Word: jock
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...JOCK SEMPLE is Scottish with an Irish temper, and if you tell him you're from Harvard and that you want to enter his Boston Marathon, he will regard you with an instant hate. This means that Jock Semple has a lot of hating to do because last year about 30 Harvard students decided the famous Marathon was at least worth a laugh, and probably quite a few more will send in entry blanks for this year's event. But the thrill of running in the Marathon is worth the price of incurring Jock's wrath...
Another reason for over-application is the college crowd. Jock made his stand known quite unambiguously in a newspaper last April. "It's those jokers from M.I.T. and Harvard that drive me nuts. You know, the ones with the funny hats who run for fraternity stunts," Jock proclaimed. He probably won't be too very pleased if and when he learns of the competition between the Crimson and the Yale Daily News...
Nothing that I said appealed to the great master. "What makes you think you can run 26 miles? Have you ever done it before?" Jock was reacting to the record field of 1100 entrants...
...March, 1968, I telephoned the sponsoring B.A.A. to tell them I'd be there on Patriots' Day. I was greeted, if that's the appropriate word, by that Scottish voice so familiar to runners around Boston. I was talking to Jock Semple. I felt a certain sense of excitement. But I didn't give him the satisfaction of letting him know that I knew who he was. "I'd like to run in the Marathon. What is the procedure for entering? I'm a college student...
...Well, no, but I'd like to try." Jock had every reason to hate me, from his point of view anyway, and I'm sure he did. Nevertheless, he told me what I had to do to run in it, and I had jumped my biggest hurdle...