Creepers, Floaters And Squirmers

Laird, 31, has won more national senior AAU championships—51 at last count—than any other athlete. Of course, race walkers can compete for 11 championships, indoor and outdoor, from one mile to 50 kilometers during a single year. Of course, too, perhaps no other race walker has quite Laird's dedication. At one period in his life he would work at a job until his attendance at a walking race required him to miss work, at which time he would get fired. Returning from the race, he would get another job, which would last until the next race.

In 1962 Laird moved to Chicago and trained with Chris McCarthy. He lived at one of the fraternity houses across the street from the University of Chicago track and worked as a draftsman on a university meteorology project. In February 1963 Laird got married, left almost immediately for the Pan-American Games in S�o Paulo, Brazil, returned home and left again with an American track team touring Europe. He and his wife separated in November, but while they lived together Laird would do resistance training by walking with her on his shoulders.

Laird moved to California in 1963 and got a job as draftsman with the city of Pomona, which he holds today; Laird's boss, Chuck Sihler, became so fascinated with his new employee's avocation that he became a race-walking judge. Laird is fortunate in that the city allows him to take his vacation one day at a time so he can attend out-of-town races. For long international trips he obtains a leave of absence. Laird originally competed for the New York Pioneer Club but switched to the New York AC when it agreed to pay his expenses to national championships. He still maintains his affiliation with the NYAC even though he lives in California and despite jibes about the club's discriminatory policies. "I'd walk for the Black Panthers if they'd get me to the races," says Laird.

Laird freely offers his time to promote his sport, often driving several hundred miles to give a lecture or attend a clinic. He also sponsors races, getting businessmen to donate trophies that often wind up in his collection. "Ron's a pot hunter," claims Chris McCarthy. "He doesn't like merchandise awards and sometimes will leave an electric razor he's won in the box. He'd rather win trophies." Laird's apartment, in which he lives rent-free in return for mowing the grass for his 92-year-old landlady, has become a haven for visiting race walkers, who come and stay with him for a week to six months while training and racing. "I'm almost scared to go into the place," says Jim Hanley. "I'm afraid someday the entire house is going to collapse from the weight of Ron's trophies."

Laird lives humbly on a fraction of his salary, conserving money by traveling to meets excursion-rate. He invests his money in silver mines, Alaskan oil wells and other stocks. He could be the only person in the history of track and field to retire from the sport a millionaire.

Laird does splurge on health foods, including wheat-germ oil, raw milk and concentrated seawater. One favorite drink consists mainly of alfalfa. "I tried it once," says Chuck Sihler, "and I'll never do it again." During coffee breaks at his office Laird eats yogurt, or retires to the washroom to do isometric exercises. One morning, while pushing against a washbowl with his hip, the bowl ripped loose from the wall, cracking a pipe and flooding the washroom. Laird quietly returned to his desk.

Last year Ron Laird won nine of the 11 American championships, losing the shortest (the one mile, won by Dave Romansky, the sport's newest luminary) and the longest (50 kilometers). He won his 47th AAU title, in the 35-kilometer walk, on a one-mile course laid out in the parking lot of an East McKeesport, Pa. shopping center. "Women kept backing their cars into some of the guys," Laird says. "I almost got it twice. It was a little weird." To be sure, but being race walkers, they'll all be back in the parking lot next month. What's a few women drivers to athletes who endure the ridicule of their fellow men?