1.
1904 Summer Olympics
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The 1904 Summer Olympics, officially known as the Games of the III Olympiad, was an international multi-sport event which was celebrated in St. Louis. It was the first time that the Olympic Games were held in a majority English language nation, European tension caused by the Russo-Japanese War, and the difficulty of getting to St. Louis, kept most of the worlds top athletes away. Only 62 of the 650 athletes who competed came from outside of North America, 80% of competitors were from the United States, and in over half of the events these were the only competitors. In some cases the U. S. national championship was combined with the Olympic championship, pierre de Coubertin, the founder of the modern Olympic movement, gave in and awarded the games to St. Louis. St. Louis organizers treated the games in a similar to the 1900 Summer Olympics in Paris. Competitions were reduced to a side-show of the Worlds Fair and were overshadowed by other, david R. Francis, the President of the Louisiana Purchase Exposition, declined to invite anybody else to open the Games and, on July 1 did so himself. Officially, the games lasted for four and a half months, in fact, the Olympic-calibre events were mixed with other sporting events that Sullivan also called Olympic. The IOC later declared that 94 of these events were Olympic, the actual athletics events that formed the bulk of the recognised Olympic sports were held from Monday, August 29 to Saturday, September 3. The participants totalled 651 athletes –645 men and 6 women representing 12 countries, however, only 42 events actually included athletes who were not from the United States. Boxing, dumbbells, freestyle wrestling and the made their debuts. The swimming events were held in a pond near Skinker and Wydown Boulevards. The organizers of the Worlds Fair held Anthropology Days on August 12 and 13, one of the most remarkable athletes was the American gymnast George Eyser, who won six medals even though his left leg was made of wood. Frank Kugler won four medals in wrestling, weightlifting and tug of war. Chicago runner James Lightbody won the steeplechase and the 800 m, sprinter Archie Hahn was champion in the 60 m,100 m and 200 m. In this last race, he set an Olympic record in 21.6, in the discus, after American Martin Sheridan had thrown exactly the same distance as his compatriot, Ralph Rose, the judges gave them both an extra throw to decide the winner. Sheridan won the decider and claimed the gold medal, ray Ewry again won all three standing jumps. The team representing Great Britain was awarded a total of two medals, both won by Irish athletes, the top non-USA athlete was Emil Rausch of Germany, who won three swimming events. Zoltan Halmay of Hungary and Charles Daniels of the United States each won two swimming gold medals, galt Football Club from Canada won the gold medal in football
2.
Sport of athletics
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Athletics is a collection of sporting events that involve competitive running, jumping, throwing, and walking. The most common types of competitions are track and field, road running, cross country running. The results of racing events are decided by finishing position, while the jumps, the simplicity of the competitions, and the lack of a need for expensive equipment, makes athletics one of the most commonly competed sports in the world. Athletics is mostly an individual sport, with the exception of relay races and competitions which combine athletes performances for a team score, organized athletics are traced back to the Ancient Olympic Games from 776 BCE. The rules and format of the events in athletics were defined in Western Europe and North America in the 19th and early 20th century. Most modern top level meetings are conducted by the International Association of Athletics Federations, the athletics meeting forms the backbone of the Summer Olympics. The foremost international athletics meeting is the IAAF World Championships in Athletics, other top level competitions in athletics include the IAAF World Cross Country Championships and the IAAF World Half Marathon Championships. Athletes with a disability compete at the Summer Paralympics and the IPC Athletics World Championships. The word athletics is derived from the Ancient Greek ἀθλητής from ἆθλον or ἆθλος, initially, the term was used to describe athletic contests in general – i. e. sporting competition based primarily on human physical feats. In the 19th century, the term acquired a more narrow definition in Europe. This definition continues to be the most prominent one in the United Kingdom, furthermore, foreign words in many German and Roman languages which are related to the term athletics also have a similar meaning. In much of North America, athletics is synonymous with sports in general, the word athletics is rarely used to refer to the sport of athletics in this region. Track and field is preferred, and is used in the United States and Canada to refer to most athletics events, including racewalking, Athletic contests in running, walking, jumping and throwing are among the oldest of all sports and their roots are prehistoric. Athletics events were depicted in the Ancient Egyptian tombs in Saqqara, with illustrations of running at the Heb Sed festival, the Tailteann Games were an ancient Celtic festival in Ireland, founded around 1800 BCE, and the thirty-day meeting included running and stone-throwing among its sporting events. The original and only event at the first Olympics in 776 BCE was a running event known as the stadion. This later expanded to include throwing and jumping events within the ancient pentathlon, Athletics competitions also took place at other Panhellenic Games, which were founded later around 500 BCE. The Cotswold Olimpick Games, a festival which emerged in 17th century England. Annually, from 1796 to 1798, LOlympiade de la République was held in revolutionary France, the premier event of this competition was a running event, but various ancient Greek disciplines were also on display
3.
