Once you've had 100 birthdays, any returns of the day would figure to arrive with relatively muted celebrations, if they arrive at all, but yes, there are exceptions.
For Pitt icon Herb Douglas, and by the people who love him so dearly, birthday No. 101 was staged with as much necessary hoopla as a Lawrenceville skilled nursing facility would allow.
"A lot of people came in," Herb said when I visited this week, "asking a lot of dumb-ass questions."
Hey, I thought, that's my job.
As he wades into the triple digits of a life so incredibly well spent, Herb darts in and out of some cantankerous moments, as you'll see, but being back in Pittsburgh and carrying the title of America's oldest living Olympic medalist are just a couple of the factors that still fill him with joy.
"On Herb's 101st birthday, we had a small party in the activity room from noon to 1," said his long-time friend Mark Nordenberg, the former Pitt chancellor. "In addition to cake, that hour featured two Zoom calls, one arranged by the residents of the Philadelphia condominium where Herb and his wife, Minerva, lived for the last 30 years, and which now sits on a street named for him. The second was arranged by Linda Wharton Boyd — who lives in Washington, is past-president of Pitt's African American Alumni Council, and is a part of Team Herb and Minerva (the group of family and close friends that meets every week to take stock of how they are doing and what more we can do to support them). There were dozens of people on each call, including Olympic gold medalists Charlie Jenkins, Chip Jenkins, Roger Kingdom and Edwin Moses. There also were a number of Pitt track greats, including Jerry Richey, Bryant Salter, and Arnie Sowell."
A list of notables who turned out in person on March 9 would overflow this space, but they included community leaders and some of Herb's fellow contributors to the great history of Pitt athletics, Sam Clancy, Donna Sanft, and E.J. Borghetti to name drop a few.
"This is my home," Herb said. "I cherish Pittsburgh moreso than anything. When I looked and saw Point ... it was, 'Yes, I'm home. Where do I want to go as my life expires? Pittsburgh.'"
It was a mere 75 years ago summer that Herb became the first Pittsburgher to win an Olympic medal, taking the bronze in the long jump (then the broad jump) at London's Wembley Stadium. Among his American teammates in 1948 was one Mal Whitfield, a swift Texan whose elegant stride and races Herb can describe to this day. Mal's daughter, the CNN weekend anchor Fredricka Whitfield, visited Herb this month, as well.
"She was one of the best interviewers I've ever had," Herb told me. "She's excellent on TV. I could see in (Nordenberg's) eyes that he had something to tell me about her, too."
That news was that Fredricka's son John Glenn had been accepted at Pitt.
"I never saw a mother so elated," Herb said.
At this stage, there isn't a lot Herb Douglas hasn't seen, but some recent losses have stung him hard.
"I lost one of my close friends, Franco Harris," he said wistfully, "and you know Harrison Dillard (another Olympic teammate) died a couple years ago."
Herb directed me to a poster in his room, a photo montage that seemed to pull together all the notables of his groundbreaking life.
"I've got them all on there, Bob Costas, Franco Harris. They put all of this stuff up for me — all this Hail to Pitt stuff."
I've written about Herb previously, talked with him on the phone a few times, but this was the first time I'd ever been with him.
"You ever interview such an old-ass man?" he asked.
"Well, let me think ... 101? No."
"So what do you want to know?" he wanted to know.
"Well, how does 101 feel? Is it different than 100?"
"How do I feel?" he barked. "How do you feel?!"
I took that as confirmation, if not terribly necessary, that I look older than Herb. He looks as though he could get out bed and race you down Fisk Street just for the hell of it.
"Got any advice for someone who'll soon enough turn 70?" I said.
"Seventy!" he said. "I thought you were 90!"
"Some days," I said. "Some days."
It was wonderful to see that Herb Douglas still laughs easily at 101.
"You can't make it in this life unless you have help," he said. "God blessed me."
And through Herb, all of us.
