Under the heading "how time flies," today marks Dave Patrick's 64th birthday. We commented previously on this blog how Dave was left off the 1968 USA Olympic team because of the odd dual Olympic trials format that was instituted to select the 1968 team. Only many years later was Patrick officially reinstated to the team and was rightfully an "Olympian." Interestingly, many thought that it would be Patrick who would dethrone Jim Ryun as America's premier miler. In fact, it was to be Patrick's Villanova teammate Marty Liquori who would both make the 1968 Olympic team as an 18-year old and later take over for Ryun as the world's #1 miler. Patrick was a phenom in his own right, of course, and beat Ryun over 880 yards on a number of occasions. But his stars were not aligned to become the household names that Ryun and Liquori were. In any event, his status as a Villanova great is well established.
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