In his marvelous new book, The Invitational Champions, John Russell alludes thus to mysterious events:
“The 1977 edition is one likely to be long remembered by those in attendance as events occurred both during the running and after hours that elicited plenty of conversation. Descriptions of all of the happenings vary with the telling and re-telling but suffice it to say that there were some memorable characters involved and not all of the events were suitable for this account.”
In this John is a master of the understatement.
Builder’s Addition emerged Champion, and in the two years following placed Runner-Up, then won the National in 1980. He was elected to the Hall of Fame in 1993.
The after-hours events John alludes to involved gunfire, specifically the shooting out of certain lights in the parking lot and an exterior hallway of the headquarters motel. No one was injured or killed by gunfire. Someone called the police. A well known detective was one of the responding lawmen. Inquiring of a motel employee he was advised that the shooter may have been “A tall man from Georgia,” name unknown to the employee.
The detective, a rather short man, made his way to the outside hallway where rooms occupied by trialers were located. At random he knocked on a door. When the door was opened from within, the detective asked, “Is there a tall man from Georgia here?” With that three men stood up, John Rex Gates, Robin Gates and George Moreland Jr. All were well over six feet tall, Mr. George, the tallest, exceeding 6’ 9”. All three confessed to being from Georgia but to nothing else.
The inquiry was ultimately abandoned for lack of evidence. There are varying accounts of the “rest of the story,” as Paul Harvey would say.