October 2, 1968
VILLANOVA, Pa. (AP) Villanova track coach Jim "Jumbo" Elliott gave up his fight yesterday to get his star miler Dave Patrick on the U. S. Olympic track and field team.
He said Patrick was the victim of a selfish vote by the athletes. Patrick finished fourth in the final Olympic trials at Lake Tahoe. The first three in the race made the team. Elliott contended Patrick still should have been selected, because of a victory in what had been billed as final Olympic trials earlier in Los Angeles. After the Los Angeles meet, however, the athletes, including Patrick, voted not to count that competition, and to make the Lake Tahoe races the deciding events, since they could be run at an altitude comparable to Mexico City.
Referring to the vote, Elliott said Patrick shouldn't have been placed in the position of voting to change the rules for making the team after he ostensibly had earned a berth in the 1,500 meter event. In a letter to the Olympic Track and Field Committee, Elliott said, "I claim that a group of committeemen equal to one quarter of the total committee had no right to be intimidated by the selfish vote of the athletes who requested eliminating winners in Los Angeles." The committee went along with the athletes decision.