"Commandeering a Bicycle"

“COMMANDEERING A BICYCLE”

TOKYO TRYOUTS

The tryouts for the 1964 Tokyo Olympic Games Shooting Teams were held at Ft. Benning, GA on June 29-July 15, 1964.  Two shooters each in Trap, Small Bore Rifle Position, 300 Meter Free Rifle, Free Pistol and Rapid Fire Pistol made the ten-man team.   Gary was a member of the Nebraska National Guard at the time, but was serving on active duty with the U.S. Army Marksmanship Training Unit for the summer.  Gary and Martin "Swede" Gunnarsson qualified to shoot the 300 meter event.  After the tryouts,  Gary returned to Hastings College to start the fall semester. Gary received orders to return to active duty for the Games from 25 September until 4 November 1964.

The US shooting Team and Officials, Tokyo 1964

Gary is second from the left, back row

Col. Tom Sharpe, far right, back row, was the 1964 USA Shooting Team Captain

Before traveling to Tokyo, the USA Olympic Team of more than 350 athletes was given a resounding sendoff from Los Angeles at an elaborate banquet in Disneyland's Frontier Land. Bob Hope was the Master of Ceremonies.  The evening ended with a spectacular fire works display.    On September 30, 1964 Olympic Flight #3 (Pan American Airlines) left LA for Tokyo with the shooting, canoe, cycling, fencing, equestrian, weightlifting and women's volleyball teams.  

Team gear and luggage at the Olympic Village

The Olympic Village was built at Asaka, known as Camp Drake when it was the site of the American security forces in Tokyo.  The village was a little more than nine miles from the Olympic Park.  At a cost of $8.3 million, the Tokyo housing agency and Japan's Self-Defense Forces erected 55 dormitory buildings, most of them were four stories high, to house 9,000 athletes and 3,000 Boy Scouts and servicemen who would help run the village. In all, the Japanese spent $56 million for sports facilities and $16.8 million for operating expenses. They also spent $280 million on new roads,  including a freeway between Olympic Village and the main stadium, and a new highway linking Haneda Airport to downtown Tokyo.

The Olympic Village had different dining halls set up to provide different types of diets for the different countries or groups of countries.  Gary remembers the food in their dining hall being very good.  Gary roomed with rifle shooter Lones Wigger and pistol shooter Tom Smith (Smith was an Air Force fighter pilot who almost made the 1956 Olympic team as a shot-putter).  


The OV was pretty spread out so having access to a large fleet of bicycles was appreciated by everyone.  The bicycles were in such demand, however, that every evening Lones and Gary would go out and each commandeer a bicycle to take back to their room so they would have transportation down to the bus station in the morning where they caught the bus that took them out to the range.   

The bicycles at the Olympic Village -- commandeered daily by Anderson and Wigger

The Olympic Village also had a bank and a phone center (an athlete had to go to the phone center to place or receive a call).  Telegrams to athletes were received at the venues.

The bank at the Olympic Village 

The phone center at the Olympic Village

Gary's dormitory room - notice Ruth Ann's picture on the bedside table

There was a PX in a U.S. military installation that was some distance from the Olympic Village where Gary did some shopping.     To get there, Gary had to use the Japanese train system, about a 30 minute ride from the OV.      Gary borrowed $300 from his home town bank so he would have enough money to buy a really good camera, which turned out to be a Nikon F, the top of the line then.   The camera cost $160, plus a telephoto lens for $50.  

Gary's first Nikon

Blue Bell by Noritake

Gary picked out and purchased the Anderson china (Noritake Bluebell), a 96 piece set for $39.25.     He also bought a pair of binoculars for his dad.   But the PX mixed up the shipping addresses, and Gary's dad received the china, and Ruth Ann got the binoculars!    Though they had not announced wedding plans, Gary also bought the silk for Ruth Ann's wedding gown, which was made by Ruth Ann and her mother.  

Mikimoto pearls purchased by Gary for Ruth Ann in Tokyo, 1964

Gary purchased a strand of Mikimoto pearls, which Ruth Ann wore on their wedding day.  The pearls were also worn on the wedding day of their daughter Kirsten Anderson Georgi.

The pistol and rifle events were held at the Asaka Shooting Range which was specially built for the 1964 Olympics.  Organization of the rifle and pistol events was supervised by the National Rifle Association of Japan. Score keeping and range operations were accomplished by the officers and men of the Japan Ground Self Defense Forces.

Gary had two weeks in Tokyo for practice before his competition on October 15.    Nine days before he won his Gold Medal and set a new World Record, his classmates back at Hastings College pulled off the world's first ever trans-Pacific pep rally (next blog).