After 2 Years, Babers Gets Back on Track : Olympic 400 Champion to Compete at Mt. SAC

Alonzo Babers came out of the blue, so to speak, to win the gold medal in the 400-meter run in the 1984 Olympic Games at the Coliseum.

Then, just as quickly as he arrived on the international scene, he was gone again, back into the wild blue yonder.

Babers, an Air Force pilot, is returning to track after an absence of more than two years. He is stationed at Norton Air Force Base in San Bernardino, where he pilots a C-21, a seven-passenger jet.

Babers’ schedule allows him to train two or three times a week at San Bernardino Valley College. He is hopeful that he’ll be in top competitive shape by June.

When he isn’t training, he is flying dignitaries across the country.

He said his passenger list consists of four- and three-star generals, congressmen such as Rep. Jack Kemp (R.-N.Y.), and Howard Baker, President Reagan’s chief of staff.

As a celebrity, 1st Lt. Babers may not be as well known as his distinguished passengers. Seldom, however, has anyone attained such instant celebrity as Babers did on Aug. 8, 1984.

He wasn’t even the favorite in the 400 final. That distinction belonged to Antonio McKay and Jamaica’s Bert Cameron, who had engaged in a pre-race war of words.

But Babers, then 22, ran the race of his life, winning the gold medal in 44.27 seconds. Only Cuba’s Alberto Juantorena has ever run faster at sea level, and only by a hundredth of a second.

Babers later ran a 43.75-second leg on the United States’ winning 1,600-meter relay team. The team’s time of 2:57.91 is still the fastest ever at sea level.

Recalling his accomplishment in the 400, Babers said Monday at a track luncheon: “I think everyone was surprised except me. I thought I could win it. In fact, anyone in the race could have won it. I just happened to put together my best race.”

It was a classic 400, the first in which six runners broke 45 seconds in one race.

Babers will make his comeback, if it can be called one, in the Puma-Mt. San Antonio Relays April 26. He’ll also be in the 400 at the Pepsi Invitational May 16 at UCLA’s Drake Stadium.

As a jet pilot, Babers is used to pressure. “It’s a pressure situation coming into a Los Angeles Airport. You have to be ready for what you’re doing. It’s the same in the 400 meters.”

One experience would not seem to relate to the other, but Babers comes across as a calm, poised individual.

Babers is the son of a career Air Force officer. He was born in Montgomery, Ala., but raised in Kaiserlautern, West Germany.

“I always wanted to fly and I wanted to run track,” Babers said. “By going to the Air Force Academy I could do both and I wouldn’t have to compromise academics or anything else.”

Babers, who graduated from pilot training in August 1985, said the Air Force is supportive of his athletic career.

“If I had gone into fighter aircraft, there is no way I could ever have run again,” he said. “They work too hard.”

Track Notes UCLA’s men’s and women’s teams will play host to Houston Saturday at Drake Stadium. The Cougars, who are led by sprinter Joe DeLoach, are strong in the sprints, hurdles, relays and jumping events. . . . USC’s men’s team will compete Saturday in the Bruce Jenner meet at San Jose. USC’s women will be at home in an invitational twilight meet Friday starting at 5 p.m. . . . USC sprinter Pancho Morales has made a comeback from a knee injury. He recorded a hand-timed 10.1 seconds in the 100 meters last Saturday in the SMU Invitational at Dallas. . . . Several unattached performers will compete Saturday at Westwood, namely shotputter John Brenner, Roald Bradstock, the British record-holder at 268 feet in the hammer throw, and Bill Green, the 1986 TAC champion in the hammer. . . . UCLA weight Coach Art Vengas said that Brenner, who has lost 35 pounds, wants to open the season by surpassing his best throw of 71-11. . . . Christian Okoye, the discus thrower-running back from Azusa Pacific, was a luncheon guest. The Nigerian-born Okoye said he hopes to be picked by a California pro team in the next NFL draft. “I don’t want to go somewhere where, I’ll freeze,” he said. Okoye, 6-2 and 253 pounds, says he has run the football 40-yard dash in 4.45 seconds. . . . Okoye, with no previous football experience, was almost turned off the game when he separated a shoulder in his first practice session at Azusa Pacific.