It was an ordinary day. Standing in the second block of North Queen Street in downtown Lancaster, Pennsylvania looking at the newest addition to the Barney Ewell Plaza.
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| Statue of Barney Ewell in downtown Lancaster, PA |
The newly erected statue of Barney Ewell was recently dedicated by Pennsylvania Governor Tom Wolf. I read about it in the newspaper and thought I just had to get a few photographs of the bronze statue since Barney was a friend of my father's when they went to school together at Lancaster's J.P. McCaskey High School. Henry Norwood "Barney" Ewell was at one time the fastest human being on earth. Among Ewell's many accomplishments as a sprinter and long jumper were world records. in the 50 yard, 60 yard and 220 yard dashes and the 100 and 200 meter runs. He won 12 NCAA titles as a student at Penn State University and 16 Gold Medals in world-class outdoor meets and 11 national AAU titles. The newly erected statue of Ewell in a running stance, were created by York County sculptor Chad Fisher, State and local dignitaries as well as Ewell's family members, friends and admirers gathered in the plaza as it was renamed from Lancaster Square to Barney Ewell Plaza.  |
| Closeup of the Barney Ewell statue in Downtown Lancaster |
Barney brought home a gold and two silver medals in track and field from the 1948 Olympics in London. Many believe that the 1944 Olympics would have been his best, since he would have been in his prime years, had the Olympics been held that year. They had been canceled due to World War II. As I stood in front of the statue taking photographs I remembered the many stories that my dad used to tell me about he and Barney when the two of them were friends at J. P. McCaskey High School. Hard to believe that my dad and Barney have both passed away and all we have left are memories from the past. It was another extraordinary day in the life of an ordinary guy.
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