Archie Hahn
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Charles Archibald Archie Hahn was an American track athlete and one of the best sprinters in the early 20th century. Louis, which was attended by European athletes. In the first event at those Games, the 60 m, Hahn benefited from his start and won, making him a favorite for the remaining events he was entered in. His run in the 200 m final delivered him the gold, in his third event, he again outclassed the field, thus winning all sprint events. In 1906, the Milwaukee Meteor repeated his Olympic 100 m victory in Athens, a feat not equalled until 1988, after his running career, Hahn became a coach and wrote the classic book How to Sprint. At Virginia he led the Cavaliers to 12 state championships in 13 years and he died in 1955, in Charlottesville, Virginia. Hahn was elected to the Wisconsin Athletic Hall of Fame in 1959 and he was inducted into the University of Michigan Athletic Hall of Honor in 1984 and the Virginia Sports Hall of Fame in 1991. Archie Hahn at the College Football Data Warehouse Virginia Sports Hall of Fame profile USATF profile dataOlympics profile
4.
United States at the 1904 Summer Olympics
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The United States hosted the 1904 Summer Olympics in St. Louis, Missouri. These Games were sparsely attended by athletes from outside the United States, many events were contested solely by Americans, with a record 57 events having an entirely American podium. The United States first competed in archery at the 1904 Summer Olympics and they were the only nation to compete that year, taking all 17 medals. The United States was the nation to have boxers compete in boxing. The United States was the nation to compete in cycling. The United States and Germany were the two nations competed in diving. The two American divers took gold and bronze in the platform event, the five Americans in the plunge for distance had no foreign competition, taking all three medals. The United States made its first appearance in football, known there as soccer, two American club teams played in a round-robin with a Canadian team, with the Canadian team defeating both of the American squads. The Americans then played two scoreless draws against each other before one won the third contest, 2-0, the United States was one of two nations to compete in tennis. The United States was the nation to have wrestlers compete in 1904. Archived from the original on February 16,2009
5.
Nathaniel Cartmell
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Nathaniel John Cartmell, also known as Nat and Nate, was an American athlete who won medals at two editions of the Olympic Games. He is also known for being the first head coach of the North Carolina Tar Heels mens basketball team, in the 1904 Summer Olympics in St. Louis, Missouri, Cartmell won silver medals in both the 100 meter dash and the 200 meter straightaway. He also participated in the 60 meters event but was eliminated in the repechage, Cartmell was a member of the gold medal American medley relay team at the 1908 Summer Olympics in London. He was the runner on the squad, running 200 meters. He followed William Hamilton and was followed by John Taylor and Mel Sheppard, in both the first round heat and the final Cartmell received a lead from Hamilton and built upon it before turning over the race to Taylor. The team won races, running the 1,600 meters in 3,27.2 in the first round and 3,29.4 in the final. Cartmells split for the final was 22.2 seconds and he won the bronze medal in the 200 meter race at the same Games, taking his second medal in the event. In the first round, Cartmell won with a time of 23.0 seconds, the second round resulted in a 22. 6-second time and another win. Cartmell placed third in the final with a time of 22.7 seconds, in the 100 meters, Cartmell placed fourth. He won his first round heat and semifinal with times of 11.0 and 11.2 seconds and he ran the final in 11.0 seconds. While at the 1908 Olympics, Cartmell reportedly got into a fight with a policeman who thrust himself into face, in response, Cartmell took the policemans hand, pushed him and then ran off knowing that the policeman could not catch him on foot. Later, the police showed up at the hotel where the team for the U. S. team was staying and arrested Charles Hollaway. Cartmell came to UNC in 1909 as a coach for the Tar Heels. In 1910, student Marvin Rich along with school officials helped lobby to create a varsity basketball squad at UNC. There was no coach for this program, and UNC did not have enough money at the time to hire another full-time coach for this sport. Cartmell was asked to be the first coach even though he did not know much about the sport, the Tar Heels won their first game 42–21. The Tar Heels would end their first season with a 7–4 record, in 1914, Cartmell was charged with illegally playing dice with known gamblers and was fired after the 1914 season. He would be replaced by Charles Doak, Cartmell went on to coach track and sometimes basketball at West Virginia University, Princeton University, Fordham University, Manhattan College and LaSalle Military Academy
6.
