LAS VEGAS – Christian McCaffrey may win Tremendous Bowl LVIII with the San Francisco 49ers on Sunday evening, however irrespective of what number of instances he will get his arms on the Lombardi Trophy, he'll have a tough time adjusting to New Jersey's wild life and athletic profession. a sports activities legend who used to affectionately name him “Snowball”.
McCaffrey may win 5 Tremendous Bowl rings, however barring one thing utterly unexpected in world politics, the celebrity working again won’t ever be recruited by the CIA to assist a Russian athlete defect to the USA. That was the state of affairs Honest Garden delight Dave Sime encountered when he was a sprinter within the 1960 Olympics.
Thought of the quickest man alive within the Fifties, Sime received an Olympic silver medal (and possibly ought to have received a number of golds) earlier than hanging up his spikes and embarking on a second profession as a famend eye physician. He handled baseball nice Mickey Mantle, quarterback Bob Griese and former President Richard Nixon at his follow in Miami, the place he had a weekly golf date with longtime NFL coach Don Shula.
Briefly, he lived an interesting life. However now, eight years after his demise, Dave Sime is thought for one factor above all: he was Christian McCaffrey's grandfather. And his son Scott mentioned by cellphone this week that he could be effective.
“He was very proud,” mentioned Scott Sime, who can also be McCaffrey's uncle. “Christian was nonetheless taking part in in school (at Stanford) and pop was sick on the time, however he watched all of Christian's video games. He known as him Snowball as a result of he gained momentum and stored shifting.”
The Tremendous Bowl, with hundreds of revered media retailers chasing all types of angles on the story, is just not the perfect place to dwell out a household historical past. Requested what he remembered about his grandfather on Opening Night time, McCaffrey appeared stunned earlier than responding with essentially the most primary scouting message: “I keep in mind he was actually quick.”
That's placing it mildly. Sime (rhymes with him, not lime) was born in Paterson and raised in Honest Garden, the place he turned a multi-sport star. After all, it took years earlier than the highschool athlete's exploits might be simply shared world wide, so the legend of Sim unfold largely by phrase of mouth in North Jersey. It helped that he was being recruited by two dozen faculties, together with an Military assistant coach named Vince Lombardi.
Ron Giaconia, a baseball participant at Passaic Excessive who later performed at Rutgers, remembers being amazed by Sime's pace. “He was the perfect hitter I ever performed towards in highschool or school,” Gianconia mentioned, and whereas Sime went to Duke on a baseball scholarship and likewise performed soccer, it wasn't both sport that made him a global star .
He adopted up with Duke as a result of he as soon as mentioned, “I had nothing to do. Throughout his profession, he broke or broke almost a dozen American or world data, with Sports activities Illustrated calling him “Superman in Spikes” and “one of the crucial sensational voice actors of our period. Three gold medals on the 1956 Melbourne Olympics appeared inside attain.
Then got here heartbreak. Sime rode within the groin that 12 months earlier than the Olympic trials, and it was his rival Bobby Morrow—the person who joined him on the duvet of SI—who received three golds and was named Sportsman of the 12 months. Sime had by no means misplaced a race to Morrow earlier than his harm and the “what ifs” haunted him.
“It was actually unhappy, ?” mentioned Scott Sim. “You consider spending 4 years of your life working and coaching every single day for a race that's solely 10 seconds lengthy, and the results of that may have such an affect in your life. He talked about it usually. He was very disenchanted.”
There was one profit to the harm, nonetheless. Sime realized he wanted a profession exterior of athletics—he was drafted by the Detroit Lions in 1957, however turned down the chance—and enrolled in medical faculty at Duke to check ophthalmology. Nonetheless, he was not utterly finished with athletics, and earlier than the 1960 Video games he once more confirmed himself as the most effective sprinters.
However this time, Uncle Sam needed extra than simply his pace.
“Throughout the Olympics, he was recruited by the CIA to attempt to persuade Igor Ter-Ovanesyan, the good Soviet lengthy jumper, to defect,” mentioned writer David Maraniss, who wrote concerning the incident in his bestselling e book, “Rome 1960: The Olympics That Modified world.” Sime did his half, befriending Ter-Ovanesyan, however the Russian was spooked by a CIA operative assigned to the case.
When he wasn't taking part in spy video games, Sime was as soon as once more cursed with brute luck. He completed the 100 meters in an obvious tie with Germany's Armin Hary in 10.2 seconds, an Olympic report, however Hary chested right down to narrowly beat him by an inch in a controversial photograph end.
Sime had one final shot at Olympic gold, however was once more bitten by a snake. His workforce received the 4×100 relay, however went residence empty-handed when the referees dominated that the relay had been handed exterior the passing zone.
“The unhappy half is I didn't go to Rome for the silver medal,” Sime advised Northjersey.com in 2010. “Issues occur in sports activities. You go on. You'll recover from it.”
He threw himself into his medical profession, however not surprisingly, his youngsters additionally turned out to be incredible athletes. Whereas his daughter Lisa was a soccer participant at Stanford, she met and later married a soccer receiver named Ed McCaffrey. All three of their sons additionally turned star athletes, however Christian proved to be on one other stage.
If the 49ers win Tremendous Bowl LVIII this weekend, it's doable their star working again with roots in New Jersey may find yourself with the MVP trophy. Anybody who is aware of their grandfather's tracks is aware of that pace runs within the household.
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Steve Politi might be reached at spoliti@njadvancemedia.com.