Mike Larrabee, 69; Runner in 400-Meter Event Won Olympic Gold at Age 30

Mike Larrabee, whose perseverance turned skeptics’ laughter into cheers when he won an Olympic gold medal in the 400-meter run at age 30, died Tuesday at his Santa Maria home of pancreatic cancer. He was 69.

Larrabee was a high school math teacher with an injury-plagued track background when he decided to make a run at the 1964 Olympic Games in Tokyo.

His students laughed when he told them of his plan, and the principal advised Larrabee that he “needed to face reality” at his age, which was considered ancient for a sprinter. But Larrabee didn’t give up on his dream.

He proved his doubters wrong by winning the 400 at the U.S. Olympic trials, in a world record-tying time of 44.9 seconds at the Los Angeles Coliseum. Five weeks later on Oct. 19, he won the gold medal in 45.1 seconds, becoming the oldest man to win an Olympic 400, at 30 years and 322 days.

Larrabee held that distinction until Michael Johnson of the United States won the 400 at the 2000 Games in Sydney at 33 years and 12 days.

“I never expected to run as long as I did,” Larrabee told The Times in 1989. “It just kind of happened. I always took it meet by meet and year by year. I never had a master plan.”

He also won a second gold medal at the 1964 Games by running a leg on the U.S. 1,600-meter relay team.

Larrabee graduated from Ventura High School in 1952, and the school honored him by renaming its stadium for him in 1965. He attended USC on a track scholarship after placing fifth in the 220-yard dash in the 1952 state high school championships.

“He had a lot of street smarts about how to compete against others,” said Bill Toomey, the 1968 Olympic decathlon champion, who credits Larrabee for helping him become a world-class runner in the 400.

“He was zany,” Toomey said, “but I always liked being around him because he was so up all the time.”

Larrabee overcame several serious injuries that nearly derailed his track career. He suffered a severely strained hamstring in 1957, and he ruptured his right Achilles’ tendon in 1960, days after defeating an elite field that included soon-to-be-crowned Olympic 400 champion Otis Davis.

After those injuries healed, Larrabee faced another setback during the 1964 season because of an inflamed pancreas, the result of a blow by one of his students at Monroe High in North Hills during a playful karate fight.

Doctors told him there was no connection between that injury and the onset of pancreatic cancer years later.

Larrabee laughed over the fact that he could hear his mother yelling in the crowd of 77,000 when he won the 400 at Tokyo. He needed his patented finishing kick to pass Wendell Mottley of Trinidad and Tobago with 10 meters left, after being in fifth place coming out of the final curve.

“Nearly all the spectators were Japanese, and they sat quietly until each event was over -- like a golf gallery watching a putt,” Larrabee said in 1965. “So only a comparative few foreigners were yelling when [my mother] let loose. It was fun though, and it helped me.”

Grateful as he was for winning Olympic gold, Larrabee shunned the limelight after he returned home. For example, he skipped a parade in his honor in Fillmore, where he was living.

“I never did it for the glory,” he said.

Although he enjoyed teaching, Larrabee moved with his wife and three children to Santa Maria in 1968 to take over his mother’s beer distributorship with his brother Terry. The business was successful, and it provided Larrabee with more leisure time.

He scaled mountains throughout the world, including Mt. Aconcagua in Argentina, at 22,835 feet the highest peak in the Western Hemisphere.

Larrabee remained an avid hiker until he was diagnosed with cancer two years ago.

He is survived by his wife of 47 years, Margaret; three children, Tracy Larrabee of Santa Cruz, Lisa Larrabee Duncan of Ojai and Michael Denson Larrabee of Santa Maria; and three grandchildren.

A memorial service will be held at 11 a.m. Tuesday at First Christian Church, 1550 S. College Drive, Santa Maria.