Savage Words: Winter Olympics have left a mark in Brandon

The Opening Ceremonies to the XXV Winter Olympics took place on Friday night from Milano Cortina, Italy, and it was a spectacle.

Watching it made me think of what it was like in Squaw Valley, Calif., in 1960 when the Winter Olympics took place there. It certainly didn’t offer the same fanfare, the lights, fireworks, and production that this year’s Olympics presented during the Opening Ceremonies. 

But did you know that part of that 1960 Olympics celebration sits, or should I say stands, in Brandon? Next time you’re at Huset’s Speedway, check out the flag pole in the middle of the infield. That pole stood during the pageantry ceremonies of those 1960 Olympics. There is a plaque on the pole, commemorating the event, complete with the Olympic Rings and a signature from Walt Disney, the Chairman of the Pageantry, on display.

Pretty cool.

The first time I noticed the Olympic rings on that pole when I was walking through the infield, it obviously caught my eye.

So I asked around, like I do. 

How in the world did this Olympic pole from Squaw Valley 66 years ago end up in Brandon?

Clarence Rubin, and his sons Steve and Greg, bought the race track from the Sioux Falls Stock Car Association in 1989. A few years later, the brothers were at an auction sale on West 12th Street in Sioux Falls, when some 1960 Olympics poles appeared. They bought two of them, the second of which seems to be lost in history. The other still stands proudly in the infield.

“We could never get an answer,” Greg said when I asked them how the poles ended up in Sioux Falls. “We asked around, and nobody knew. We couldn’t get an answer.”

That seems odd, but clearly, there were a handful of them at that sale on West 12th. For years, one stood in front of the Augustana University Administration Building in Sioux Falls. It was replaced last summer. There’s likely more around the area, but I’m not certain.

The crazy thing, for me anyway, is where were they from 1960 until the early 1990s? After the Rubin’s purchased the two poles, Greg said both sat out back of the facility for “years and years” before they finally put one up, probably 10 years or so later. So, in a 40-or-so year span, the poles went from the Olympic Village in California, to Sioux Falls, to a field in Brandon where they endured more than one flood, to the infield at Huset’s where one of them waves Old Glory each Sunday night during the summer. 

As I watched the Opening Ceremonies the other night, it did, as it should, make me swell with pride for the Red, White and Blue.

I wish it did for everyone.

The popularity of the Olympics has waned in recent years. Partly, I think, because of a disinterest in the Games. Viewership is down, partly, I think, because information and results can be found instantaneously on smart phones. There’s really no need to watch the Games, or any sporting event really, when there’s more information at your fingertips than ever before. 

But mostly, I think the Games have lost their luster because of intense cultural and political polarization. Athletes are viewed as too “woke,” “unpatriotic,” or overly focused on social justice rather than competition.

That may very well be true, but it stinks.

I wish – I think everybody wishes – we could get back to cheering on the USA at the Olympics. 

I watched a documentary the other night about the 1980 Olympics in Lake Placid, N.Y. I was 11 when they took place, and I sort of remember them.

What got me the most the other night, what really choked me up, was hearing a collective group in an ice arena in the Adirondack Mountains chanting, in unison:

“USA”

“USA”

“USA”

I doubt we’ll hear that this year, or in eight years when the Olympics return to U.S. soil when Salt Lake City plays host. 

It might take a miracle, I suppose.

But the documentary the other night also featured, obviously, the USA’s win in hockey over the Russians. It was an absolutely improbable win over arguably the greatest Olympic hockey team ever assembled.

That game is widely considered the greatest sports moment in history, punctuated specifically as the clock hit zero by ABC’s play-by-play announcer Al Michaels screaming, “Do you believe in miracles?”

I do.

And I’m hopeful we’ll all eventually get back to cheering “USA, USA, USA,” together again.