Inside Columbia
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swifter, higher, strOnger By dustin renwick From St. Louis and Sydney to Belgium and Beijing, 35 people with ties to Columbia have sprinted, jumped, dribbled, skied and wrestled with the best athletes in the global pageantry of Olympic competition. Although the games have caused heartbreak for many mid-Missourians, 14 athletes have returned with the most cherished prizes: Olympic medals. 100 July 2012 INSIDE COLUMBIA Brutus hamiltOn geOrge (1900-1970) massengale JOhn nichOlsOn (1900-1988) (1889-1970) 1920: decathlon (SILVER), pentathlon 1920: 200-meter 1912: 110-meter hurdles, high jump 1924: pentathlon George Massengale qualified for the Olympics at According to the Olympic report from that year, through rutus Hamilton — Olympic officials ordered a age 19. On the voyage to Antwerp, the MU student the preliminaries John Nicholson “cleared the hurdles with the grew up in rural recount to verify the winner. was sidelined with AS, or ankylosing spondylitis, most exquisite technical skill.” The reigning Amateur Athletic Peculiar, Mo. A As good as he was in a disease that causes inflammation of the joints. Union champion won both his preliminary heats, but racing farming accident competition, Hamilton also Alternate Allen Woodring of Pennsylvania, who stride-for-stride with two others in the final, the Mizzou grad nearly severed his excelled at teaching track and would go on to compete for Syracuse University, fell at the eighth hurdle and did not finish the race. B foot when he was 6 years old; field — after a brief coaching stepped up and won the gold. doctors didn’t think he would stint at Westminster College in ever walk properly. Instead, he Fulton, he left to coach at the ran track and played football for University of Kansas, where Mizzou. Hamilton even caught several of his KU athletes would JacksOn two touchdown passes in a go on to win Olympic gold charles n. 1921 Homecoming victory over medals. Hamilton soon headed schOlz Oklahoma. west to coach at the University prOctOr (1897-1986) In the summer of 1920, he of California, sporting his (1906-1996) ↕ 1920: 100-meter, traveled to Antwerp, where he trademark suits and fedora. He 1928: cross country skiing, 4x100 relay (GOLD) led for nine of the 10 events also served as athletic director in the decathlon. Decathletes during his 30-year tenure in ski jumping, Nordic combined 1924: 100-meter JOseph are often called the “world’s Berkeley and coached runners Charles A. Proctor (SILVER), 200-meter greatest athletes” for their such as Don Bowden, the first (GOLD) was a graduate student abilities to compete across American to break the four- at the University of charles 1928: 200-meter (1868-1950) the full range of athletic minute mile. Hamilton served on Missouri when his son, Jackson Scholz is the most decorated Columbia Olympian. challenges: sprints, distance, the coaching staff for the 1932 Charles N. Proctor, was 1904: tennis He competed for the University of Missouri track team and jumps, throws. Helge Løvland and 1936 Olympic teams. His born in 1906. Soon after, Joseph Charles, who was remains the school’s only individual gold medalist. At several of Norway passed Hamilton in decathletes swept the podium the family moved to born in Boonville, played both points throughout his career, he held or tied world records in the 1500-meter run, the final in ’36. As head coach for the Vermont. The younger singles and doubles. At age various sprint races, and he was the first man to qualify for a event, in a come-from-behind 1952 men’s Olympic team, his Proctor grew up on the 36, Charles was the oldest sprint final in three separate Olympiads. finish. Because fewer than four track athletes brought home 14 slopes, and in 1925, won participant on the team, which The 1981 film “Chariots of Fire” depicts the 1924 100-meter points separated the two — a gold medals. Hamilton has been the first slalom race in played on dirt courts in St. final, when Scholz finished second to Harold Abrahams of remarkably close finish in a inducted into several athletic the United States on Louis during the first modern Britain. series of events where each and coaching halls of fame, and a course designed by his father, who was by then Olympiad, held as part of the Scholz graduated from the MU School of Journalism in 1920 individual time, distance and is considered one of the greatest a professor at Dartmouth. Three years later, he 1904 World’s Fair. and later wrote 31 sports novels. A man of a different era, he height are scored and added track and field coaches. traveled to St. Moritz, Switzerland, to compete in the