The notice of the death of polygamist Tom Green in The Salt Lake Tribune on March 4 sparked a smile-inducing flashback to the Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games of 2002 here during which I was the America Attaché for the Olympic team from Greece.
As noted in the article, Green’s trial, local news stories and national TV appearances made for big headlines and titillating articles, especially in the minds of the numerous members of the international press with whom I interacted and, particularly, among the coaches of the Greek team with whom I worked closely throughout the Games.
While Utah polygamy stories were routine for this native, the coaches asked me all sorts of questions about the practice – number of wives, how to identify one walking down the street, how did the multiple wives feel about each other, about bedroom scenarios and on. I did my best to answer the quizzes based on what I had read and had heard over the years but surely not from experience.
The fascination of the practice bubbled over the top of the coaches’ enthrallment meters when I gave them each a bottle of Polygamy Porter beer at a farewell party at a Greek restaurant. That local brew features seven scantily clad damsels at the feet of a muscular male on the bottle label.
So fascinated was one coach with the label, he did not drink the beer, choosing instead to take the bottle back to Athens, “to show my wife how men live in Utah!”
I never did find out if he got the bottle home safely and, if he did, what happened when he showed it to his wife.
Mike Korologos, Salt Lake City