Big Puma

From Jerry Crasnick

At Rice University, where Berkman won the National Player of the Year award in 1997, they still love to tell the "Blue Dart" story. As legend has it, longtime Owls coach Wayne Graham thought it would be a good idea if all his players ran a three-mile loop around Houston's Memorial Park in less than 21 minutes. He told them they'd have to keep trying until they succeeded.

While his roommates spent the summer in training, Berkman ate pizza and played the role of resident sedentary guy. But he also hatched a survival plan: After making a token effort in the first three-mile run -- while his roommates passed the test -- Berkman would run far enough on his second attempt to disappear from view. Once he was shielded from the sight of the coaching staff, his buddies would swing by in a car, pick him up and drive him most of the way around the course.

When race day arrived, Berkman bounded out of his vehicle moments before the scheduled 7 a.m. start. He wore royal blue Rice shorts with matching T-shirt and headband, tennis shoes and no socks, and trash-talked about the whipping he was about to apply. He called himself the "Blue Dart."

Berkman busted out as if spring-loaded, with the expectation that he would croak in a hurry. Then he checked his watch and was astonished to see he'd covered the first mile in a blistering 5:40. He decided to keep pushing, and he continued to lead the pack.

"At about the two-mile marker, a gorilla jumped on my back and the party was over, but I was so close to finishing, I decided to go ahead and try to make this thing," Berkman said. He managed to hang on and wheeze home among the leaders in slightly less than 19 minutes.

Graham initially accused him of cheating. But after Berkman dropped to his hands and knees and vomited in the grass, the coach relented.

"The next day at practice, he was like, 'Did you see the heart that Lance showed?'" Berkman recalled. "He had no idea that I had planned on cheating."