The day Eric was to run was hot, much like the day three years before in Paris when he had won his gold medal. Along with his family, many of Eric’s friends and fellow students were there to watch him compete, as were reporters and photographers from all of Tientsin’s seven major newspapers. The photographers were all looking to take that special shot of Eric running that would make the front page of the next day’s newspaper. One photographer was so eager to get his shot that once the race had started, he rushed out onto the track to photograph the runners as they came down the home stretch. The crowd could see what was about to happen, but not the photographer—or Eric. Eric was in the lead, and with his head thrust back in his unusual running style, he had no way of seeing the photographer in front of him. Meanwhile, the photographer had no idea just how fast Eric was running. As the photographer was adjusting his camera lens for his “perfect” shot, bang! Eric ran right into him. The photographer flew in one direction, his tripod and camera in another.
After the collision, Eric was sprawled out on the track unconscious. Robert rushed from his seat to help his brother. Finally, Eric came to and managed to stagger off the track. As he did so, he grinned and waved at the photographer. Eric had already forgiven the man for costing him his first win at the new stadium.
The following year another athletic competition was held, right after the 1928 Olympic Games in Amsterdam, Holland. Although Eric could still run like the wind, he had not been invited to be on the British team for those Olympics. He never quite understood why he had not been invited to join the team, but he supposed that most people had thought that since he was in China, he was no longer interested in running.
Whatever the reason, Eric used his participation in the 1928 South Manchurian Games to show that he was still a world-class athlete. He ran the 200-meter race in 21.8 seconds and the 400 meters in 47.8 seconds. Both of these times were faster than the gold medal-winning times at the Amsterdam Olympics. However, one of the most memorable races of Eric’s life occurred after the official races were over.
Eric had only thirty minutes between the end of the 400-meter race and the time the boat from Manchuria back to Tientsin would depart. He came up with a plan. Fifteen minutes before the race was to start, he called a taxi and loaded his bags into it. Then he asked the taxi driver to wait near the finish line so that as soon as the race was over, he could continue running right into the taxi and zoom off to the dock the boat would be leaving from. If all went well, Eric could just make it.
Eric easily won the race, but there was one thing he had not taken into account. As soon as he passed the finish line, a band struck up “God Save the King” in his honor. Of course, Eric had no choice but to stop dead in his tracks and stand at attention while the British national anthem was being played. As the last notes faded from the band’s instruments, Eric sprinted off towards the taxi. He had nearly reached it when he heard the band begin to play another song. This time it was the French national anthem, the “Marseillaise.” A Frenchman had finished second in the race, and now he was being honored. Once again, Eric stood still. It would have been rude to have done anything else. As he stood there only a few feet from the taxi, he wished the band would play faster, but the seconds dragged on.
Finally, Eric made it to the taxi, which began to weave its way as fast as it could through the crowd as it headed for the dock. As the taxi eventually screeched to a halt at the dock, Eric’s heart sank. The boat had already cast off and was a good fifteen feet from the pier. Eric clambered from the taxi anyway and ran to the edge of the dock, hoping the captain might see him and turn the boat around. But no one on the boat recognized him. Suddenly, though, a large wave pushed the boat several feet closer to the pier. Eric saw his chance. He hurled his bags onto the boat; then he took a running leap. He sailed through the air and landed flat on his back on the deck of the boat. Startled passengers gathered around him, wanting to know who he was and whether he was all right. A newspaper reporter who saw Eric’s leap hurried off to write a story about it. The next morning the headlines read, “Flying Scotsman Leaps Fifteen Feet.” Eric Liddell, now had a new nickname, the Flying Scotsman, which would stick with him for the rest of his life.
The story beneath the headline in the newspaper went on to tell about the races that Eric had won at the South Manchurian Games. It was obvious, the paper pointed out, that the world’s best quarter-mile runner had not been in Amsterdam competing for a gold medal, but had been in Tientsin working with Chinese boys.
Chapter 9
There Was Just One Problem
It seems we Liddells are always saying good-bye to each other,” Eric commented grimly to his brother Robert.
Robert nodded. “It certainly does. Still, Dad has worked very hard, and I’ve been a bit worried about his health lately. It’s probably a good thing they’re taking a two-year furlough.”
Eric smiled. He tried to think of it as a good thing, but it was more difficult for him than Robert. Robert had a family of his own now, a wife and a baby girl. Eric, on the other hand, still lived with his parents and loved their company and that of his younger sister and brother. He would miss having them around to talk to. All the time he’d been at school in England he hadn’t felt like he knew his family well. He had made a start getting to know them better when they were together in Edinburgh. But since being in China, he felt he’d gotten to know his family on a whole different level. As a result, it was much harder this time to say goodbye to them.
Eric and Robert stood on the dock and watched as their parents, along with Jenny and Ernest, climbed the gangway and boarded the German liner, Saarbracken. They waved furiously as the ship pulled away from the dock. As the Saarbracken steamed towards the horizon, Eric held onto the one thought that made him happy at that moment. In another year, he, too, would be going back to Scotland on furlough. There, he would stay with his parents in Edinburgh.
