This article by Varoujan Karentz was published in the September 5 Special Edition issue of the Armenian Weekly honoring the AYF Olympics.
The period was in the middle of World War II in 1944. Why the Olympic games were even scheduled is beyond reason, perhaps to promote the endurance and continuity of binding chapters together. Every AYF chapter had men in the service and most were overseas fighting for their lives and country. Regardless, Dean Academy’s athletic field in Franklin, Massachusetts was chosen as the location of the 1944 games. It had also hosted the Olympics the previous year (1943) when Providence won. However, in 1944 those athletes who were in the 1943 games were now in military service and not available; those who did participate in the 1944 games would enter the military during the next few months. I believe it may have been the first year that women were allowed to compete in AYF track events since only a few men were available.
The Providence Varantian team was made up primarily of women and young under military age young men (boys). Two Providence athletes were home on leave and did participate. Officials back then were AYF seniors, not certified field judges, track judges, timekeepers or starters, nor experienced athletes. For that matter neither were many of us. High school athletics was our introduction into track and field events.
I recollect both “Uncle Bozo” (Merton Bozoian) and “Hal Avedesian” who organized and managed the event. Also, the Dean Academy athletic field did not have a quarter mile track. It had a straight run track of 220 yards in addition to a high jump pit and long jump run. I don’t think that during the 1943 games any long distance events were run, but that year (1944) someone had the “brilliant” idea to pace off a quarter mile out on the football field using the odometer of a car which drove around in an approximate oval. An “official” followed the slow moving vehicle on foot and created an erratic white line sprinkling baking flour out of a sack outlining the inside quarter mile circumference of the track. Here and there were blotches of white where the flour was distributed and walked upon by the person spreading the flour. There was no outside line nor was the quarter mile measured other than by the vehicle’s odometer.
The last event of the day was the men’s quarter mile baton relay race. Providence and Watertown were
neck and neck in points and whoever won the relay would be the team winner and take home the famed Olympic trophy. Providence had won the two previous Olympics in 1942 and 1943.
I was a member of that 1944 relay team running the second leg. The Providence four-man relay team came in first as an exuberant winner by at least 10 yards. A so-called “observer” yelled across the field claiming my foot had stepped on a white line smudge and after a debate by officials, the Providence team was disqualified.
For the past 76 years that white smudge comes to mind each Labor Day.
The author is a former president of the Providence AYF Chapter and founding member of the Armenian Youth Foundation.
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