Two former NIU gymnasts recall competing against a legend in Kurt Thomas
The news that former world champion gymnast Kurt Thomas died at just 64 years old last week hit a pair of former Northern Illinois University athletes particularly hard.
Mike Burke and Kirk Mango - both of whom still live locally - were both national champions at NIU and competed against Thomas in the late 1970s.
"I mourn the loss of a one-of-a-kind athlete ... someone I drew inspiration from as a fierce competitor," Mango wrote on Facebook. "He will be sorely missed by his family, friends and the gymnastics community as a whole. ... Way too soon, way too young ... so very, very sad."
Thomas died June 5. The International Gymnast Media said he suffered a stroke May 24.
At Indiana State University, he won five individual NCAA titles and led the Sycamores to the 1977 national championship. The next year, Thomas won his first world championship to break a nearly five-decade drought for American gymnasts. Not since the 1932 Olympics had an American won at a major international competition, and suddenly the country had two gold medalists, with Thomas winning for his floor exercise and Marcia Frederick winning on the uneven bars.
"In '79, in my opinion, he was the top gymnast in the country," said Burke, who won national championships for NIU on the pommel horse in 1978 and '79.
Burke and Mango, both 62, remember an absolutely packed Chick Evans Field House in DeKalb during NIU's clash with the Sycamores in a dual meet in 1979.
"It was full and it was rocking," said Burke, who still bursts with pride that the Huskies defeated Thomas' squad that day.
Much like USA teammate Bart Conner, Thomas could do it all. That wasn't exactly the norm back then when gymnasts like Burke and Mango (who won a national championship at NIU on still rings) were concentrating on their individual events.
"There was a flair to the way he performed and you saw that," said Mango, who taught for 30 years at Downers Grove South and was girls gymnastics coach there for nine years. "Those are things that brought the challenge to everybody else to meet and beat that standard. He was definitely one of the top five competitors that I had to compete against to win a national championship."
Thomas lost his chance at Olympic gold when the United States boycotted the 1980 Games in Moscow.
That left Thomas with a difficult decision: Should he keep training for the 1984 Olympics or should he turn pro? He ended up giving up his amateur status and took advantage of endorsement offers, toured the country with a gymnastics group and performed at Sea World and state fairs, according to The Washington Post. He also coached gymnastics, wrote an autobiography, launched a line of activewear and had a short acting career.
"It was a different era than now," Burke said. "In today's day and age, you have Olympic training camps, and different ways for amateur athletes to be supported. Back then, that really wasn't the case. ...
"So he really was kind of robbed from some fame that would have happened if the U.S. had participated in the '80 Olympics."
Still, Thomas, who was born in Miami on March 29, 1956, left an indelible mark on the sport.
He was an innovator on the pommel horse, where his "Thomas Flair" was actually entered into the Code of Points. And on the floor exercise, his "Thomas Salto" dismount was so dangerous that it was actually banned from competition, according to The Associated Press.
Thomas also helped inspire a new generation of gymnasts, some of whom were watching that meet in DeKalb four decades ago.
"There were a ton of high school kids who were there who ended up competing in college afterward too," said Burke, who now lives in Lake Forest. "It was kind of the heyday of NCAA men's gymnastics. And Illinois was a strong talent bed for high school coming into college. ...
"I was sorry to hear the news. A young guy. I have nothing but fond memories of him as a competitor and as a person."
• The Associated Press contributed to this report.