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Chad's venture into racing versus horse recalls 1993 event featuring Collinsworth
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By JONATHAN FRAYSURE Sports Editor
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As Chad Johnson puts on his racing shoes today to go mano y caballo, Bengal fans can reminisce about a similar event some 24 years ago featuring fellow wideout Cris Collinsworth vs. Mr. Hurry, on March 5, 1983.
Johnson will face off against Restore the Road today at River Downs in Cincinnati, and naturally, comparisons have been made between the two, supposedly with both races happening at the same track. Or at least that's what Associated Press stories would lead you to believe.
The problem is, the former event actually happened south of the Ohio River, in Florence, at the formerly named Latonia Race Course, known today as Turfway Park. The proof is in the pictures, and it is definitely etched in the memory of Ledger Independent pressman Theodore Eyerman, whose father Joseph was actually the owner of the horse in question.
"My family and I had all been in thoroughbred racing for a long time, and this was one of the last good years the Bengals had," he said. "Latonia was fighting to get people in over there, and they wanted to come up with a publicity stunt. Andy Furman was the man who originated everything."
As the event was set in motion, Furman and Bengal execs did everything in their power to sway odds in their favor.
"They came up with this plan, but they didn't want to race just any horse. They had every intention of beating the horse," said Eyerman. "They wanted the worst horse they could find, and that was my father's horse, Mr. Hurry. He had run 100 times and hadn't won a race."
Crowds showed up on that Saturday to see the spectacle of man against horse. That also can be expected for today's race, probably as much for the event as for the fact that it features the brash and boisterous Johnson and his popular theatrics. As it turns out, Collinsworth was no slouch himself, back in the day.
"The day came, Cris Collinsworth came in a big limousine with Playboy bunnies, and Mr. Hurry was pretty much the dog of everything," said Eyerman. "Collinsworth was picked to win."
Like Johnson to Collinsworth today, in 1983, the comparison was made to the legendary athlete Jesse Owens, who regularly defeated horses in the late 1930s. Owens didn't go against a racehorse, more like a standard plow horse, as Eyerman remembered it. Owens had the advantage of a running start, and the surface was also in his favor, as the horse was often made to run on asphalt.
The Latonia race was 41 yards long (a yard longer than a normal Owens win), with Collinsworth on a running track and Mr. Hurry on the LRC dirt track, both from a standing still position.
And it was no contest.
"Lo and behold, when they sprung the gate, it looked like someone shot that horse out of a cannon, it was the fastest he'd ever run," said Eyerman.
Apparently winning was in Mr. Hurry's blood all along, it just took beating a human to bring it out.
"The quirk of the story, the very next time the horse ran, he won and paid over $100 on a $2 ticket," said Eyerman. |
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JAMAL C. DICKEY wrote on Jul 15, 2007 5:03 PM: " WHERE ARE THE STORY'S ON THE IVORY TRADE
IN CHAD "
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