Houston McTear 1957-2015 R.I.P.

By Guest Column Marshall Miller —— Bio and Archives November 13, 2015

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Sometimes I think of someone from the past and naturally turn to the Internet. I wondered last week whatever became of years-back track star Houston McTear, and was shocked to find out he had died of lung cancer in Sweden at age 58 eleven days ago, Nov. 1 (it was Nov. 12 when I looked him up). His death received little or no mention in the sports media, even though he had been on the cover of Sports Illustrated long ago.

I’ve heard ESPN said nothing about his death; probably didn’t know. He was an amazing athlete with a sad story, growing up dirt poor living is a small shack in a small Florida panhandle town. He was said to race trains as a schoolboy running alongside the tracks in tennis shoes. I can remember long-ago stories of him smoking cigarettes while he competed in track, one time grinding out a finished smoke with his track shoe as he stepped into the starting blocks, not an approved training regimen. With little or no track training in high school Houston began winning most races he ran in, and became known as the fastest runner in the world, even with an unlikely build of around 5’7” and 170 lbs. He once turned in the fastest time ever, finishing the 100 yard dash at 9.0 seconds. Later he spent several years homeless and on drugs living on a California beach. There is a website about him: 9Seconds-theMovie.com. A sportswriter in Crestview, Florida wrote about Houston’s life, mentioning that he only read at a third grade level, even though he attended college briefly in California, to run track, of course. His is an amazing and sad story worth retelling. His name always rang a bell with me but I’ll bet few sports fans today outside of some old track coaches have ever heard of him, track not being a big money sport. Best Wishes Marshall Miller Lilburn, Georgia