals were Gold, for 80m Hurdles in Helsinki and in Melbourne and also the 100m relay alongside Betty Cuthbert also in Melbourne.  She was part of the Silver winning Australian 100m relay team at the 1948 London Games.  Her 3 bronze medals came in the 100m run and 80m hurdle in London 1948 and the 100m race in Helsinki 1952.

In actual fact, her medal tally should be 8.  Shirley is on the record as finishing fourth in the 200 metres final at the 1948 London games.  But a photo of the race finish, discovered in 1975 and which was not consulted at the time, proves without-doubt that Shirley did in fact finish in front of the American Audrey Patterson and thus should have taken home the bronze.

English Oak Trees

There is a line of English Oak trees alongside Brunton Avenue between the William Barak Bridge and the footbridge to Rod Laver Arena.  They were gifted to the city of Melbourne by British industrialists.  The trees were brought to Melbourne and planted by the British Olympic team in 1956 to commemorate the Olympic Games.  How many of us drive past these trees regularly and never realised what they were?

Olympic Precinct Plaque

On the concourse separating Melbourne Arena from the National Tennis Centre and just south of the footbridge leading to Gate 7 of the MCG you will find a bronze plaque which outlines a 3D map of the Sports Precinct as it appeared in 1956.  It was laid in 2006 to celebrate 50 years since the Melbourne Olympic Games.  On the plaque you will see Olympic Park Pool, Olympic Park, the Melbourne Cricket Ground, the old velodrome and hockey fields plus the transport car park. 

Olympic Boulevard

The section of Swan Street from Punt Road west to the Yarra River was renamed in 2006 in tribute of the Melbourne Olympic Games.  Interestingly, the bridge was not renamed and retains its original (but not that original) name of Swan Street Bridge.

On the south side of Olympic Boulevard is Olympic Park, Gosch’s Paddock and AAMI Park.  The north side is taken up by Melbourne Park, site of the Australian Open but popular year-round as a sports and entertainment precinct.  Both parks are collectively managed by the Melbourne and Olympic Parks Trust.

Olympic Park and Olympic Park Pool

Olympic Park is so named because this was used by the Olympic track and field athletes for training. 

It adjoins a building many Melburnians refer to as the old Glasshouse.  Before it was known as The Glasshouse it was named Olympic Park Pool.  The building housed an Olympic sized swimming pool and also a diving pool.  Melbourne hosted fully enclosed pool events for the first time at an Olympics Games.  The pool was filled in and covered in parquetry flooring in the 1980’s and for a brief time the building served as a concert hall while Rod Laver Arena was being built.

Both sites are now occupied by Australian Rules Football team, the Collingwood Magpies. These days the site is known collectively as The Holden Centre but unofficially as the Magpies Nest.

I'll meet you under the clocks - Flinders St Station

Flinders St Station - one of the most iconic landmarks in Melbourne.  It’s featured constantly on postcards and is probably the most photographed building in the city, but how much do you really know about this site?  Show Me Melbourne takes a look at its history and features.

Flinders Street Station has been the main metropolitan train station for Melbourne for well over 150 years. There has been a station here since 1854 when a single line was installed to what is now Port Melbourne which makes it Australia’s oldest train station.  From 1865 to 1892 it was also the site of Melbourne’s first fish market – probably not the greatest entry to the city!  By the late 1920s Flinders St was the busiest train station in the entire world serving almost 300,000 passengers a day!

The current French Renaissance style building was completed in 1910.  It was the result of a design competition.  The winning designers were two railway workers James Fawcett and H.P.C. Ashworth.  There were a range of spaces that could be let for shops and offices, from the basement and ranging up a further four floors.  Most of the top floor was reserved for the Victorian Railways Institute which over the years has included a lecture theatre which was later converted into a grand ballroom, a library, crèche with a roof-top open air playground, a billiard room, a private gym with a boxing ring and even a roof-top running track which I believe is still there.  The ballroom was a popular place for dances in the 50s and 60s but unfortunately closed in the mid-1980s and fell into disrepair.  The only chance you have to see it these days is during Open House Melbourne in July each year.  But only if you’re one of the 20 or so people lucky enough to win a ticket!  The room has undergone a structural refurbishment in the past few years, but as far as I’m aware there are still no concrete plans to reopen it.  If you want to get an idea of the interior, check out Vance Joy’s 2014 film clip of My Kind of Man.

One of the most famous features of the station is the clocks out front showing the next train scheduled for each line.  Undoubtedly the most popular meeting place in the city, “I’ll meet you under the clocks” is a saying that has been used by generations of Melbournians.  The clocks actually predate the current station building by around 50 years having been used at the previous station.  These days they’re automatic, but originally they were manually adjusted.  At one point it was someone’s job to change them around 900 times in an 8 hour shift using a long pole.  I’ve done the maths for you and that’s 112 times an hour or almost twice a minute. 
When it was proposed that they be replaced by digital clocks there was such a public uproar that they were reinstated within 24 hours.

There’s always something new to learn about Flinders St, and something I only learned yesterday is that in the late 1980s when the station was being refurbished the builders incorporated heating under the stone steps so that people sitting there wouldn’t get cold!  I have clear memories of my grandmother telling me about the same era that if I sat on cold concrete I’d get piles, so maybe the chief engineer had been told the same thing!  Or maybe he was just a nice guy.

If you’re in Melbourne and visiting Flinders St Station, allow a little time to have a look at one of the original shops – City Hatters.  Before the current station was built this was the station masters office, but since 1910 it’s been a hat shop.  They’ve served generations of Melbournians from swaggies to aristocracy.  It’s changed hands a couple of times, but the current owners have had it since 1927.  Definitely a Melbourne institution.

If you’re looking for a guided tour of Melbourne, including Flinders St Station, have a look at our tours on offer or email us at info@showmemelbourne.com.au and let us design a private tour just for you.