And Our Hats Are Off To You

By Wottle's standards 1973 has been a curious year. He beat Keino in Los Angeles in January and won the NCAA indoor mile in March, but outdoors he lost miles to Leonard Hilton at the Kansas Relays and to Michigan State's Ken Popejoy at the Vons Classic in L.A., both through the traditional Wottle failing of starting his kick too late. Yet there is evidence of continued maturing.

"I like myself a little better this year," he says. "Last year Popejoy beat me once and I didn't want to talk to him afterward, I wanted to get away and brood on how to beat him back. This year we flew to the Vons race together, roomed together. He beat me by a yard. Then we went to dinner together. I'm still just as eager to beat him, but now I'm not letting it spill over into disliking him."

Wottle got his revenge at the NCAA outdoors in Baton Rouge, timing his kick perfectly off a fairly slow pace to win the mile in what was at the time a personal best of 3:57.1. He beat not only Popejoy but 10 other rivals, seven of whom came in under four minutes. The following week, in the AAU championships in Bakersfield, Calif., Wottle reverted to bad form, kicking too late and being soundly beaten in a 1:45.6 half-mile by Rick Wohlhuter, the new world-record holder at that distance. Four days later, however, in a competition that bore the rather high-minded title of Hayward Restoration Track Meet—the proceeds go to rebuilding a 69-year-old grandstand at the University of Oregon—Wottle ran what he termed a perfect race.

Gary Atchison, a half-miler from Seattle's Club Northwest who was supposed to function as a rabbit, took the mile field through a 58-second first quarter. Steve Prefontaine then assumed the lead, with Wottle on his shoulder and Villanova's John Hartnett on Wottle's. With a little less than 220 yards to go, Wottle jumped Prefontaine and won by 10 yards. His 3:53.3 was the sixth fastest mile ever recorded—Ryun has a 3:51.3, a 3:52.8 and a 3:53.2 to go with his world record. Prefontaine came in second (3:54.6) and Hartnett third in 3:54.7.

"I was waiting for the right time to kick," Wottle said after completing his victory lap. "Pre tried to break it at the three-quarter mark, but I hadn't even started to breathe hard then. I don't think my final 220 was that good. I wish I would have gone all out and seen what I could do. I'm pretty sure I couldn't have run a 3:51, but if someone had come up on my shoulder I had something left."

One afternoon this past spring some old friends of the Wottles' invaded the walk-down apartment Dave and his wife Jan keep a block from the campus and set about cooking a surprise dinner. Among the Early American furniture, antique picture frames, Hummels and teacups, the only likely evidence of an athletic inhabitant is a plate commemorative of a visit to the Munich cathedral. If Dave Wottle has one foot in high school, the other is in bland Midwestern middle age. He keeps his medal in a safe deposit box. He drives an Oldsmobile.

"I'm kind of set in my ways," he remarks over the meal, "but I like to travel so long as I can always get American food."

"Which means junk," says Jan, who teaches third grade at Deshler Elementary School 30 miles away. "Dave volunteers to do the shopping because he knows if I go I won't let him buy junk. He also does the laundry and inspects my hospital corners when I make the bed."

"It's a reaction against a messy mother," says Wottle. "Hey, this is nice. What do you call it?"

"Broccoli."