Former Lake George Teacher Mickey Luce Recalls Olympic Torch Run
By Mirror Staff
Monday, February 7, 2011
Lake George not only enjoyed proximity to the 1980 Lake Placid Winter Olympics; it also contributed to Olympic history
The town’s former supervisor, Bob Flacke, was selected by then-Governor Hugh Carey to manage the event when it was on the verge of collapse
Flacke had also been tapped to accompany the Olympic flame from Mount Olympus, Greece to Yorktown, Virginia, where it was met by fifty runners, one from every state, who had been chosen to carry an ignited torch 1,400 miles to Lake Placid. As it happens, Lake George High School teacher Mickey Luce was one of those fifty chosen.
With representatives from the other states, he carried the torch through towns and cities along a historic route to the Adirondacks, where it was used to light the emblematic flame at the games’ opening ceremonies.
“Thousands of people lined the streets of cities and town to greet us,” Luce recalls. “We never anticipated the reaction we received. People responded to the Olympic flame and the torch, as though it had some mystical significance. I was lucky enough to be holding it.” To be selected an Olympc torch bearer, one had to meet the standards of “a rennaisance man.”
As a high school history teacher, the founder of Youtheatre (a musical theater workshop for teens which presents shows in Lake George every summer) and a bobsledder who competed in the 1968 Olympics, Luce certainly qualified. But Luce still had stand out among the thousands vying for the honor.
“It was a nation-wide competition,” he says. “The application and interviewing process was extensive. Once we made the initial cuts, we had to demonstrate our athletic abilities.” Luce said he entered the competition only at the urging of one of his daughters and his wife. “The entry form was sitting in my desk, gathering dust,” he says. “I decided I might as well send it in.”
Memorable moments of the two-week event include runs through Washington DC, Philadelphia and New York City.”I was carrying the torch as we crossed the Verrazano Narrows Bride,” he says. “Helicopters were buzzing above us, tug boats were spraying water, and the New York skyline kept looming larger. That’s when we were photographed for the New York Times. It made the front page – my fifteen minutes of fame.” But no less memorable was the team’s arrival in Lake George on February 7.
The welcome the torch bearers received, the run’s director said at the time, more accurately reflected the spirit of the effort than any greeting yet. “It was pretty cool,” Luce acknowledges. Crowds lined Canada Street and bands played as Luce carried the torch into the high school, through a color guard, followed by dignitaries, and to the applause of a fully-packed gym.
While Lake George had reason to be proud of Luce, Luce had reason to be grateful to Lake George. The school granted him a leave of absence, and a “Committee for Mickey Luce” was formed by local residents to raise money for the run. “People really got caught up in it,” he says. In retrospect, Luce says, being chosen to carry the Olympic torch was a wonderful experience, but one that pales in significance when compared with being a father, a grandfather and a teacher for 35 years. He retired from Lake George High School in 2000.
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