Walt Murphy is one of the finest track statisticians that I know. Walt does #ThisDayinTrack&FieldHistory, an excellent daily service that provides true geek stories about our sport. You can check out the service for FREE with a free one-month trial subscription! (email: [email protected] ) for the entire daily service. We will post a few historic moments each day, beginning February 1, 2024.
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This Day in Track & Field–July 22
1899—John Flanagan, one of the original Irish-American ”Whales”, broke his own (pre-IAAF) World Record in the Hammer Throw with a toss of 164-1 (50.01) in Boston. Flanagan would go on to win the gold medal at the 1900, 1904, and 1908 Olympics and was inducted into the U.S. Hall of Fame in 1975.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Flanagan_(hammer_thrower)
Irish Whales: http://tinyurl.com/IrishWales
http://www.theirishstory.com/2012/06/22/irelands-forgotten-olympians-the-irish-whales/#.Ue0hxxy1n74
Irish-American A.C.: http://wingedfist.org/
Source: Illustration in the “Fourth Olympiad 1908 London Official Report” published by the British Olympic Association in 1909
1900—American Walter Tewksbury (22.2) won the 200-meters at the Olympics in Paris. Competing for Great Britain, Norman Pritchard (22.5-estimated), who was born in Calcutta, India, won the silver medal, and the bronze went to Australia’s Stan Rowley (22,6e). It was Tewksbury’s 5thmedal of the Games.
Pritchard, who had earlier finished 2nd in the 200m-hurdles, moved to the U.S. to pursue an acting career in silent movies under the screen name Norman Trevor.
Tewksbury
Gold-400m Hurdles, 200
Silver-60, 100
Bronze-200m Hurdles
https://www.olympedia.org/athletes/79119
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Walter_Tewksbury
Pritchard
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Norman_Pritchard
https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0872476/bio
1952–It was a good day for Americans at the Helsinki Olympics, with “Marvelous Mal” Whitfield winning his 2nd straight title at 800-meters (matching his Olympic Record of 1:49.2), while the Reverend Bob Richards set an Olympic Record of 14-11 (4.55) to win the pole vault.
Richards had been tied with teammate Don Laz after they both cleared 14-9 (4.50) on their 2nd attempts, but then secured the gold medal with his 3rd-try clearance at 14-11. He would go on to win a 2nd gold medal four years later in Melbourne. Finishing 2nd to Whitfield for the 2nd Olympics in a row was Jamaica’s Arthur Wint.
uk.usembassy.gov
A pilot during the Korean War, Whitfield spent 30 years promoting sport in Africa as a member of the U.S. Information Agency. His son, Ed Wright, was 5th in the High Jump at the 2012 U.S. Olympic Trials, and his daughter, Fredricka Whitfield, is a news anchor/reporter for CNN.
800 Video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V3fnK7_PQao
PV Video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xTiue4naosQ
Whitfield: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mal_Whitfield
Richards: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bob_Richards
Whitfield Foundation: http://www.whitfieldfoundation.org/
Fredricka Whitfield: https://www.cnn.com/profiles/fredericka-whitfield-profile
Ed Wright: http://www.sfgate.com/sports/article/Cal-s-Wright-has-genes-of-an-Olympic-champion-2595897.php
