Terrell Lester
Sports Editor
Scouting around … They’re coming down the stretch. The finish line is within sight. Saturday is the 32nd and final day of the thoroughbred spring meet at Cherokee Casino Will Rogers Downs.
It’s been a successful run … despite a lack of Chamber of Commerce weather of late.
Kelly Cathey, racing secretary, Cherokee Casino Will Rogers Downs, is happy with the results.
“We’ve had an outstanding spring meet,” he said this week. “We will release final numbers following the conclusion of the meet, but I can say we’re up significantly from last year. We continue to receive great support from the local communities and from regional horsemen, and the weather cooperated more than it has in the past, which resulted in a great spring.”
As they close the gate on the spring meet, here comes the Preakness Stakes. That’s sure to be a winning daily double at WR Downs. Live racing. And the second leg of the Triple Crown.
What could be better?
Animal Kingdom went off as a 20-1 pick in the Kentucky Derby and won by 2 1/2 lengths. Now, he’s the betting favorite ” 2-1 ” in the Preakness.
Odds are not nearly that good on Animal Kingdom’s chances of winning the Triple Crown. After all, there hasn’t been a Triple Crown winner since Affirmed in 1978.
As he was in the Derby, John Velazquez will be aboard Animal Kingdom. …
Doug Blubaugh was an Oklahoma treasure. An honest-to-goodness hero. Larger-than-life. One did not have to know wrestling to know Doug Blubaugh. To appreciate Doug Blubaugh.
In the 1950s and early ’60s, Doug Blubaugh was, to many, the biggest name in wrestling. The face of the amateur sport.
In 1953, at Ponca City, he won the 141-pound high school state championship.
At Oklahoma A&M, he was a three-time All-American, winning the 157-pound NCAA national championship in 1957. (A&M became Oklahoma State later that same year.)
He completed the trifecta by winning Olympic gold in 1960, at Rome.
After Rome, in 1960, he was saluted as the world’s outstanding wrestler. The best amateur wrestler in the whole wide world!
The other day, Doug Blubaugh was killed. He was 76 and was riding a motorcycle when he was struck by a truck at an intersection in his hometown of Tonkawa.
Doug Blubaugh, the man who pinned all four opponents in the Olympics a half-century ago, was killed while riding a motorcycle.
Last year, in an interview with InterMat, he responded to a question about his formative years: “Thank God I grew up on a wheat farm in Oklahoma that didn’t have electricity or running water ’til during World War II. Doing farm chores built a work ethic. It was hard work. I never lifted weights ” couldn’t afford them ” but hefted bales of hay. Strength from working on a farm is different; you get ‘endurance strength’ from farm work.”
At Rome, he went up against five-time world champion from Iran, Emam-Ali Habibi, of Iran in the gold-medal match. The Iranian was unbeaten ” was even referred to as “unbeatable” ” having won gold at the 1956 Melbourne Olympics.
Blubaugh once described the match thusly: “At the start of my match with Habibi, he comes right after me and knocks me on my butt. I get out of it, get up and ‘boom!’ he does it again. Once more, I get out of it but am now behind by five points. I tell myself he can’t do that to me a third time, so when he comes after me again, I flip him onto his back, hold him tightly while he is vainly bridging, and pin him.”
National Wrestling Hall of Fame Director Lee Roy Smith, himself an Oklahoma State legend, said this week: “Doug is a treasure to the wrestling history and heritage in the United States. ” “¦
Another good line was brought brought to mind this week. Henry Cooper, the heavyweight who in 1963 knocked down Cassius Clay (before he became Muhammad Ali), died last week in England. Cooper was 40-14-1 over a 16-year career. Clay won that match and a rematch three years later.
After the 1963 bout, Clay said that Cooper “hit me so hard that my ancestors in Africa felt it.”
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