Hoffman was not totally in favor of the Smith-Carlos protest. 'I thought it was too theatrical," Hoffman said. "I had hoped for a more uniform and widespread action which would have been well explained in a statement signed by both whites and blacks."

Hoffman was called before the committee to be questioned on his role in the protest, a privilege Smith and Carlos were not accorded.

There was not much doubt in the minds of the Harvard team members that the charges were flimsy.

"The Olympic Committee knew Hoffman was in the stadium, talking to Smith's and Carlos's wives, and they saw it as an opportunity to punish him," Parker said.

"To some extent they were waiting for us to step over any line they could draw," Larkin added.

Before Hoffman entered the room, Parker told the committee that they should have resolved the dispute in Colorado, not the night before the race. According to Captain Curt Canning, Douglas Robie, president of the USOC, snarled back, "You're damn right that's when we should have taken care of it."

Hoffman was not prepared to lose. Before he went in, he decided to stick to the facts and not discuss any philosophical or ideological issues.

"I was pretty much on my best manners. In fact, I was incredibly humble. My obligations were primarily to the crew and I was going to make sure the crew rowed. If I had been in track, I would have let them send me home and then I would have taken them to court," he said.

At one point in the questioning, Hoffman said, a member of the committee leaned forward and asked worriedly, "Don't you see what you're doing is disrupting the whole Olympics?"

"Really, sir," he replied, "what we are trying to do is to foster the spirit of brotherhood of the Olympics."

At this the interrogator became furious with Hoffman.

Hoffman was cleared for the lack of evidence and because he pledged not to participate in any demonstrations after the race. One man helped his case by arguing that Hoffman was the son of a judge and therefore must be an honest young man. "Irrelevant arguments like that carry a lot of weight," Hoffman remarked.

There were a number of other minor incidents that indicated the depth of the hostility by some officials and coaches:

* In the Denver airport, the crew was rebuked for wearing OPHR buttons while the officials ignored the black girls on the track and field team who wore them. Curt Canning asked John Carlos if the officials had challenged the button-wearers on the men's track and field team. Carlos said, "They know that if they give us any shit, we'll tell them to go fuck themselves." Then Carlos added, "Do you know why they gave you shit?" "Because you're white and they don't know what you're doing with us black bastards."

* Stan Wright, a Negro assistant track coach for sprinters, commented that "if Negroes want to demonstrate, I don't think they need the Harvard crew."