TOKYO TIP: Mike Bright tips a set from Ron Lang in Tokyo in 1964. Below, the 1968 Men’s team spent some time doing some high-altitude training in Lake Tahoe, Calif., before leav- ing for Mexico City. (Photos: USA Volleyball)
EARLY YEARS: The U.S. Women’s National Volleyball Team displayed some loose cover- age in 1968 in Mexico City (top photo), while the 1964 team packed light for Tokyo in photo above. (Photos: USA Volleyball)
too. Murphy says she had never executed a forearm pass before she got to Tokyo. Not surprisingly, the first U.S. women’s Olympic team struggled. Before the competition even started, the team played a training match against a Japanese high school team – and lost. In the Olympics, the U.S. lost its first four matches – to Japan, Poland, Romania and Russia – without winning a game. The team’s lone victory came in its final match against Korea. It was disappointing at the time, but perspective is necessary. As Murphy says now, “People didn’t realize it, but just qualifying was a pretty big deal.”
Mexico City, 1968 • • • • • • Men — Finish: 7th out of 10 teams
• Record: 4-5 • Team: John Alstrom, Mike Bright, Wink Davenport, Smitty Duke, Tom Haine, Jack Henn, Butch May, Danny Patterson, Larry Rundle,
Jon Stanley, Rudy Suwara, Pedro Velasco. • Head coach: Jim Coleman Preparation for the 1968 Games was a bit more extensive than it had been in 1964 – the team trained in California at Lake Tahoe for six weeks – and it led to one very significant highlight: a stunning upset of the Soviet Union. The Soviets were up in sets 2-1, but the U.S. came back and won going away in the fifth, 15-6. As the points ticked away in favor of the Americans, U.S. setter Jack Henn recalls a look of astonishment on the
faces of the Soviet players. “You could see in their eyes that they were thinking, ‘Is this really happening?’” he said. “You knew if they didn’t come back and win the gold, they were going to be sent to Siberia.” The Soviets did come back and take the gold, winning their remaining eight matches. The U.S., meanwhile, wasn’t able to lift its game to the same height the rest of the way. It didn’t help when one key player, Larry Rundle, sprained his ankle. It also didn’t help that most of the players were hit with bad cases of Montezu-
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