I wrote about James Butler in the summer. Butler was the OSU sprinter from Broken Bow who won the 1980 Olympic Trials in the 200-meter dash but didn’t get to compete in the Moscow Olympic Games, due to President Jimmy Carter’s boycott over the Soviet Union’s invasion of Afghanistan. You can read that column here.
Butler’s story is one I remembered vaguely, because I’m old. I was 19 in 1980, and I followed his career through the pages of The Oklahoman. I figured the 40-year anniversary of his star-crossed summer would be a good chance to tell his story to new generations of Oklahomans.