Hall of Famer’s still got game

Jon Stanley made the 1972 U.S. Olympic volleyball team but didn’t get to Munich. The qualifying process was different 40 years ago and the Americans ended up losing the final pool-play match in five sets and didn’t advance out of the qualifying tournament.

"We got all the Team USA gear and everything," said Stanley, who was on the 1968 Olympic team in Mexico City with Hawaii’s Pedro Velasco and Tom Haine (captain).

Stanley will be heading to his third Olympics as a father. Son Clay is the starting opposite and team captain for the U.S., the defending Olympic gold medalist.

The Stanleys are the only father and son to both make the U.S. Olympic volleyball team.

"It’s a lot about chance that this sort of thing happens," said Jon Stanley, who turned 69 this month. "I’m sure there’s been other fathers and sons who have played for their national teams, but sometimes teams don’t qualify for the Olympics. It’s not an easy process.

"The thing that would make it fun for me is if my 14-year-old (Wil) made the national team in four years. He’s a setter and it would be something if he ended up setting Clay in 2016."

Stanley continues to compete and has won more than 30 All-America awards at USAV national tournaments. A Volleyball Hall of Fame inductee and a USAV All-Time Great Volleyball Player selection, Stanley says his next playing competition is next summer’s World Masters Games in Italy.

But first he’s headed to London to watch Clay. "We’re going through everyone we know to get tickets," he said.

» Tokyo hosted the first Olympics held in Asia in 1964. The city was awarded the 1940 Games, which were canceled due to World War II.

Yoshinori Sakai, who lit the Olympic Flame, was born in Hiroshima on Aug. 6, 1945, the day an atomic bomb was dropped on that city.

Volleyball made its Olympic debut with players with Hawaii ties on the inaugural rosters. Pedro "Pete" Velasco captained the men’s team, while Gail O’Rourke Wong, Sharon Peterson and Verneda Thomas were on the women’s squad.

» The 1968 Games in Mexico City were the first Olympics in Latin America, but will forever be remembered for the "Black Power" salute given by Tommie Smith (gold) and John Carlos (bronze) during the men’s 200-meter ceremony in a human-rights protest.

The elevation was 7,350 feet above sea level, the highest of an Olympics before or since. The thin air negatively affected endurance athletes but aided many of the track events, most notably Bob Beamon’s 29 foot, 2 inch long jump that remained a world record for 23 years.

It was the first Games where the closing ceremony was transmitted in color to all the world, as well as the first where doping tests were used.

» The 1972 Munich Games were the second Olympics to be held in Germany but the first in a divided country (West Germany). The competition was overshadowed by the massacre of 11 Israeli athletes by Palestinian terrorists.

American swimmer Mark Spitz won seven gold medals, each victory setting a world record. The U.S. men lost for the first time in basketball in a controversial decision that gave the Soviet Union the gold; the Americans have refused to accept their silver medals, which remain in a vault in Switzerland.

Soviet gymnast Olga Korbut stole the spotlight with golds in beam and floor exercise. The first official Olympic mascot made its debut: a dachshund named Waldi.