If Rod Milburn were alive, he might be training for 2015 Lyon worlds — ready to smoke the field in the M65 short hurdles. But in a tragedy to world sport and masters track, Rod died at 47 in a workplace accident. To those of my generation, Hot Rod was Hurdling’s God. He held the world record and won the Munich Olympic title after a meteoric rise in Louisiana. How do we know Rod might have entered masters meets? Coach and hurdling webmaster Steve McGill says so in the 12th and final chapter of his haunting Milburn biography. “[Rod] continued to work out and train,” Steve writes. “Most people who knew him agreed that if he still wanted to race he would probably still be competitive against world-class athletes, and could most likely dominate at the masters level.”

Rod Milburn was my hero. I had a T&FN poster of him in my KU dorm room.

Steve explained why he undertook this labor of love:

“I didn’t want one of the greatest hurdlers of all time to be forgotten.”

Steve, a North Carolinian in his late 40s, and I corresponded about Rod nearly 10 years ago. I even posted a note seeking memories from Rod’s contemporaries.

One who helped was sprint great Bill Collins, who had given Rod a job in the late ’70s and trained with him during his “comeback years.”

Steve wrote that Bill learned of Rod’s death from a family member.

“Collins did not attend the funeral,” Steve wrote. He quoted Bill in 2006: “I was just too emotional at the time to go. And I wanted to remember Rodney the way I knew him.”

Now we have a book worthy of the giant whose form was a work of art. I heartily recommend “Rodney Milburn: The Quiet Champion.”

The story of the book’s odyssey to online posting is a movie in itself:

Between the fall of 2004 through most of 2006, I spent much time doing research for, and writing, a biography of the life of Rodney Milburn. I traveled to Opelousas twice, where I interviewed dozens of family members, friends, former teammates, coaches, teachers, and mentors.

I also interviewed many of Milburn’s hurdling rivals, such as Renaldo Nehemiah, Charles Foster, Leon Coleman, and Larry Shipp. I also spent much time in university libraries digging for old articles and meet results.

Ken Stone ofwww.masterstrack.com did me the favor of sending me old copies of Track & Field News that proved to be invaluable. Stone also edited early drafts of the first few chapters, which proved to be even more invaluable.

But Steve lost one of the chapters in a computer crash. “Fortunately I had emailed a copy to one of my former students, who still had it and sent me a copy,” Steve told me. “So it’s all done now. If I ever find a book publisher I’ll have to add an index, but not for now.”

For now, it’s your chance to relive the Milburn Magic.

Check out the chapters posted here.

Steve tried hurdling in his early 30s, but pain and injuries led him to abandon the event.

But he writes:

Yet as content as I am with my life and though I’m at peace with the inevitable gradual breakdown of my body, there’s a part of me that would give it all away – every championship an athlete of mine has won, every step of a distance run I have taken – I would give it all away if I could just do one more rep over five hurdles, race distance apart, full speed, pain-free. I don’t think that will ever change.

Hurdling isn’t just a track event, Steve. It’s way of life. You overcame 42-inch barriers with speed and grace in your devotion to a project that deserves a gold medal. Bravo.