By Mark W. Wright
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L-R: Tito Ortiz, Billy Baum, Joe Hatton, Teófilo Cruz and Héctor Blondet moments before one of their games at the ’72 Olympics.
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Billy Baum always prided himself on getting ample rest before a big game. As the eighth man off the bench on the ’72 Puerto Rico National Team, Baum knew his limitations as a player, and a lack of R-and-R was never it.
“I remember in 1970 or ’71, walking in New York City with two friends the night before a Jets-Broncos game, and bumping into Joe Namath,” recalls Baum. “Here it is—almost 3 in the morning, and Namath is walking into a club with a young blonde. The next day he had five interceptions, and I remember losing respect for him after that.”
The memory lingered for Baum, but as much as he may have been disturbed at “Broadway Joe’s” indiscretions, he must have recalled some similar days—and nights—as a member of the Gene Bartow-coached Puerto Rico team. “Let me tell you, the night before the game, you have to be ready, but some of those Puerto Rico guys used to amaze me. As hard as they played, they may have partied even harder.”
Definitely a group of free spirits, this makeshift team—which had only practiced together for three weeks prior to the ’72 Munich Olympics—was committed to making a name for itself at the 20th Olympiad in West Germany.
But the morning of Sept. 5, 1972, would put a wrinkle into their story, and some 34 years later, the bullet points are easy to recall for Baum. “We were out drinking and partying,” he remembers, “and came back into [Olympic] village around 3 in the morning. Our trainer woke us up at 11, and we saw three guys dead. Just laying there. Those poor guys couldn’t defend themselves. You could smell death in the air.”
That fateful day would come to be known as the Munich Massacre. Members of the Israeli Olympic team were taken hostage by the Palestinian terrorist group Black September, a group with ties to Yasser Arafat’s Fatah organization. By the end of the ordeal, the group had murdered eleven Israeli athletes and one German police officer. Five of the eight terrorists were killed by police officers during the rescue attempt.
Baum and his PR teammates were less than 100 feet from it all. “We were just across the street from Olympic Stadium,” recalls Jimmy Thordsen, one of two newcomers to the team. “We were supposed to leave the premises, but I remember a guy from LIFE magazine – he was shooting pictures. For me it was the first time I had seen a picture taken using a telescope. We were just right in front of him. Guys in white hats, pointing rifles. Later we found out that two of our guys had come in late, and had seen [the shooters] jump the fence.”
“It was like watching a movie,” Thordsen continues. “We didn’t feel threatened—it wasn’t something directly in our building—we wanted to stay in Germany, but …”
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The 1972 Puerto Rico National Team placed sixth at the 20th Olympiad in West Germany.
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Until the hostage-taking, the 1972 Munich Games were well into their second week. The mood was joyous. The West German Olympic Organizing Committee had encouraged an open and friendly atmosphere in the Olympic Village. Since there was little security, however, the players were vulnerable.
“The Germans tried their best,” Baum says. “It was an openly friendly Olympics. We were having a great time. Next thing you know, there were 20 tanks outside the village. Awfully sad. [U.S. runner] Steve Prefontaine blamed his loss [in the 5000-meter race] on what had happened. It affected everyone.”
For the first time in Olympics competition, play was halted for one full day. Soon after, most of the Puerto Rican players went their separate ways. Baum carried the Puerto Rican flag at the closing ceremonies, but there was a lingering chill in the air that never subsided.
“A PRETTY GOOD TEAM”
Coached by Gene Bartow—his players called him “Clean” Gene for his discipline and penchant for turning in at 7 pm every night—the ’72 Puerto Rico National Team wasn’t afraid to mix it up with anyone. Héctor Blondet, who died in 2006 of a heart attack, was known as “The Magician.”
“He was a great passer, and wherever you needed him, there he was,” says Thordsen. Mickey Coll, who died tragically in December of 1972 in a motor cycle accident, was the team’s starting forward who would play a key role in the team’s victory over then-powerhouse Yugoslavia.
Though not a great team, the Puerto Rico Nationals had decent international success. They had earned silver in the Pan-Am games in ’71 (losing to Brazil), and when they arrived in Munich, they had veterans (like Teofilo “Teo” Cruz, who had participated in four Olympics) and Bartow, then the head coach at Memphis State University.
“Gene got us playing together,” Baum says. “Everybody wanted the ball, but Gene did a good job of spreading the ball with a good scheme.”
The team ran into powerhouse Yugoslavia—then the reigning World Champions—and beat them, but ended up losing to Italy (Thordsen says Yugoslavia was a better team), placing sixth overall.
“Clem Haskins was an assistant on the U.S. team,” recalls Baum of a U.S. team that would end up losing the gold to eventual champs Russia. “He was sweating having to play us. The next Olympics in ’76 we almost beat the U.S, but Butch Lee dominated the game [making 15 of 18 field goals for 35 points] and the U.S. won by a point. Just a shame we didn’t get a medal. (Puerto Rico placed seventh overall in ’76.)
“We had a very good basketball team,” recalls 77-year-old Bartow, now the president of Hoops LP, which operates the NBA’s Memphis Grizzlies and FedExForum. “Our talent level was good enough that they could’ve gone against some of the best college teams in America, and held their own.”
More than three decades after the Munich Games, surviving members of the Puerto Rico National team have stayed in touch over the years. Thordsen played with the National Team until 1982, and in between carved out a stellar collegiate career at Saint Joseph’s College from 1971-75.
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Jimmy Thordsen
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Thordsen, now 59 and a father of three—who would become St. Joe’s all-time career leader in scoring, rebounding and blocks—has been a tireless supporter of athletics in Puerto Rico. His James Thordsen, Inc., in San Juan, is a sports marketing and public relations agency, holding several major international accounts. A member of the Puerto Rico Chamber of Commerce, for which he is on the Board of Directors—Thordsen was also designated as a member of the Puerto Rico Free Commerce Treaty Commission in 1995.
Also on the executive committee for the ninth annual World FIMBA Maxibasketball Championship—which consisted of 126 teams, 20 countries and 321 games—in Puerto Rico, Thordsen continues to be dedicated to his homeland. “Representing the country was great,” says Thordsen, whose son Jaime is a sophomore (and first-year basketball player) at St. Joseph’s. “Just a great experience. Those memories, the good and the bad, will last a lifetime.”
Billy Baum, who went to high school with Donald Trump, is a dermatologist in Birmingham, AL, and stays in touch with his former coach. “I was watching a documentary about the Munich Games about six months ago, and it was very eerie to see it. That was really the beginning of terrorism as we know it today.”
Adds Bartow: “At that time we knew it was a horrible tragedy, but I don’t think any of us gave much thought that we were in grave danger even though we were so close to what was happening. In today’s world, it would have been a completely different story.”
