Loafing Champion

As Ron Delany runs, the spike-scarred boards of Madison Square Garden's track curl out eleven uneventful laps to the mile. Other athletes strain to feel the thin snap of the finish tape; Delany beats them to it with deceptive ease. In the mile run at the Knights of Columbus games last week, the pale, frail-looking Irishman loafed through the first 8 1/2 laps as if lazing along the banks of the Liffey back home. He stayed an easy third; suddenly, almost imperceptibly, he moved to second, then, with a lap and a half to go. he dug in. In that brief suggestion of his tremendous power, Delany passed Maryland's Burr Grim and won by 15 yds. His time: a creditable 4:09.4. It was Delany's 16th successive indoor victory (an achievement topped with the maraschino cherry of his spectacular 1,000-yd. and two-mile victories in the same evening a fortnight ago). There are many who think this performance puts Ron Delany up there among the greatest runners of all time. Yet there were men who were moved to boos as he broke the tape last week.

No Clock Watcher. The railbirds booed only because they were hoping for a record. But Runner Ron runs against competitors, not the clock. Since his teen-age days in Dublin's Catholic University School he has been content to jog along just fast enough to win. His better than four-minute victory in the 1,500-meter Olympic run in Melbourne last fall gave him all the proof he cares to have that he can go as fast as he has to to win.

When he let U.S. Miler Fred Dwyer talk him into leaving home to take an athletic scholarship at Villanova University, on Philadelphia's Main Line, Delany made a wise choice. In Villanova's Coach Jim ("Jumbo") Elliott he found a man perfectly attuned to his own theories of running. "I want him running only fast enough to win," says Jumbo. "I've seen too many potentially great milers burn themselves out by running fast week after week." Now that he has taught Ron to relax his arms and shoulders, to get the most out of his quick, hen-scratching strike, Jumbo is positive that his protege, who once ran the mile in 3:59 in California last June, can do it in 3:55 if pressed.

No Strain. Until pressed, Ron simply races from slower triumph to triumph with unabashed self-assurance. Off the track he moves with equal ease. Training may cause him to cut classes (advertising, banking, economics) a little too often, but he still gets better than average grades. Even when he is entered in out-of-town meets he tries to get back home in time to direct traffic before Sunday Mass at St. Thomas of Villanova Church.

Ron Delany expects to hit his peak as a runner by 1960. But even then there may be no one around to force him to a record. There is a good chance that after he retires the admirers of Ireland's Olympic champion will be able to boast that Delany beat them all.

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