With most of his family back in Scotland, Eric had to move out of number 6 London Mission Street, where the family had lived for the past four years. He moved into a four-bedroom apartment in which three other teachers from the Anglo-Chinese college already lived. The apartment had a large living area, and the four roommates had a Chinese servant, Kwei-Lin, who did their shopping, cleaning, and cooking. One of Eric’s new roommates was always doing interesting things, and Eric learned a lot from him. Another roommate had a large stamp collection, and Eric soon started a collection of his own. Eric’s third roommate played billiards and taught Eric how to play. He probably regretted it, because Eric was a fast learner. Soon Eric could beat him, and just about anyone else in Tientsin who played billiards. When Eric was not busy with stamp collecting, billiards, or his sports and teaching responsibilities at school, he served as Sunday school superintendent for the Union Church.
Despite being so busy, Eric felt lonely without his parents around. He was twenty-seven, and for the first time in his life he began to think seriously about getting married and having children of his own. He had no idea whom he would marry, but slowly he began to notice one particular young woman, Florence McKenzie, or Flo, as everyone called her. Flo had been staying at Pei-tia-ho with her parents when Eric first arrived in China. She was petite, with sparkly brown eyes and long, curly black hair. She played the organ at church, was a strong Christian, and loved to laugh and play practical jokes. Eric loved being around her.
There was just one problem. Florence McKenzie was only seventeen years old and in her last year of high school. Eric had to come up with some way to get to know her better without making it look like he was dating someone ten years his junior. After giving it much thought, he decided to befriend the entire graduating class at Tientsin Grammar School. He would invite all the students to the popular Kiesslings Cafe for afternoon tea or take them on a walk or a picnic. On these outings, he would spend time with Flo. Of course, he tried to make it look as though he was just being friendly with her, as he was with the other students. But the more time he spent around her, the more he liked her.
Finally, Eric decided that she was the one he wanted to marry. Trouble was, he was too shy to ask her. He worried that she might say no, or worse, that she’d say yes while her parents said no. He wasn’t sure what to do, so he just kept taking the entire graduating class out for cups of tea at Kiesslings Cafe.
Eventually, summer vacation rolled around, and Eric, along with his roommates, went to stay at Pei-tai-ho. Understandably, Eric was thrilled to learn that the McKenzie family, including Flo, would also be staying there for the summer, and in a cabin only two doors down from his. Eric became the chief organizer of outings for the summer. He arranged a four-day walking tour up nearby Mount Pei-niu-ting, tennis tournaments, picnics by the sea, play readings, anything that brought him and Flo together. His three roommates soon began to notice that whatever event Eric planned, he always made sure Flo knew about it.
On these outings, Eric learned a lot more about Flo. Flo told him she was going back to Toronto (where her family was from) in the fall to train as a nurse. The training would take four years. After training, when she was twenty-one, Flo planned to return to China to work in a hospital. Eric’s heart raced as he thought about it. He knew he couldn’t marry a seventeen-year-old, but what about a twenty-one-year-old? That would be a perfect age for a woman to get married.
Eric waited until he returned to Tientsin to ask Flo to marry him. At first she thought he was joking. After all, Eric Liddell was a famous Olympic champion, and she was just a young woman fresh out of high school. “Are you sure you really mean this?” she asked him.
“Yes, I do,” he replied simply.
Flo didn’t have to think hard about her answer. Eric’s proposal was a dream come true, and Flo eagerly accepted. Flo’s parents cheerfully gave their permission for the couple to eventually marry. Soon Eric was writing home to his mother, asking her to buy an engagement ring with five diamonds and send it to him in China. The ring arrived just before Flo and her family were to return to Toronto. Eric presented the ring to Flo, and so began their four-year engagement. The couple planned to marry when Flo finished nursing school.
After Flo left China, Eric began to prepare for a yearlong furlough in Scotland. As always, he had lots of plans. He decided he would use the year to study to become an ordained minister in the Scottish Congregational church. Along with teaching, this would allow him to do more “traditional” missionary work, such as running a church and baptizing new converts. He also planned to make time in his travels to visit Flo both on his way home from China and on his trip back to China. What he didn’t plan for, though, was the fact that he wasn’t the only person making plans for his stay in Scotland. It had been seven years since Eric had won his gold medal, and since there had been another Olympic Games in that time, Eric assumed that everyone in Scotland had forgotten him. He assumed wrong.
After a wonderful visit with Flo in Canada, which ended all too soon, Eric was back on a ship headed across the Atlantic Ocean for the British Isles. When he finally arrived in Edinburgh, his welcome was a huge surprise. Instead of being forgotten, Eric Liddell was more popular than ever. A large Welcome Home gathering, organized by a number of well-known Scottish ministers and sports stars, was held for him. Eric was stunned. All over the country, people wanted him to speak at or attend dinners in his honor.
