Issue link: http://www.wacmagazine.com/i/697572
26 | Washington Athletic Club Magazine | JULY / AUGUST 2016 JIM ROGERS J im Rogers' Olympic story begins at the most historic of all Summer Games. Munich, West Germany, 1972: Mark Spitz wins seven gold medals, Frank Shorter becomes the first American in 64 years to claim marathon gold, and the Soviet Union's Olga Korbut redefines gymnastics and claims her place as the "Darling of Munich." Those moments shine forever. But if you know your history, you'll also recall the Black September terrorist attack, the death of 11 Israeli team members, and the pall of fear. If you were actually there, as Jim was, you experienced that personally. "It's part of the life of any athlete who was there in 1972," says Jim, who grew up in the Hawthorne Hills neighborhood of Northeast Seattle and graduated from Roosevelt High School in 1964. "The Games stopped, and there was a question of whether they would continue." Jim joined the WAC three years after those Olympics and had a say in that monumental decision. The day after the Munich Massacre, the U.S. Olympic Committee convened with a small group of American athletes, including Jim. Also there was Steve Prefontaine, who Jim recalls as thoughtful in the historic moment and "a great guy." As the group met, the world awaited America's decision to continue or cancel the 1972 Games. "We voted unanimously that the Games should go on," Jim recalls. "Otherwise you're playing into the hands of the terrorists. The 11 that died, that would have been a no-brainer for them to want the Games to continue." "It's a great American sport because it integrates baseball, basketball, and some hockey," Jim says. Teams of seven play using a one-pound ball you dribble and throw like a baseball. The rules aren't hard to pick up. In fact, Jim started to learn them just two and a half years before Munich. As an ROTC member at the University of Washington, he graduated as a second lieutenant during the Vietnam era and left for infantry officer basic school in Fort Benning, Georgia, and was later stationed at Fort Jackson, South Carolina. In 1970, looking to improve its public perception, the U.S. Army began training a small group of handball players in hopes they would make the U.S. Olympic team. Jim, initially a player-coach for an Army "We voted unanimously that the Games should go on. Otherwise you're playing into the hands of the terrorists. The 11 that died, that would have been a no-brainer for them to want the Games to continue." Road to the Games Jim's path to the Olympics began unlike most. As a kid, he wasn't a star in his sport. In fact, like many American boys his age, he played basketball. Back then, he knew nothing about team handball, a different sport than the wall handball often played at the WAC. Think of team handball as water polo on land, or indoor lacrosse without sticks. "It's a national sport in Germany," Jim explains. Which is how it came to be part of Munich, returning to Olympic status for the first time since 1936 in Berlin.