Column by Hal Walter
Pack-Burro Racing – July 2004 – Colorado Central Magazine
BACK IN JULY OF 1959 a Denver Post banner headline, what we in the newspaper industry would call a “Screamer,” belted out in boldface type across the top of the page:
LEADVILLE MAN WINS BURRO RACE
While today’s newspaper headlines are more apt to screech things more banal, probably no sports headline has been played so prominently in the Post until the Denver Broncos won the Super Bowl in 1998. This year the leader of that Super Bowl Team, quarterback John Elway, will be inducted into the NFL Hall of Fame, and the “Leadville man” mentioned in the 1959 headline is also being recognized for his achievements in his sport.
In June, pack-burro racer Joe Glavinick was inducted into the inaugural class of the Leadville-Lake County Sports Hall of Fame, joining five other nominees recognized for their athletic achievements. As a member of the Hall of Fame’s original “Class of 2004,” Glavinick joins champion alpine skier David Gorsuch, track and cross-country star Wayne Jensen, the 1951-52 Climax High School Basketball Team, high school track and cross-county coach Dick Anderson, and professional boxer William “Billy” Irwin.
While Glavinick stands out as the nominee from the most obscure sport, it’s fitting that this pack-burro racer be included in the class of 2004 for many reasons. Pack-burro racing, Colorado’s only indigenous sport, was actually born in Leadville in 1949. The first pack-burro race started from the Lake County Court House with 21 entrants that summer. The course crossed Mosquito Pass to finish in Fairplay, and the rules were basically the same as they are today. Entrants were not allowed to ride their burros which were required to be loaded with 33-pound packsaddles that included the traditional miners’ pick, pan and shovel. This Leadville-to-Fairplay format continued for four years until the towns decided to alternate starting and finish lines each year, and then ultimately chose to hold separate races up Mosquito Pass from each town.
Not long after the sport’s inaugural race, Joe Glavinick won his first World Championship title in 1955. He would go on to win nine championship titles, a mark set only by two other men in the 55-year history of the sport. Over the years, Joe became known as one of the top pack-burro racers of all time, remaining a force to be reckoned with for nearly three decades. Most athletes’ careers don’t last this long, but even fewer athletes are able to remain top contenders for so long.
Joe was also one of only four pack-burro racers to ever win three titles in a row — 1962, 1963 and 1964. Joe’s last victory came in 1976, but he remained a serious competitor into the early 1980s. He was known for getting down on his hands and knees and kissing the finish line, and also for jumping rope with his burro’s lead as he finished a race.
UNFORTUNATELY I NEVER SAW any of these finishes in person because Joe was always so far ahead of me. When I first met Joe Glavinick in 1980 I was a young man who was just getting started at pack-burro racing. And frankly I wasn’t all that good at it. But I identified with Joe because he was not one of the “track star” runners who had taken up the sport. Instead he seemed to be more of, well, an “Everyday Joe” in the late afternoon of his sports career.
On one of my first training runs on the Fairplay course in the early 1980s, I heard footsteps behind me and turned to see Joe coming up from behind. As he and his burro passed, he said hello and offered encouragement. Then continued on his way down the rocky Mosquito Pass road and was soon out of sight.
In front of the old Veterans of Foreign Wars Club at the base of the pass on the Fairplay side, I saw his burro hitched outside. Inside, Joe was relaxing with a longneck and I assumed his training run was complete. I had a drink of water and continued on my way to Fairplay. Somewhere in that last six miles Joe came trotting past again. When I arrived in Fairplay his burro was hitched in front of the Park Bar. I was in awe.
Here was an everyday guy, a working miner, who could compete with nationally-ranked athletes in a sport so different and so much more challenging than any I’d seen. And best of all, Joe knew how to have fun doing it. It was this sort of spirit that drew me to pack-burro racing. Within a few short years Joe would retire from the sport, but seeing him run and prove himself late in his career provided a wealth of motivation for me as a beginner and throughout my own quarter century in the sport.
Moreover, what I learned from Joe was that if he could be competitive, and win championships, then so could I. Since Joe was not the fastest runner on the course he often found ways to win by having a better-trained burro than the faster runners. It was this philosophy that ultimately helped me win three World Championships and two Leadville International Pack-Burro Races.
THIS YEAR WILL BE MY 25th consecutive race at Leadville. Oddly, at 44 and with the birth of my first child, Harrison, this year, one of the most commonly asked questions is whether I will still be able to race. Since my legs have not yet fallen off from fatherhood, I suppose I should show up for the 25th time. A prize check might be a nice start on a college fund. Besides, each year I compete in the Boom Days race I look forward to seeing Joe. He always drives out to the “Resurrection” checkpoint at the base of Mosquito Pass. He offers advice and encouragement, and passes out water to racers on the 20-plus-mile course. And then he hurries back to town to watch the finish and congratulate the finishers.
Pack-burro racing is important to the cultural heritage of Leadville and Lake County. It pays tribute to the area’s past and present, and reminds us to hold onto tradition as we enter the future. For this sport that was born in Leadville, it’s only right that a pack-burro champion with such a long, enduring career will be among the first athletes inducted to the Leadville-Lake County Hall of Fame.
I look forward to seeing “Hall of Famer” Joe Glavinick there at the “Res” on the first Sunday of August.
Writer Hal Walter nominated Joe Glavinick for induction to the Leadville-Lake County Hall of Fame. Walter was the World Champion Pack-Burro Racer in 1998, 2000 and 2003, and the Leadville International Boom Days Champion in 1986 and 1998.
