Memorable Night

Officials in boiled shirts clutched tape measures and struggled to look important. Skivvy-suited competitors sucked oranges, signed autographs and stretched stiff muscles with weird calisthenics. A brass band assaulted the night with Music to Run a Relay To. Over everything hovered the athletic aroma of sweat and oil of wintergreen. Then the 55th Millrose Games were on, and the 16,000 people packed into Madison Square Garden were given a night to remember.

>"The most important thing," says Pole Vaulter John Uelses, 24, "is having the crowd with you.'' Last year at the Millrose Games the crowd had hardly noticed the crewcut Marine corporal. This time he heaved himself aloft on his new fiberglass pole with neat precision--and the crowd was with him all the way. When the pole unbent to give him a final boost, Uelses became the first man ever to vault 16 ft. He had cleared the bar at 16 ft. 3/4 in. (Next night in Boston he beat his own record, went over at 16 ft. 1 in.)

>"If I see Parry O'Brien before the meet," said Shotputter Gary Gubner, a New York University sophomore, "I might say hello--if he does. This is not a social event. It's a challenge." But World Record Holder O'Brien, his plane flight delayed by bad weather, showed up late, and Gubner had to content himself with dueling a ghost. This seemed stimulus enough for Gubner, a robust 260 lbs. at 19. He tossed the 16-lb. shot 63 ft. 10 1/4 in., shattered O'Brien's mark by 8 3/4 in.

>"I'm loose and I'm ready," said Villanova's Frank Budd, 22. "Tonight will be a good one." It was: dead last at the start, Budd won the 60-yd. dash easily in 6.1 sec.--just .1 sec. off the world record.

Burly and barrel-chested, with massive thighs and 16 1/2-in. calves, New Zealand's Peter Snell, 23, is a country boy who dotes on sweets (honey, barley sugar). Unknown when he turned up at the 1960 Olympics, Snell upset Belgium's Roger Moens in the 800-meter run--and set an Olympic record in the process. Ever since, he has trained steadily, runs 100 miles a week over pock-marked mountain trails. Now, when he chooses to run on a track, Snell is the fastest middle-distance runner in the world. Fortnight ago at Wanganui, N.Z., he outdistanced a star-studded international field by 25 yds. and set a world record of 3 min. 54.4 sec. for the mile. Last week in Christchurch, Snell added two more records to his bag. Finishing a fantastic 100 yds. ahead of the U.S.'s Jim Dupree, Snell streaked through 880 yds. in 1 min. 45.1 sec. On the way, he was clocked at 1 min. 44.3 sec. for the shorter 800-meter run.

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