Wheelchair Olympic Aspirant Dies on Fund-Raising Trip

A California man who wouldn’t let a wheelchair get in the way of his dream to compete in the 1988 Olympic Games died of pneumonia after being denied a motel room during a fund-raising trip, his wife says.

Harry Jakobson of Redding, Calif., came to Chicago last week hoping to collect some of the $25,000 he needed to buy special wheelchairs and transport a horse to South Korea, site of next year’s games.

He planned to qualify for equestrian and wheelchair events in an attempt to repeat the glory of 16 years ago when he won an international wheelchair competition.

Spinal bifida put Jakobson in a wheelchair, but his dream was stopped by pneumonia, contracted after a 1 1/2-hour wait outside a motel on a freezing night, his wife said.

“He knew in his mind that he could make it to the Olympics,” Toni Jakobson said Monday from her California home. “That’s what all his fund-raising efforts were for.”

Natu Batel, manager of the Sheraton Chase Motel at O’Hare International Airport, first said the motel’s elevators weren’t working and all rooms were on the second floor. He later said the couple couldn’t afford a week’s rent.

With their two children, the couple arrived at O’Hare Wednesday and took a cab to the motel, where they had reservations.

A clerk refused to admit them, citing the elevator and room problems, Batel first told the Redding Record-Searchlight. On Monday, Batel told the Associated Press the Jakobsons simply couldn’t pay $280 for a week’s stay.

Batel also denied Mrs. Jakobson’s claim that the family was told to leave the lobby and use an outdoor public phone to find new accomodations.

“We don’t mind. He could have stayed in the motel and the lobby. He didn’t want to use our phone and pay 35 cents. He wanted to pay 25 cents,” Batel said.

The family used an outdoor phone to call a friend, then waited 90 minutes for a ride in 29-degree weather, Mrs. Jakobson said.

They found another motel. On Saturday, Jakobson, 37, said he felt poor and dehydrated.

“He is prone to colds and kidney problems since he only has one kidney,” Mrs. Jakobson said. “I bought him some orange juice. His temperature was 105.

“I gave the kids a bath and went back to change the sheets. I told him to roll over, but he didn’t answer. He wouldn’t move. I called the desk and got help,” she said.

Jakobson later died at a Park Ridge hospital. Cook County medical examiners said the cause was bronchial pneumonia, Mrs. Jakobson said.

“It had to be caused by that long wait in the cold,” she said. “I know that’s the reason Harry went. They didn’t care enough about him to let him sit in the lobby.”

Jakobson, a native of Evanston north of Chicago, had planned to participate in Chicago’s famed St. Patrick’s Day parade, and attend a dinner hosted by the Refrigerettes, the unofficial cheerleaders of the Chicago Bears football team.

He wanted to use both events to highlight his bid to enter the Olympics and raise money to train and travel, she said.

In 1971, Jakobson won a gold medal in the 400-meter race and a silver medal in the 100-meter race at the Pan American Wheelchair Games in Jamaica. Wheelchair events will be included at the Olympics next year for the first time.