"South Lake Tahoe Will Be With Us Long After We Are Gone" - Olympian John Carlos

Regarded by many as the best track and field team ever, members of the 1968 Olympic team returned to the site of their high altitude training center and U.S. Olympic Men's Track & Field Trials on Friday as the location was honored with a California State Historical Marker.

A crowd of a few hundred people gathered at Echo Summit for "Return to the Summit" which honored the unique location as well as the unique time and team. There were tumultuous times in 1968 prior to the Olympics with the assassinations of Martin Luther King, Jr and Bobby Kennedy as well as the Vietnam War.

County Supervisor Norma Santiago spoke to the Olympians and gathered crowd and told them "today we celebrate our gifted and talented athletes who rose to the physical and emotional challenges. We celebrate the legacy you created for our children when the track was moved to South Tahoe Middle School. Little feet of thousands of children ran on that magical track."

Jill Geer, Chief Public Affairs Officer with USA Track & Field compared Echo Summit to mythical Olympia because of the rocky mountains and towering trees. "This team has never gotten it's due," Geer said of the 1968 Olympians. She spoke of the team's 20 medals won by the men that year with 12 of them being gold. "The 20 medals winners from this Olympics are all in the Track and Field Hall of Field. They were so good they didn't even have to win gold to be in the Hall of Fame."

Tommie Smith's gloved fist protest with teammate John Carlos during the medal ceremony remains one of the iconic images of the 1960s. The victory stand protest was against racial inequality.

Smith said that he used to dread turning into the training facility at Echo Summit because he knew he'd have to go against Carlos who's heels he saw as they rounded the corner of the track. When relating to the high trees surrounding the facility, Smith recalled that when he saw pole vaulter Bob Seagren going over the crossbar he thought he was falling out of a tree.

"It's great to come home," said medalist John Carlos. He related Echo Summit to a living organism. "Echo Summit, it breathes, it sweats, it gets colds, it gets hot, but it manifests love."

"I've got my ticket!" Carlos said that was what everyone said at the trials when they knew they were heading to the Olympics in Mexico City.

"We are one, all along we were one, not categorized as athletes or activists," said Carlos. "We were vilified. Some threw rocks at us and now we're honored." He spoke that their record breaking feats in Mexico City opened the eyes of young kids that want to be Olympic champions.

South Lake Tahoe Mayor Pro Tem Brooke Laine wore a pin that her mother, Del sold for the City when they were raising money to move the track from Echo Summit to where it resided for a few decades at South Tahoe Middle School.
She spoke of a community meeting in January of 1967 where 200 community members gathered in a snow storm to get the Olympic training center at Echo Summit. With Echo Summit just 14 feet higher that the Mexico City track it seemed to everyone in town that it was the perfect location for training and the trials. Once Tahoe won the honor, Laine said the men's track team was housed at the Echo maintenance station, the women's gymnastics team and men and women's volleyball team stayed at Camp Richardson. The "100 Days of Tahoe" brought in 200 qualified candidates.

Walt Little was the Recreation Director for the City of South Lake Tahoe at the time and was instrumental in bringing the Olympic activity to the community. He had to convince others that South Lake Tahoe was prepared for the U.S. team. Two of his children, Walt Jr and Bill spoke during the ceremony. Bill said "this is the most beautiful track the world has ever seen with trees in the middle." He spoke of how his mother dug out two trees from the middle and sent them to her son Bob in Vietnam for Christmas. Bill also told the audience that he learned years later that the reason his parents lost their house was because they were feeding the Olympic athletes with their mortgage payment.

All of the speakers Friday spoke of the beautiful track, the great support of South Lake Tahoe and what the gathered athletes accomplished, from inspiring generations of young runners to breaking world recording and bringing home 20 medals.

"The site of the Olympic training center and trials deserve to be shared and celebrated for generations to come," said the State Historian William Burg.

Each Olympian was presented with a portion of the track that was recently removed from the middle school location.

Athletes present at the ceremony included Gold Medal Decathlon winner Bill Toomey, Bronze Medalist in the 50-kilometer walk Larry Young, High Jumper Reynaldo Brown, Silver Medalist in the High Jump, Ed Caruthers, Mel Pender who competed in the 100 meters, Geoff Vanderstock who competed in the 400-meter intermediate hurdles, Hammer Thrower Ed Burke (who also competed and carried the flag in 1984 Olympics) and triple jumper Norm Tate. They all stayed and signed autographs and shared stories with fans until the last fan left.