by Professor » May 18th, '08, 11:45
As a new member of the forum, I feel compelled to respond to this post, if only because of the astonishing stroke of fate that has clipped me round the cheek.
I once met Bob McBratney – many years ago now – when we were both much younger men and, in my own case, tolerably better looking. It was Baden Baden, and the summer of 1977. Elvis had just left us for a better place, and Alice Cooper was riding high in the charts.
I built and designed fighter jets under licence from the US State Department, and Bob, a young but curiously experienced test pilot, had flown over from England to put a new plane through its paces.
He struck me then, as he strikes me now, to be a man of unusual vision, and one destined to go far.
The word ‘No’ was not in his dictionary. We were running to a tight schedule, and the cockpit’s revolutionary new ‘contained oxygen bed’ had malfunctioned. (I won’t bore you with the technical details. No good will come of it.) Any other pilot would have called off the mission; but not ‘Battling Bob’ as he was known throughout the industry.
He flew the plane as high as he dared without oxygen, then, for the three and a half minutes during which he took the plane to supersonic speed and three miles higher than any jet had flown before, he simply held his breath! It had never been done before and, to my knowledge, has never been attempted since, though I did read recently that David Blaine, the American ‘boy’ magician, had stopped breathing for almost four hours underwater which, if verified, will set a new world record.
Anyhow, my point is this: if Bob McBratney thinks magic belongs in the Olympics then that’s where it belongs, no two ways about it. It will happen. Possibly not in my own lifetime; I’m not a young man and years of seedy living have taken their toll. But I’d stake my reputation on it, and yours, too, if you’d let me.
By a curious coincidence, my grand-daughter, Kate, is married to Jacques Rogge’s youngest son, Maurice, and I have stayed at his summer lodge in recent years. After I first read this post, I phoned him to check out the lie of the land, to see if there were birds nesting in the trees, as the saying goes.
Contrary to what you may have thought – and who could blame you? – he tells me he may tuck the ball under his arm and run with it. There are hurdles to be overcome, he concedes, but, a keen amateur conjuror himself, he has not dismissed the proposition out of hand.
That’s all I have to say. People have always mocked the man of vision – even more so when he’s still young and unusually trim. But if Bob has set his mind to achieving what others believe to be impossible, then I’d lay odds of fifty to one that magic will one day take its place in the Olympian family.
On a personal note, if Bob should read this, perhaps he’d be kind enough to drop me a line. (I’m still at the old address, or can be contacted via my firm, Daumenspitze GMBH. We're in the phone book.) Alternatively, if the young man who began this thread would be kind enough to tell Bob that his pal, ‘Jimmy W’, remains alive (just!) and reasonably well, I’d be grateful.
Enough reminiscing – on with the magic. There may be medals to be won!
PS If I've got the wrong Bob McBratney, apologies all round.
