An Olympian and His Friends Still Have What It Takes to Show Their Wheels to a Lot of Younger Cyclists

Russell Allen, 75, has a sharp memory about the 1932 Summer Olympic Games, during which he rode his bicycle for the United States on a wooden track in the Rose Bowl.

“There were 30,000 people watching us bike against the greatest cyclists in the world,” Allen said. “It was a great thrill.”

Today, the Buena Park resident and a bunch of other former professional bicyclists who live in Orange County, are still at it, albeit this time for fun and health.

And there is not much of the roar of a crowd on the bike path along Pacific Coast Highway, where they do much of their riding.

“I have about five guys in their 70s who are out with me almost every day,” Allen said. “We get in about 200 miles a week.” Sometimes for longer outings, they take 100-mile weekend excursions.

When Allen isn’t cycling, he is playing golf, shooting to a 14 handicap at the Los Coyotes Country Club.

Cycling was Allen’s life during his younger years when he competed in the Olympics and then as a professional racer on tracks in New Jersey, New York City and Coney Island.

“I would get paid $125 a day for the six days we raced,” he said. “And that was good money during those years before World War II.” He also competed in Europe, Canada and South America. “Good European racers were getting $300 a day.”

His riding career ended when he entered the service at the start of war. Then recently, it began anew.

“I really didn’t start to get serious about bicycling again until six years ago,” Allen said.

It became a life style for him after retiring as a car salesman. He began riding upwards of 200 miles a week, mostly with some bicycling buddies, including longtime friend Fred Schultz, 74, of Costa Mesa, and brothers Dave Burgeson, 73, of Huntington Beach, and Wally Burgeson, 71, of Anaheim. They call Wally the “kid.”

All are graduates of Huntington Park High School, and the younger riders decided to bike together after they met at a school reunion.

“Bicycling keeps getting bigger and bigger,” said Allen, who pedals around 20 m.p.h. with his bicycling buddies. “We don’t loaf along,” he said.

“I’ll tell you, biking is a lot of fun,” he said. “We get out and really move along, going hard and easing up. . . . “

And sometimes they invite younger bicycle riders to join them. “They can’t get rid of us and can’t shake us,” he said proudly. “We’re all in good shape.”

Fullerton’s “Adopt-a-Park” program, in which community groups keep one or more of the 25 city parks clean for a 15-week period, is also showing progress in combatting vandalism, according to program coordinator Nancy Guider.

“People who might vandalize or trash the facility, tend to get caught up in the program,” she said. “Seeing others cleaning up helps build pride in the people.”

She said the park adoption program, initiated by Fullerton eight years ago, is also catching on in other cities.

“We’re getting a lot of inquiries from other cities,” Guider said.

Last year, Shell and Sheldon Grossman of Huntington Harbour bought a tacky party for $500 at a silent auction. So on Thursday, the Grossmans and 20 guests will dine on tacky food, play tacky games and see tacky entertainment at the landmark water tower in Sunset Beach.

“The entire evening will be a totally tacky event with a totally tacky tasteless menu,” said Jeanie Barnett, who was last year’s president of the Huntington Harbour Cancer League, which auctioned off the tacky party.

She invented and directed the tacky auction, which was part of the league’s $107,000 fund-raising effort last year for the American Cancer Society.

The dinner on the third floor of the water tower, which has been converted into a private home and rents for $3,000 a week, will have a table centerpiece of pink flamingos and toilet paper and place mats made from sanitary toilet seat covers.

Guests have been asked to wear tacky clothes. “It’s tasteless this year,” Barnett said. “But next year, we’re going Southern elegant with a ‘Gone With the Wind’ party.”

Acknowledgments--For the second consecutive year, Garden Grove Elks Lodge No. 1952 has been named All-American Lodge by the California-Hawaii Elks Assn. Lodge spokesman Harold Wall said the award was presented in Las Vegas recently.