Remembering track-and-field legends Hal Connolly, Scott Davis

By Philip Hersh

Aug. 19, 2010 9:37 AM PT

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The sport of track and field -- and the sports world in general -- is far poorer today. Two track-and-field legends, Harold Connolly and Scott Davis, died Wednesday.
Connolly was an Olympic champion whose Cold War love story captivated the world in the days long before there were magazines and TV shows with the sole purpose of celebrating celebrity. And Davis did everything he could as a meet promoter, meet announcer, statistician and raconteur to celebrate his sport and its stars. To those of us in the media, Davis was a bottomless font of knowledge and good cheer.

-- Philip Hersh, reporting for the Chicago Tribune

Photos, from left: Scott Davis in July 2010 at the World Junior Track & Field Championships in Moncton, Canada, where he was the event announcer. Credit: International Assn. of Athletics Federations. Harold Connolly at the 2006 unveiling of a statue in his honor at a middle school in Brighton, Mass., where he grew up. Credit: Connolly family photo

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Philip Hersh

Philip Hersh, the former Olympic specialist for Tribune Co., covered 17 Olympics and reported from some 50 countries in 30 years with the Chicago Tribune. He likes to use sport as a way to write about the culture of a country or an athlete. Hersh graduated from Yale with a Bachelor of Arts in French literature. His passions include chamber music, road cycling (takes no PEDs except Advil) and Dr. Siri mysteries.