He was in Jamaica, at a track meet, doing a little recruiting and doing a little remembering when Leroy Burrell saw something quite familiar. He saw a blur.
“You knew,” he said.
He knew. Everyone knew that the 15-year-old sprinter was destined to make track and field history, which he did, seven years later, at the Olympics in Beijing.
That’s how it happened with Usain Bolt, who went from Jamaica to the Olympics to the designation as the world’s fastest human when he used no more than 9.69 seconds to run 100 meters. That’s how it happened, a generation before, when Burrell was single-handedly collecting enough points in the PIAA track meet to lead Penn Wood High to the state championship
Everyone knew.
Everyone knew he would be something special, too, in track and field, and so he was, twice establishing the world record in the 100. Everyone knew that if there were a Hall of Fame with available wall space, some day, some way, it would include Burrell. So it was Thursday night at the Hyatt at Penn’s Landing that Burrell joined the fifth class of the Philadelphia Sports Hall of Fame.
“It’s wonderful,” he said. “It’s always a great honor to be remembered for what you accomplished. But it is even more special when it’s your home town.”
Burrell is the head track coach at his alma mater, the University of Houston, which is why he keeps his thumb on both the stopwatch and the pulse of his sport. So he travels and he watches, recruits and sometimes worries. He worries that the distinction he twice earned will never again be held by someone who came up the way he did, through an American high school, dreaming of track greatness.
“Quite honestly, it is kind of tough as an American,” Burrell said. “Because I know we don’t have anything like that now. And we won’t produce a guy like that because those guys are playing football and basketball. But at the same time, it is a challenge I think we will rise to.”
So the challenge is there for the U.S. to develop it’s next Leroy Burrell, who first set the record of 9.90 in 1991, then after losing it to Carl Lewis, regained it by running a 9.85. Donovan Bailey reset the mark in 1996, and it has dwindled since, with Burrell welcoming any new company into the snug fraternity of world’s fastest humans.
“He is a special runner,” Burrell said of Bolt. “And it is good for the sport.”
It’s the way it works in sports. The record holders give way to new record holders, and as they do, they become Hall of Famers, never to be forgotten. Burrell joined the Philly Hall with former Eagle Harold Carmichael, Sixers coach Maurice Cheeks, former Phillie Ed Delahanty, sports columnist Stan Hochman, former light-heavyweight champion Tommy Loughran, Philadelphia University basketball coach Herb Magee, golfer Dorothy Porter, former Flyers coach Fred Shero, former La Salle forward Lionel Simmons, former Eagle Al Wistert and the late Mickey Vernon, who should be in the baseball Hall of Fame, too.
Burrell didn’t need directions.
“This is where the roots are,” Burrell said. “A lot of my character and a lot of my base, fundamental beliefs were built right here. Just the grittiness of Philadelphia — the hard work, the work ethic — a lot of what I am is because of where I come from.”
He came from Lansdowne, but is settled in Houston, where he is married to the former Michelle Finn, also a world-renowned sprinter. He has three sons, Cameron, 14, Joshua, 12 and Jaden, 2 months. His two older sons have made it to the junior-national level in track, Cameron in the long jump, Jaden in the shot put, and each finished in the top 10. Burrell knows, though, that their dad’s accomplishments might be their most difficult hurdle to clear.
“My wife — she won a gold medal, too — and I don’t discuss that with them,” said Burrell, who won Olympic gold in Barcelona with a U.S. relay team. “We know others do. But we don’t discuss it. All we are concerned about is that they learn how to compete and learn the value of sport and learn how to get the most out of their ability.”
Burrell saw Bolt and knew he eventually would have new company on the list of the 100-meter record holders. But at some point, there has to be a limit, no? There has to be some time that will be impossible for the human body to clock while running 100 meters.
“I think there is certainly a limit,” Burrell said. “But there are always new things going on in track and field — new training techniques, the tracks are different, the shoes are better. There is more video analysis that you can use now to help improve your technique. And when you see people try to utilize those tools, you see the improvement coming. And that’s why there are so many people now that are much faster than, say, 10 or 15 years ago. People have more access to better information and they are utilizing it.”
The sport of track grows more sophisticated all the time, but the fundamental principle remains: Try to get home as fast as possible. In that spirit, Burrell spent Thursday afternoon at Penn Wood, and was expecting as many as 20 of his most loyal supporters, including his former high school coach Bob Jesson, to share his Hall of Fame moment.
“To be recognized in a sports city like Philadelphia, and to be inducted into a Hall of Fame like this,” he said, “is a real honor.”
It had to be that way for Leroy Burrell. As everyone knew, it would just be a matter of following the blur.
