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It’s a standing agreement, implicitly understood: the last weekend in Aprilof each year, the reunion is at Roberts’ home in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.He makes the pelau, and depending on the chill in the air, they gatheraround the pool or fill the family room. Then the stories begin. There’sRoberts’ story about running for the prize of sugar, getting a gag prize ofsalt, but recognizing at age nine that he was a lightning streak among therunners. There’s Kent’s story of being dared by classmate, Orville Harris, atage fifteen to compete in the 100 yard dash, beating the star runner whilerunning barefoot, and deciding then and there to give up soccer. Skinner’strajectory onto the national and international sports arena evolved fromfamily routines; his father, a WWII Army veteran, required all seven sons torun with him each morning before school. For Wendell, it started in elemen-tary school where he toyed with the long jump and the triple jump beforedeciding to hone his skills as a distance runner. Finally Len’s involvementin sports was a purposeful decision—made at age ten after readingDickens’ Great Expectations—to use athletics as the stairway to highereducation.

Edwin Roberts, Kent Bernard, Edwin Skinner, andWendell Mottley were the men who put Trinidad andTobago in the spotlight for athletics at the 1964Olympics in Tokyo, Japan. The country had sent teams tothe Olympics since 1948, but Trinidad won its first medalsin track and field in 1964 when Roberts took the bronze inthe 200 meter; Wendell earned a silver in the 400 meter;and Kent, Roberts, Skinner, and Wendell ran together as members of the 4 x400 meter relay team to win the bronze. It was the first and last time thatTrinidad and Tobago medaled in that event at an Olympic Games—earningthem the moniker “The Miracle Team.” Two years later, in 1966, withSkinner hurt; Lennox Yearwood, unsuccessful in the 800 meter, joined the 4x 400 relay team to help set a world record at the British Empire andCommonwealth Games in Kingston, Jamaica. Calypso artist Young Killermemorialized that event in song:

Yearwood ran 800 and he flopBut in the relay came back on topWith Mottley, Roberts, and Kent BernardThey made history for Trinidad.

FORMER OLYMPIC MEDALISTS FROM TRINIDAD AND TOBAGO CONTINUE TO INSPIRE YOUNG TRACK AND FIELD ATHLETES TODAY

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Opposite: Edwin Roberts in the qualifying trials for the200m at the 1964 Olympics. He earned the bronze medal in thefinals. Top: Kent Bernard, Edwin Roberts, Wendell Mottley,Edwin Skinner show their medals won at the 1964 Olympics.Inset left: The 4 x 400 relay at the 1964 Olympics, Tokyo,Japan. Inset right: Pictured left to right to right is KentBernard, Edwin Roberts, Wendell Mottley, and EdwinSkinner at the 2007 Penn Relays, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania

by Jennifer J. Beaumont

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Track and field aficionados the worldover know the last weekend in Aprilas the date for the oldest and largest

indoor relay carnival in North Americaheld annually at the University ofPennsylvania. For these former Olympiansand best friends, it is also a time to recon-nect with each other and with their com-padres from that era. For newbies to thegroup, it is a rare glimpse into the historyof track and field in Trinidad and Tobago;an insiders’ understanding of the impact ofsports on class, the opportunities it offersfor upward social mobility; and the story offive men all born in the 1940s who par-layed a natural talent into success as world

class athletes, earned scholarships that ledto advanced degrees and professionalcareers, and became agents for socialchange in Trinidad and Tobago.

Today we know that the speed of asprinter can be enhanced by the type oftrack he runs on. In the 1950s, however,the only tracks that these runners knewwere outdoor grass tracks. After beingrecruited by universities in the US, theCaribbean athletes were amazed at thetimes clocked on outside turf tracks andinside wooden tracks. Today, we also knowthat the race is enhanced by the quality ofthe shoes the sprinters wear. Then, howev-er, the Caribbean runners wore whatever

shoe or sneaker that was available, oftenrunning without shoes because bare feetwere all they could afford. Money andother material comforts were scarce. Lenexplains: “very early on, I realized thatmany opportunities were for the chosenand I was not a part of the chosen, so I hadto find a way to change my life chances.”His decision was to become an elite ath-lete, not an easy feat for a boy growing upin rural Arima, about sixteen miles fromPort of Spain, the capital city. His mentaland physical discipline was honed by a sin-gle mother who lost her husband—hisfather—when Len was three years old; andby Coach Turner, who served as mentor,

friend, and father figure. By 1960, his suc-cesses included the record for the half-mileamong runners in the Under-15 group.Eventually settling into the 800 meter, heearned a silver medal at the 1966 CentralAmerican and Caribbean Games in PuertoRico; a spot on the 4 x 400 relay team thatmade history later that year in Kingston,Jamaica; and participation in the 1968Olympics in Mexico City. Erasing the senseof having been born into a tragic destiny,Len earned a doctorate in sociology andbecame a lawyer and a member of the teamthat created the Black Studies Program atBuffalo State University. For his successesand his contributions to sports programs in

his hometown, Len was honored with hisown street—the Lennox YearwoodExpressway.

The men have all given back to theirhome country in some way. Wendell andSkinner moved back to Trinidad andTobago to make their contribution tangi-ble. As youngsters, both attended Queen’sRoyal College, the oldest secondary schoolin the country, which also educated PeterMinshall, one of the artistic designers ofthe opening ceremony for the 1992 and1996 Olympic Games in Barcelona, Spainand Atlanta, Georgia. The rivalry betweenthem during those years was intense.Somehow Wendell won most often.

