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The Impact Of Growing Up Around Great Athletes

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Ken Taylor (@TheSpeedDr) played for the Super Bowl Champion 1985 Chicago Bears and is now a private coach, specializing in speed training. He was a three-time Pac-10 Academic All America at Oregon State University as a football player and triple jumper/sprinter, while also earning a bachelors degree in exercise physiology and sport science.

Here, Ken recalls growing up around "Speed City"--the legendary San Jose State College track and field program headed by Bud Winter--which produced Tommie Smith and John Carlos, most known as medalists in the 1968 Mexico City Olympics who then raised their gloved fists in a "Black Power" salute on the medal podium. He also recalls Lee Evans "floating down the backstretch, just flying, like, whooosh."