Harry Hillman
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Harry Livingston Hillman Jr. was an American athlete and winner of three gold medals at the 1904 Summer Olympics. Born in Brooklyn, New York, Hillman was a member of three Olympic teams at the turn of the century and he also was a coach at Dartmouth College. Hillman won three medals at the 1904 Olympics in St. Louis, Missouri, taking the flat 400 metres, the 200 metres hurdles. He had Olympic record times in all three events, but Hillman tripped one hurdle in the 400 metres, which meant that his time of 53.0 seconds could not be counted as a world record. In addition, the race was run over hurdles that were too low at 76 centimetres instead of the normal 91,4. En route to Greece for the 1906 Summer Olympics, Hillman was one of a half-dozen athletes who were injured by a wave that washed over the deck of the ship. He finished fifth in the 400 metres, his only event that year, Hillman won a silver medal in the 400 metres hurdles at the 1908 Summer Olympics, setting a short-lived record in the second round. He and Charles Bacon of the USA went over the last hurdle simultaneously, hillmans time in the race was 55.3 seconds. On April 24,1909, Hillman and Lawson Robertson set a record that has never been equalled and he won four Amateur Athletic Union titles, two each in the 200 metres and 400 metres hurdles. The track coach at Dartmouth College from 1910 until his death, Hillman advised hurdlers to swallow raw eggs and he was on the Olympic track and field coaching staff in 1924,1928, and 1932 Summer Olympics. One of his most famous athletes was Canadian hurdler Earl Thomson, the winner of the gold medal in the 110 metres hurdles at the 1920 Summer Olympics
7.
Frank Waller
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Frank Laird Waller was an American athlete who specialized in the 400 metres. He later became a vocal coach and he competed in the early twentieth century. Champion in the mens 440 yards in 1905 and 1906, and he graduated from Menominee, Wisconsin High School, and later the University of Wisconsin in 1907. After his college graduation, Waller moved to Chicago, in Chicago he knew William T Purdy and Carl Beck, who together wrote the University of Wisconsin fight song On Wisconsin. Waller told Purdy about a contest and $100 prize to write a University of Minnesota fight song, Carl Beck convinced Purdy it should be presented to the University of Wisconsin as their fight song. He went on tour with the singer Lillian Russell as her pianist and he spent several years in Germany conducting at provincial opera houses. He later served as a coach and headed the voice department at the Kansas City Conservatory of Music. During his career, he served as director of the Tri-City Symphony, Milwaukee Philarmonic Orchestra, the National Broadcasting Company in New York, and the WPA Orchestra in Richmond, Virginia. Among the singers he coached were Charles Sears, Edith Mason, Rosa Raisa, Alice Nielsen, Luisa Tetrazzini, Frances Peralta and he died of a heart ailment after six weeks of illness at the hospital. Personal Bests, 440y –49.6, 400H –53.6
8.
