SJC's 'Cookie Man' Was '68 Olympian

Half a century ago – before a hit in the head by a softball left him with partial hearing loss and bad balance – Jeff Péo competed in the Olympics with Tommie Smith and John Carlos.

These days, the San Juan Capistrano resident is known as “the Cookie Man” for the original-recipe cookies he brings to his San Clemente Mormon congregation.

But recently he put aside his baking long enough to recall those 1968 Mexico Games and the turbulent era.

While attending San Jose State University to study aeronautics (“I wanted to be an airline pilot like my father,” he says), Péo, who had been a track standout at Santa Monica High School, took a chance and asked the track coach if he could join the team.

The college already had former world-record holders on the team, as well as Lee Evans, who would break a sprinting world record at the 1968 Olympics which would hold for 25 years. 

Because Péo was on the national track list for junior colleges, the coach gave him a spot on the world-class team. According The Track and Field News, San Jose State was known as “speed city” for its world-record holders for all of the sprints.

As the 1968 Olympics approached, Péo trained 12-hour days.

“Working out with them pulled my time down and made me work hard. Everybody was very competitive. Even in workouts, Evans would not lose,” Péo said.

Pressure from All Sides

“The state of the world at that time was really bad,” Péo said, referring to the Martin Luther King and Robert Kennedy assassinations, as well as the student anti-war protests.

“I can remember being on the San Jose campus and seeing clouds of tear gas wafting by because they were trying to break up the student riots. It was a time for the whole country of great, great upheaval,” Péo said.

While students in the United States were protesting the Vietnam War and racial inequity, violent economic riots peaked in Mexico just days before Péo’s team arrived in Mexico for the Olympic ceremonies.

Mexico spent millions of dollars toward the design for the Olympic grounds while civilians were impoverished. The National Guard tried to break up the student and civilian riots.

“There were about 300 people killed,” Péo said.

A sociology professor at San Jose State, Harry Edwards, established the Olympic Project for Human Rights. The black power salute was an active protest against racial segregation throughout the world, and racism in sports.

“The medalists who gave the black power salute were [gold medalist] Tommie Smith and [bronze medalist] John Carlos; both who I knew quite well. I worked out with them every day,” Péo said.

The 1968 Olympics

The top 12 fastest runners going into the Olympics that year were from the United States, and Peo was ranked No. 5.

“There were more great performances then, than I remember ever seeing at the Olympics,” Péo said.

Péo was one of the runners on the U.S. Olympic 1600-meter relay team that year. He set world records in nearly half of the 10 relays he ran, up to the Olympic finals. 

Team members Evans, Smith and Carlos nicknamed Péo “Gray Dude," simply because "as fast as I was, I couldn’t be just white; I had to have some black in me,” Péo said.

Under the old rules, only relay team members who ran the finals got the medal. Though Péo put up world records – though short-lived when the final four took the track – he did not get to take home the gold.

The Road Back Down from Mt. Olympus

After Péo came back from the Olympics, he attended Brigham Young University, where the track coach snatched Péo for his talent and before long, Péo converted to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

Athletics were a large part of Peo’s life until that fast-pitch-softball incident when he was fresh out of college.

Although Peo’s active lifestyle has kept him healthy for most of his later years, straining arteries left him in need of two open-heart surgeries within seven weeks in 2010. 

“I feel very blessed,” Péo said of his ability to endure.

Salt Lake City Sweetheart 

“My favorite name is Grandpa, but ‘Cookie Man’ is a close second on the list,” Péo said. Fifteen grandchildren call him the former.

He realized his dream of a big family; he had five children, though as his four eldest children graduated from Brigham Young University, most of them remained out of state with their families.

The youngest daughter took her own path, studying music at Chapman University.

Beyond the Olympic sprints, Péo holds his seven years with the Mormon Tabernacle Choir as yet another highlight of his life.

“The Tabernacle Choir was special to me, very special,” Péo said.

Not the least of which because Péo met his wife through the choir, at a choir event in Japan.

Graduating from BYU as a photographer, Marylin Péo took her mission trip to Japan, where she was asked to photograph the Mormon Tabernacle Choir. The rest, as they say, is history.

The Cookie Man

Péo picked up baking, which he had learned to love as a teen visiting Greece. His talent has earned him 30 prizes in the O.C. Fair dessert competition, which he began entering about 15 years ago.

The fair invited Péo the next few years to demonstrate baking tips at the fair, with 1,000 onlookers in person and a television audiences. In recent years, Péo has been a desserts judge at the fair.

After friends suggested he start a bakery in San Clemente, where he lived for 12 years, Péo decided to distribute his desserts to different restaurants, extended-care homes, and to big chain cafes.

One might say it's been a sweet life.