competed on cinder tracks and smoked cigars. He died in 1986 winter Olympics. Proctor later served as the director and is a member of the U.S. Track and Field Hall of Fame. of ski operations in Yosemite National Park. 102 July 2012 INSIDE COLUMBIA INSIDE COLUMBIA July 2012 103 richard “dick” Cochran helen stephens (1938-) (1918-1994) 1960: discus (BRONZE) 1936: 100-meter (GOLD), Unity fuels the Olympic spirit, but for MU alum 4x100-meter relay (GOLD), discus Dick Cochran, sharp contrasts exist between his larry trip to Rome and the games today. “It was totally different than what you see now,” he says. “I don’t yOung know whether it’s good or bad, but it was just (1943-) different. We were truly amateurs.” Sponsorships were unheard of, and 1968: 50-kilometer his per diem allowance race walk (BRONZE) was only $2. The 1960 1972: 20-kilometer Olympic Games were race walk; 50-kilometer the first televised live race walk (BRONZE) worldwide, but TV cameras claimed a hen Larry Young race- kangaroo leather flats with the white dick ault sparse presence. walked his way into the Puma racing stripe on the side. (1925-2007) During the opening Mexico City stadium Although he’d medaled in Mexico ceremonies, Cochran in 1968, the hairs City, Munich presented a new 1948: 400-meter hurdles and his teammates W raised on the back of his neck. A packed challenge for Young. He had trained wore white pants and crowd, which included many Americans, harder, averaging 100 miles per week, Dick Ault, a Mizzou track star, missed the bronze medal blue wool jackets — not ideal for a hot Italian cheered for him, a guy who’d only but so had the Europeans. by two-tenths of a second at the 1948 London games. The summer, so the throwers, who were competing been in the sport for three years. “I was much more competitive that following year, however, he tied the world record in the 440- soon, sat in the stands. elen Stephens’ nicknames included “Popeye” “I wasn’t even on the map,” he year. I really thought I had a shot at yard hurdles. He went on to coach — track, cross-country, golf One night, a man in a dark suit showed up (because she stood 6 feet tall as a teenager), “The says. “I wasn’t even considered a dark gold. Then I found out when I got over and swimming — at Fulton’s Westminster College for 29 years. at Cochran’s door. He was from the U.S. State Missouri Express” and “The Fulton Flash.” Stephens horse.” He won the first and only U.S. there that the Europeans were putting Department. “The lead guy walked up and got possessed an unheard-of talent in both sprints and medal in the 50-kilometer race walk, in about 30 miles more per week than right in my face, and he said, ‘We want you to H throws, and claimed 1936 AAU titles in the shot put, discus but his unknown status caused his I was.” understand that the Russians are not to get any teammates to call the success a fluke. Despite the perceived disadvantage, and 100-meter dash. Dan Pippin became a star at medals. Do you understand?’ The 1936 Olympics took place in Berlin, under the specter Mizzou long before his Olympic “We were about two steps away from bombing Unknown to him, Young had entered Young repeated as a bronze medalist. of Adolph Hitler’s Nazism, but even the shadow of the coming debut. As a freshman in 1943, he each other,” Cochran recalls. “There was a lot of the tight-knit club of race walkers. This time, the stadium was empty world war could not darken the sparkle of Jesse Owens’ was 17 and thus, too young for pressure on the United States athletes to do well If track and field is a fringe sport, because the race finished so late in four gold medals in track and field. Stephens brought home the wartime draft. The Big Six against the Russian athletes. Frankly, we found the race walking lies in the proverbial the day. Officials postponed the medal two gold medals to mid-Missouri, a feat made even more All-Conference player carried Russian athletes to be a great bunch of guys.” weeds. “We’re the ugly ducklings ceremony until the daytime so the incredible by the fact that women were allowed to compete the Tigers to a third-place finish After several throws in the finals, Cochran was of track and field,” Young says. crowd would be there. in only six track and field events: 100-meter, 80-meter in the NCAA tournament and in fifth place. He stepped into the circle on his Competitors must maintain contact Bernd Kannenberg, gold medalist hurdles, high jump, discus, javelin and the 4x100-meter relay. led the 1943-44 team in scoring. next-to-last throw and thought to himself: You’re with the ground at all times, and in the 50k, pulled Young and silver not going to get a medal.