The Fastest Human

The track barriers that once seemed as formidable as the Great Wall of China are crumbling like castles in the sand. In a single season indoors, U.S. athletes have produced a 16-ft. pole vault, a 64-ft. shot-put, a sub-4-min. mile. Last week, as the trackmen started moving from indoor boards to outdoor cinders, Negro Sprinter Francis Joseph Budd, 22, prepared an assault on the sturdiest barrier of all: 9 sec. for the 100-yd. dash.

Marination by Mother. Budd has already run the 100 in 9.2, lowering the 9.3 mark set by Mel Patton in 1948. He is certain that he is just beginning to test his real speed. At the I.C.4-A. indoor meet in Manhattan recently, he clocked a record-tying 6 sec. flat for the difficult 60-yd. dash not once, but twice in the same day. Outdoors at the longer distance, with his flashing acceleration, there is no telling what he can do.

The wonder is that he sprints at all. As a child in Asbury Park, N.J., he was sickly, and a possible attack of polio left his right calf two inches thinner than his left. But his mother knew how to make an athlete. ''Frank was just like a scrawny chicken," she says. "He was always getting awful colds. I tried everything. I massaged his legs with triple-distilled alcohol, triple-distilled witch hazel and imported Italian olive oil. I mixed up goose grease, mutton suet, nutmeg and camphorated oil, and rubbed it on his chest." Well-marinated by the time he got to high school, Budd captained his basketball team, played halfback in football, even then ran the 100 in 9.6 sec. When it came time for college, he had his choice of scholarships for football (Princeton, Navy, Ohio State, Syracuse), basketball (Muhlenberg) or track (Nebraska, Villanova). His choice: track and Villanova.

From Good to Great. At first, Villanova Coach Jim ("Jumbo") Elliott was unimpressed with his new recruit. "He was lazy," says Elliott. "But sprinters are like that. They believe that God gave them their speed and all they have to do is lace up their shoes, comb their hair and run." Not until the 1960 Rome Olympics did Budd realize that work would make him a real champion. Unheralded and unnoticed, he placed fifth in the 100-meter dash--despite the fact that he was spiked in the foot by fellow U.S. Sprinter Dave Sime. "When Frank went to Rome," says his Villanova Teammate Paul Drayton, "he was a good sprinter. When he came back, he was great." A solid 5 ft. 10 in., 172 lbs., Budd ran away from everyone in six straight meets during the 1960-61 indoor season. Outdoors that summer, he smashed the 100-yd. record, came within .2 sec. of Sime's 220-yd. mark (20 sec.), and set his sights on still lower times.

The sprinter who could push Budd to the limit is Florida A. & M. Sophomore Robert Hayes, who tied his 9.2-sec. 100-yd. record last month. Budd is eager to race. "I know I can beat Hayes's time," he says. "I'm stronger this year, and I'm much faster."

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