Jim Lightbody
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James Davies Jim Lightbody was an American middle distance runner, winner of six Olympic medals in the early 20th century. Lightbody, born in Pittsburgh and graduating high school in Muncie, Indiana, had great success at the 1904 Summer Olympics. He wasnt favoured in any of the three events in which he competed, but nevertheless won all three of them. First, he won the 2590 metre steeplechase, sprinting to the 800 metres title days later, finally, he won the 1500 metres in a new world record. Later that day, he added a second place to his tally, in 1905, Lightbody won AAU titles in both the 800 and 1500 metres, and the following year he competed in his second Olympics, the 1906 Intercalated Games of in Athens. He successfully defended his 1500 metres title, and placed second in the 800 metres, Lightbody competed again in the 1908 Summer Olympics. In the 800 metres, he placed fourth in his first round heat. Lightbody lost a race to fellow American James Sullivan in the first round of the 1500 metres. He was defeated by a mere ten yards by Harry Sewell in the first round of the 3200 metre steeplechase, Lightbody died in 1953, two weeks short of his 71st birthday in Charleston, South Carolina. The Fourth Olympiad, Being the Official Report, James Lightbodys profile at Sports Reference. com
9.
Thomas Hicks (athlete)
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Thomas John Hicks was an American track and field athlete. He won the Olympic marathon in 1904, Hicks, a brass worker from Cambridge, Massachusetts, was born in England. He was the winner of a marathon race at the 1904 Summer Olympics, held as part of the World Fair in St. Louis. Conditions were bad, the course being a track, with large clouds of dust produced by the accompanying vehicles. Hicks was not the first to cross the line, trailing Fred Lorz. However, Lorz had abandoned the race after 9 miles, after covering much of the course by car, he re-entered the race 5 miles before the finish. This was discovered by the officials, who disqualified Lorz, who claimed it had been a joke, as a result, he collapsed after crossing the finishing line. Another dose might have been fatal, strychnine is now forbidden for athletes. Hicks finished in place at the Boston Marathon in both 1901 and 1902. In the Fall of the year he relocated to Minneapolis, Minnesota for work. Hicks returned to Boston in the spring of 1904 and finished second in the Boston Marathon that year and he dropped out during the following years race, the year after, he began walking at Wellesley, and walked all the way to the finish. However, on June 30,1906, he finished three minutes ahead of Alexander Thibeau to win a marathon at an Amateur Athletic Union meet in Chicago, the next year he finished thirteenth at the Boston Marathon and sixth at the Chicago Marathon conducted by the Illinois Athletic Club. He finished sixteenth at the race in the following year. On January 16,1909 he was leading a marathon at Chicago under terrible conditions for more than eight miles before being forced to retire with a stitch. In later years, he worked on mining claims at Ingolf, Ontario and he became a naturalized Canadian, and died at Winnipeg in 1952 at the age of seventy-six. Profile Tom Hicks profile at Sports Reference. com
10.
Arthur L. Newton
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Arthur Lee Newton was an American athlete who competed mainly in the distance events. He was born in Upton, Massachusetts and died in Worcester and he participated in the 1900 Summer Olympics in Paris in the 2,500 metre steeplechase finishing 4th and in the marathon finishing 5th. He also won medals in the marathon and 2,590 meter steeplechase. He was married twice, his wife was Frieda Muehlichen
11.
