Horns Of A Dilemma
June 30, 2001 | Football
June 30, 2001
By CHRIS DUNCAN
Associated Press Writer
LOUISVILLE, Ky. (AP) - Louisville football coach John L. Smith and offensive line coach Art Valero have analyzed the film, as they've done for more than 100 opponents in the past.
The foes this time look bigger, faster and stronger than anything the Cardinals coaches have ever seen on the football field. No blitz will slow them down, no blocking scheme seems capable of stopping them.
And Smith and Valero will be playing on the road - the narrow, twisting, cobblestone variety.
That's where Smith will fulfill a lifelong ambition next month by running with the bulls in Pamplona, Spain.
He admits that on film, running through the streets of Pamplona with charging bulls looks terrifying.
And that's exactly why he's doing it.
"This video has bulls running over people," said Smith, 53. "But this has been on my top 10 list of things to do before I leave the earth."
Joining Smith will be his 22-year-old son, Nick, who will graduate from Louisville this summer, one of Nick Smith's fraternity brothers, the 43-year-old Valero, Smith's close friend and assistant for the past 10 seasons, and one of Valero's neighbors.
They leave July 4 and plan to enter the July 7 run, the first of eight during the annual Festival de San Fermin.
Smith invited his entire coaching staff, but got no other takers.
"The other coaches have all been saying, 'What are you going to go and do that for? You guys are crazy,"' Smith said.
They may be right.
Last year alone, 54 people were injured - nine of them gored - during the event made famous by Ernest Hemingway's 1926 book "The Sun Also Rises." Since 1924, when record-keeping began, 13 runners have been killed and hundreds seriously injured by the bulls, which are released to the city's streets on each morning of the eight-day festival that dates to the 16th century.
Most of the estimated 2,000 runners are in their 20s. In 1999, a 50-year-old American from Detroit was treated for a hip fracture after falling.
But Smith, who spent a week in a Marine boot camp two summers ago "for fun," said he still feels young and fit enough to participate.
"We're getting old, so Artie and I finally decided we've gotten to points in our lives where if we don't do it now, we're never going to do it. So we're doing it," Smith said.
The whole thing lasts about three minutes.
A rocket signals the release of six bulls from a giant corral at the north end of town. Participants stand waiting somewhere along the 900-meter route. Wooden fences mark the winding, sharp-cornered path to the bullring, where the animals will die in the afternoon.
"You can't be on the outside, because those things will drift out, pin you against the wall and kill you," Smith said. "The biggest key is staying on the inside. Middle to outside is no good."
The boldest runners - or maybe the most foolish - try to stay ahead of the bulls and race them. Others tap the bulls' noses and rumps with rolled-up newspapers.
"I'm not one of those guys who's gonna run out in front of 'em," Smith said. "I'm actually more worried about the crowd. I'm just as worried about getting out of the way of the 5 million drunks who are going to be there."
Smith hasn't changed his four-times-a-week workout regimen to prepare. However, he has come up with a way to practice.
"We were thinking about strapping some big ol' horns on one of the golf carts we have and chasing each other around," he said. "That's going to be our final training step."
Smith said his wife of 30 years, Diana, is taking it in stride - at least where her husband is concerned. She isn't making the trip.
"She said, 'That's really great, only you better make sure your son comes back healthy,"' Smith said. "She could care less about me. The insurance policy's paid up, and that was all she was worried about."
Smith's risk-taking may not end in Spain. If he survives Pamplona, Smith said one of the next things on his list is skydiving with the Golden Knights, the Army's touring parachute team.
"I'd also kind of always wanted to climb Everest, but I saw that movie," Smith said. "I think maybe we'll cross that one off."
