people there. I loved everything that was going on.” Coming in as a physical education major, Waddell


demonstrated skill that dazzled everyone around him. In a dual meet in track, he once came within a point of outscoring the entire Amherst College team on his own. To football—which he joined as a sophomore on a lark—he brought a startling athleticism. The legendary 47-yard touchdown catch in a 1957 upset of UConn remains indelible for many who were there. Marvels classmate Tom Johnson, “He caught a touchdown in the end zone with two guys hanging all over him—with one hand! That was the way he was.” At the time, though, gymnastics was Waddell’s greatest


athletic passion. Back then, the gymnastics exhibition team traveled throughout the northeast as Springfield College’s No. 1 showcase. Waddell’s strength, coordination, physical beauty, and great showmanship made him a natural. But it was also the source of the great tragedy of his


young life. During his junior year, Waddell and his close friend, Don


Marshman, the president of the Class of 1959, were working out one February afternoon before practice. In the midst of a back swing from the flying rings, Marshman lost his grip and went plummeting headfirst, landing with a sickening crack. A horrified Waddell raced over and found his crumpled friend in a desperate state. Marshman was rushed to Wesson Hospital. For hours, there was a grim vigil. In the middle of the night, Waddell and his friends got the worst news they had ever known: Marshman hadn’t made it. Recalls Briley, “Tom was absolutely bereft.” Adds Savoia, “He was heartbroken. He was really close to


[Marshman]….His purpose changed.” Virtually on the spot, Waddell shifted from studying


physical education to pre-med. That had been Marshman’s major. Waddell knew this was the right path, one devoted to curing and healing. It would become, in various incarna- tions, his mission for the rest of his life. **


The 1960s might be America’s most interesting decade. It was a time of excitement and experimentation, a time of cultural hope and heartbreak. It was all of that for Tom Waddell. After a post-graduate year at Springfield, he plunged into


the rigors of medical school at Seton Hall. He became engaged at different times to two different women. He fell in love with a much older man named Enge Menaker, who helped run a camp in the Berkshires. He traveled to Selma, Ala., to work for civil rights, and to Africa to compete in track and field. He experimented with drugs, joined the Army, and trained to jump out of planes. Through it all, he maintained a sensitivity, charm, and a quest for connection that was disarming. “He had a charisma


TRIANGLE 1 Vol . 85, No. 2


that was incredible,” says classmate Tom Johnson. “My wife, Fran, says to this day, ‘Tom Waddell was the finest guest we’ve ever had in our home.’” When Waddell was notified that he would be deployed to


Vietnam, he faced a huge conflict. He was in the Army. He believed in loyalty, in service. But he also viewed the war as the opposite of his life mission. He announced that he would not serve, even if it meant going to jail. And that’s what it might have meant were it not for the fact that Waddell had skills the Army found valuable—he could still run and jump


Waddell completing the long jump


and throw at a high level. As an Army captain now 30 years old, he began to train in earnest for the Olympic trials. When he emerged as one of the top three Americans in the event, he headed down to Mexico City in the turbulent year of 1968, a year already marked by the assassinations of Martin Luther King Jr. and Robert Kennedy, and one in which Richard Nixon would soon be elected president. The 1968 Games are known still for the “Black Power”


protests of U.S. sprinters Tommie Smith and John Carlos, Continued on next page


17


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