Top: Edwin Roberts coachinghigh school students inPhiladelphia, Pennsylvania.Inset left: The victory lap aftersetting the world record at theBritish Empire andCommonwealth Games,Kingston, Jamaica (1966). Insetright: Kent Bernard, WendellMottley, and Edwin Roberts afterbeing inducted into the Trinidad& Tobago Hall of Fame. Right:Edwin Roberts winning the200m, at the Central Americanand Caribbean Games in PuertoRico(1966)

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PARTICIPATION IN PROFESSIONAL ATHLETIC ORGANIZATIONS ISANOTHER WAY THESE ATHLETES PROMOTE SOCIAL CHANGE ANDHELP IMPROVE LIFE CHANCES FOR THE YOUTH

Above: Lennox Yearwood, running the 800m atthe Central American and Caribbean Games inPuerto Rico (1966). He earned the silver medal.Overlay: Kent Bernard (# 612) in the trials forthe 400m at the 1964 Olympics

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Skinner headed the Economics Sectionof the University of the West Indies basedCaribbean Industrial Research Institute forseventeen years before joining theMemphis Pioneers Athletic Club as presi-dent and coach. His work in supporting theacademic and athletic development ofyouth has resulted in more than 40 members being admitted to universities onathletic scholarships since 1998 and recognition by the InternationalAssociation of Athletics Federation in 2009for his contribution to the prominence oftrack and field. In addition to the 1964Olympics, Skinner’s achievements in histhirteen-year career as an athlete included

the national record for both the 200m and400m in 1962, and the world indoor recordfor the 4 x 400 as part of the team from theUniversity of Maryland Eastern Shore.

Participation in professional athleticorganizations is another way theseathletes promote social change and

help improve life chances for the youth.Roberts and Kent both work with youngpeople. As a special education high schoolteacher in Philadelphia, Roberts coachesboth the men’s and women’s track teamsand officiates at the Penn Relays eachyear. In 1961, he ran against and beat, on

home turf, Mihkla “Flying” Singh fromIndia who had already been to twoOlympic Games and placed fourth in the400m at the 1960 Olympics in Rome.Ranked among the world’s top ten runnersof the 200m by Track and Field Newsfrom 1964-1971, and the second athletefrom Trinidad and Tobago to compete inthree successive Olympic Games, Roberts’only unfulfilled dream is to coach his coun-try’s track teams.

Kent works as a probation officer withyoung people involved in Michigan’sJuvenile Justice System. Twice a Big Tenchampion for the 440, he competed pri-marily to maintain his academic scholar-

ship and did so successfully for twelveyears on the international stage. Academicexcellence was a non-negotiable for him.As an assistant coach at the University ofMichigan, his student-athletes, recruitedlargely from the Caribbean, had the high-est rate of on-time graduation of all stu-dent groups. Like all the other members ofthe team who live outside of Trinidad &Tobago, Kent returns home several timeseach year to conduct clinics for aspiringathletes and ensure their exposure torecruiters.

Their shared experiences on the tracks unite them, but it is the conscious

effort each makes to nurture therelationships and savor the friendshipsthat keeps the five men close. The storieskeep on coming. Pondering theirsuccesses individually and collectively,Wendell, who anchored both relays andauthored Trinidad and Tobago:Industrial Policy 1959-2008, reflected:“that team we assembled in the mid 1960swas an unusual occurrence in Trinidad.There is nothing like the bonding of arelay . . . It was fantastic. Sometimes inyour athletic career everything comestogether and you become more thanhuman. There is something that you touchthat just lifts you, you can feel it. It’s

something fleeting . . . but for thatmoment, we four just brought it alltogether, in a moment that neverthereafter we were able to do.”

Their legacy—enshrined in universitiesand halls of fame and in national, regionaland international associations—lives on inmany ways, but most visibly now throughKent’s son Kolin and Wendell’s daughterMeredith, who are high school and collegeathletes. 1

Jennifer J. Beaumont is an educatorand freelance writer living inPhiladelphia, Pennsylvania.

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Left: Wendell Mottley, finalsof the 400m at the 1964Olympics. He earned thesilver medal. Inset left:Edwin Skinner beinginducted into the CentralAmerican and CaribbeanAthletic Association (2008).Inset right: Edwin Roberts,inducted in the Penn RelaysHall of Fame (2008)

Skinner laughingly explains: “I rememberrunning against Wendell in the Under-15and he had beaten me. He had track shoes;I ran bare footed so that’s why that hap-pened.” Then everyone roared as he con-cluded with “but he did beat me continu-ously after that.” And Wendell beat severalothers too. Almost 50 years later, he is stillon Yale’s All Time Outdoor Top 15Performance List for the 200m and the400m as well as the Indoor List for the55m, 400m, and 500m.

Returning home after Yale and theUniversity of Cambridge, Wendell did astint as an entrepreneur before serving hiscountry as a member of parliament withvarious portfolios—Tourism, Housing,Industry, and Finance—where he intro-duced legislation regulating banks andfinancial institutions.

THE SHARED EXPERIENCES ON THE TRACKS UNITE THEM, BUT IT IS THECONSCIOUS EFFORT EACH MAKES TO NURTURE THE RELATIONSHIPSAND SAVOR THE FRIENDSHIPS THAT KEEPS THEM CLOSE

Inset left: Passing the baton in the 4x400m relay.Inset right: Trinidad and Tobago’s 1964 OlympicTeam. Opposite: Finals in the 400m at the 1964Olympics. Wendell Mottley in Lane 7 (finished2nd),and Edwin Skinner in Lane 4 (finished 8th)

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