An Exclusive Club

"The greatest night of my life," said Morceli.

"These men could show today's athletes where sports fit into a round life," said Cram.

"The bond among us," summed up Coe, "is that which Lady Macbeth describes as a sickness: ambition, the pursuit of excellence. But you had this feeling that these were men very much at peace with themselves. That each of us realized that what we had done was neither greater nor lesser than what hail come before us or after, us, that we were all part of a human progression."

They rose together for one last ovation beneath the lights, in the brilliance of the shade.