TBO.com - TBO is Tampa Bay Online

Bullet Had Speed To Burn

AP File Photo (1971)

Bob Hayes lets smoke trail from his mouth as he talks with the press in Fort Lauderdale in 1971.

ADVERTISEMENT

By MARTIN FENNELLY | The Tampa Tribune

Published: January 28, 2009

JACKSONVILLE - Before he died in 2002, Bob Hayes told his older sister, Lucille Hester, just what he wanted - to rest in his hometown of Jacksonville. To rest in a proper memorial so folks would remember. Too many had forgotten.

"He wanted what he'd done on there," said Hester, a youth sports administrator in Washington, D.C. "He wanted an American flag, the Olympics flag, a Cowboys flag. He wanted the Olympic rings and the Cowboys star."

It took five years, because Bob Hayes died poor, at least money poor. When the Super Bowl came to Jacksonville in 2005, he was still in an unmarked grave at Jacksonville's Edgewood Cemetery. It was sad.

The small, elegant mausoleum was dedicated in 2007. You can see Bob Hayes' flags when you turn into the cemetery. His mom has joined him. The words on the tomb tell you here rests the only man ever to win Olympic gold medals and a Super Bowl ring. There's room for more words.

"We left room in case my baby brother gets in the football Hall of Fame," Hester said. "That would be a wonderful thing."

He remains Jacksonville's greatest athlete, one of America's greatest, a two-sport wonder. Some insist he'd have been bigger than Deion and Bo.

"Crow came along too early," said Curtis Miranda, Bob Hayes' lifelong friend.

Robert Lee Hayes grew up on Jacksonville's East side. He was a pigeon-toed child racing down dirt roads. "No one could catch him," said Earl Kitchings, Hayes' high school football coach. He'll never be "Bullet Bob" on the East side. His nickname was "Crow" for his dark skin and, well ...

"He could fly," said Charles Sutton, Hayes' friend and college roommate. "Crow could fly."

He broke track records at Matthew W. Gilbert High School and played football. At Florida A&M, he played for Jake Gaither when not setting sprinting world records. Al Austin, who raced Hayes in high school (beating him once), teamed with him on FAMU's record-setting relay team. Hayes was the anchor.

"Crow would tell us, 'Just give it to me close,'" Austin said.

Sutton and Miranda played football with Hayes. They played in the NFL, too. As much as Hayes' talent, they remember his spirit, his laughter. Sutton remembers once in the offseason when they spotted a rabbit on the football field. "We're eating rabbit tonight," Bob Hayes announced. "Crow snuck up on the rabbit," Sutton said.

He ran it down. Never was anybody like Crow.

The world saw in 1964. At the Tokyo Olympics, Hayes won two gold medals. He tied a world record by running 100 meters in 10 seconds. But it was in the 4x100 relay that he made his legend. He was in fifth place when he began his anchor leg. The United States won by 3 yards. The stop watches said Bob Hayes ran 100 meters in 8.6 seconds. Hester sat in the stands, next to her mother, who sat next to Jesse Owens.

Ralph Boston won 1960 Olympic gold in the long jump. He and Hayes traveled the world, rooming at track meets. Boston says the Tokyo anchor leg isn't Hayes' fastest.

"I saw him the year prior, in West Germany, he was even farther behind a German anchor man, and he ran right past him. The guy was so blown away that after the race he went into the dressing room, took off his uniform and handed it to Bob," Boston said.

Back from Tokyo, Hayes rode in a parade through downtown Jacksonville. But the hero still couldn't drink out of downtown whites-only water fountains or stay at a downtown hotel.

Bob Hayes became an NFL football star, making touchdowns for the Dallas Cowboys, changing football with his legs. But whenever he returned home, he'd do clinics for Austin, who worked for parks and recreation before becoming the all-time winning girls high school basketball coach in Florida. "Bob would do anything for you," Austin said.

"We'd go in a church, and Crow would see someone and give them a hundred dollars, just like that," Miranda said.

"You missed a great man," Boston said.

Bob Hayes retired from the Cowboys in 1975. He did time in prison on a drug arrest and fought addictions. He eventually made his way back home, though home didn't always make its way back to him. "I think Jacksonville should have done more for Crow," Sutton said.

Two months after he died, a bronze statue of Hayes was dedicated in his old neighborhood. A stretch of road was renamed "Bullet Bob" Hayes Memorial Highway.

But there was always the Bob Hayes Invitational Track Meet, held each March since 1964 at a Jacksonville high school. More than 200 teams attended last year. Hayes was always there, wearing his gold medals.

There was never sadness to the man. Near the end, Miranda would see his friend at the nursing home every day. So would Sutton and Austin. They'd go in crying, but leave smiling. "Crow would always cheer you up," Miranda said.

Bob Hayes died Sept. 18, 2002. More than 3,000 people attended his funeral. One eulogist was a former North Carolina A&T defensive back who never could cover his friend Bob Hayes: Rev. Jesse Jackson.

Hester attended last week's presidential inauguration. The year before seeing her brother at the Olympics, she marched on Washington with Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. "Can you imagine marching with Dr. King, listening to President Obama and next week maybe my brother could get into the football Hall?" she said.

She'll be in Tampa for Super Bowl XLIII. Bob Hayes has always been passed over by voters for the Pro Football Hall of Fame. He has been renominated this year. The results will be announced Saturday. "We're hoping," Hester said.

Sutton lives in a small apartment on the East side. He uses a wheelchair. He lost his right leg and left foot to circulation problems. Last summer, he watched the Olympics, they all did, and saw Usain Bolt explode down the track. "The man was something," Sutton said. But he wasn't Crow.

"I say Crow takes him," Sutton said.

Gilbert High School is now Gilbert Middle School. A painting of Bob Hayes hangs near the main office. There's another high on a wall in the gymnasium.

Nakeisha Branston, Gilbert's athletics director, has been at the school 13 years. One afternoon, she was leading the girls basketball team through practice in the empty gym when "this tired-looking guy came in, grabbed a chair and sat down." After a few minutes, she asked if he needed help.

"No, he told me he just came in to look at his picture on the wall," Branston said.

It was Bob Hayes. Branston stopped practice. She tried to tell her players who this was. One child asked Bob Hayes if he'd really done all that. He smiled. "I did all of it," he said.

All of it.

Share this:

Loading Comments...

Email Print

ADVERTISEMENT