Editor,
I really enjoyed Sue Lempert’s column “Famous local high school graduates” in the July 28 edition of the Daily Journal. As a Serra High student, I remember seeing Lynn Swann and Tom McBreen in the halls. I kept reading down the column to find the name of another Serra sports success story, but, as usual, this person wasn’t mentioned.
Pat Hennen graduated from Serra High School in 1972. Four years later, he was the first American to win a European grand prix when he won the Finnish Grand Prix at a time when it was thought that no American would never win on European soil. He beat the Europeans on their home turf and proved that you better not count America out.
I quote from the American Motorcycle Hall of Fame — “So unexpected was his victory in Finland that organizers didn’t have a sound track of the U.S. national anthem. Hennen wore a cowboy hat on the podium — a tribute to his father who was once a professional rodeo cowboy — much to the delight of the European photographers.” Hennen was inducted into the motorcycle hall of fame in 2007.
In 1978, his career ended in a crash in England when he rode an unscheduled race as a favor to his sponsor.
Pat was always quiet and reserved, very focused and goal-oriented. You never saw him in trouble at school or at parties. In fact, most people at Serra didn’t even know he had a motorcycle. He was not the “grease monkey” most people picture when they think of a motorcycle racer.
This local high school graduate proved that an American could win in the highest echelon of motorcycle racing at a time when few thought it could be done.
His Wikipedia page tells a very interesting story of one of San Mateo’s own, yet he is virtually unknown here.
The worst part of all this? He still lives in San Mateo!
Rob Gibson
San Mateo
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