Frederick Schule
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Frederick William Fred Schule was an American track and field athlete, football player, athletic coach, teacher, bacteriologist, and engineer. He competed for the track and field teams at the University of Wisconsin from 1900 to 1901 and he was also a member of the undefeated 1903 Michigan Wolverines football team that outscored its opponents 565 to 6. In 1904, Schule won the medal in the 110 meter hurdles at the 1904 Summer Olympics in St. Louis. From 1905 to 1907, he was employed as the director of the gymnasium and coach of the football and basketball teams at the University of Montana in Missoula, Montana. Schule also worked as a teacher in Wausau and Milwaukee, Wisconsin. He later worked as an engineer and superintendent for Westinghouse Lamp Company, in 2008, he was posthumously inducted into the University of Michigan Track & Field Hall of Fame. Schule was born in Preston, Iowa in 1879 and his father, Frederick Schule, was an immigrant from Germany who was employed as a physician. His mother, Sophia Schule, was also an immigrant from Germany and he had four older sisters, Clara, Augusta, Henrietta, and Sophia. At the time of the 1880 United States Census, the family was living in Fairfield Township, Jackson County, Schule began his collegiate studies at the University of Wisconsin, where he was a member of the track and field team from 1899 to 1900. In 1900, Schule won the Big Ten Conference championship in the jump, becoming the first Wisconsin Badgers athlete to win a Big Ten championship in track. He repeated as Big Ten champion in the jump in 1901 with a distance of 22 feet. Schule received a bachelor of degree from the University of Wisconsin in 1901 in bacteriology. After receiving his degree, Schule worked as a bacteriologist for the Chicago Sanitary District for five months and he then returned to the University of Wisconsin for post graduate studies and as a fellow in bacteriology. From 1902 to 1903, he taught physics at a school in Wausau. He was the Amateur Athletic Union champion in 120 yd hurdles in 1903, in the fall of 1903, Schule enrolled at the University of Michigan where he studied chemistry. He received a degree from Michigan in 1904. While attending Michigan, Schule was also a member of the 1903 Michigan Wolverines football team coached by Fielding H. Yost, the 1903 football team compiled a record of 11-0-1 and outscored its opponents 565 to 6. In February 1904, Schule announced that he would compete for the 1904 Michigan Wolverines mens track
12.
Frank Castleman
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Frank Riley Castleman was an American football and baseball player, track athlete, and coach in multiple sports. He competed for the United States in the 200 metre hurdles at the 1904 Summer Olympics held in St. Louis, Missouri, Castleman was a member of the Greater New York Irish American Athletic Association, which became the Irish American Athletic Club. He competed mainly in the 200 metre hurdles, Castleman graduated from Colgate University in 1906. Castleman served as the football coach at the University of Colorado at Boulder in 1906 and 1907. He was also the basketball coach at Colorado in from 1906 to 1912, tallying a mark of 32–22. He was later the coach at Ohio State University, where his team won the 1929 NCAA Mens Track. Castleman died at his home in Columbus, Ohio on October 9,1946 at the age of 69, Frank Castleman at the College Football Data Warehouse Frank Castleman at College Basketball at Sports-Reference. com
13.
George Poage
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George Coleman Poage was the first African-American athlete to win a medal in the Olympic Games, winning two bronze medals at the 1904 games in St. Louis. Born in Hannibal, Missouri, his family moved to La Crosse, the following fall he became a freshman at the University of Wisconsin. After competing with the freshman squad in 1900, he joined the varsity track. Poage was the first black athlete to run for UW, specializing in the short sprints, a consistent point winner for his team, he quickly became well respected. When the track coach was called out of town in 1902, Poage graduated in 1903 with a degree in History. His senior thesis was titled An Investigation into the Economic Condition of the Negro in the State of Georgia During the Period of 1860–1900. He returned to the University for the 1903–04 school year to take classes in History, supported by the UW athletic department. In June 1904, he became the first African-American individual Big Ten track champion in conference history, the Milwaukee Athletic Club sponsored Poage to compete in the 1904 Summer Olympics in St. Louis, Missouri. Many prominent African-American leaders had called for a boycott of the games to protest racial segregation of the events in St. Louis, an integrated audience was not allowed at either the Olympics or the Worlds Fair as the organizers had built segregated facilities for the spectators. Poage chose to compete in four events and became the first African-American to medal in the Games by winning the bronze in both the 200-yard and 400-yard hurdles. Poage remained in St. Louis after the Olympics, working as a principal for a year before becoming a teacher at segregated Charles Sumner High School. In 1914, Poage left his job at Sumner, according to a former student, he purchased to a farm in Minnesota, although no land records of the purchase have been found. Local historian Margaret Lichter and Bruce Mouser have speculated that the land was owned by the Easton family, in 1920, Poage moved to Chicago. He worked in a restaurant for four years, in 1924, Poage was hired by the United States Postal Service and worked as a postal clerk for nearly thirty years. After his retirement in the 1950s he remained in Chicago until his death in 1962, Poage was elected to the Wisconsin Athletic Hall of Fame in 1998. In 2013, the La Crosse City Council renamed Hood Park to George C
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