Where I Stand — Mike O’Callaghan: Shea better than gold

Friday, March 15, 2002 | 4:59 a.m.

ST. PATRICK'S DAY is a good time to recall the late Jack Shea who was killed by an alleged drunk driver just weeks before his grandson, Jimmy, was to compete in the 2002 Winter Olympics. The New York Irishman had won two Olympic gold medals speed skating in the 1932 Winter Olympics. In 1964 his son, Jim Sr., competed at the Innsbruck games in three cross-country skiing events, and now it was grandson Jimmy's turn in the men's skeleton competition. Three generations of Sheas, all Olympians, were to be in Salt Lake City for the games.

Most Americans know the story of Jimmy winning a gold medal. His grandfather's funeral card was in his helmet as he raced to victory. It was a victory that the Shea family, especially Jimmy, had hoped his grandfather would be in the stands to see. Instead he was with him as he flew down the hill.

Jimmy and his grandfather were especially close. I like what the younger Shea told Alex Tresniowski and Michelle York of People magazine:

"Before Shea's wake, Jimmy stole a final private moment with the man he called Chief. 'I put an Olympic cap in his coffin,' he says. 'I talked and I cried and I talked.' More than 600 people attended Shea's Jan. 25 funeral at Lake Placid's St. Agnes church, where bagpipes wailed and Jimmy laid an Olympic torch on the altar. Jimmy then insisted that his grandfather's hearse take one last lap around the 400-meter skating rink outside Lake Placid's Olympic Center. 'The kids came out of the school to see it, and everyone was whistling and cheering.' says Jimmy. 'Boy, he would have liked that.' "

It was 22 years ago that I called Jack Shea to get his opinion about our boycott of the Olympics in Moscow.

He told me that "We have known for many years the goals of a godless Russia as they have walked over little countries. Why did we have to wait until an Olympic and political year to move on them by boycotting the Olympics?"

He added, "Maybe I have mellowed over the years and have a deeper appreciation of the Olympic spirit than most people." His feelings for the Olympics and the young athletes came out as we talked about the boycott.

You may wonder why Jack won two medals in 1932 and none in 1936. He didn't go to the games in the German Alps of Garmisch Partenkirchen. I knew that Shea hadn't gone to Germany as a protest to the actions of Adolph Hitler, but he kind of brushed my praise aside and said that he was probably "over the hill in 1936." Olympians knew that if he had participated he would have returned home to Lake Placid with more gold.

As I wrote in 1980, some athletes and political leaders in 1936 didn't look at Hitler as being any threat to world peace. Very little support to have a boycott came from national leaders. This was a strange silence, which demonstrated a callous attitude toward what was happening in Germany. To call it insensitive would be an understatement when considering Hitler's motives were made clear in 1935 by enacting the Nuremberg Laws keeping Jews from being citizens of Germany. Despite this, more than 3,000 members of the press and radio attended the 1936 games along with 150,000 foreign visitors.

No, Shea, at the request of a local rabbi and many Jewish friends, made his statement by boycotting the man who became the world's greatest mass murderer. This is why he is in my thoughts on St. Patrick's Day. The medals he didn't win in 1936 are more important to the good and decent people of the world than those he won in 1932.

May the Shea family of Lake Placid have a happy day. They know that the man Jimmy called Chief is closer to St. Patrick than any of us.