Walt Murphy’s News and Results Service ([email protected])
This Day in Track & Field–September 1
1904—The winner of the 56lb Weight Throw at the St.Louis Olympics was Canadian Étienne Desmarteau (34-4 1/8 [10.465]), the only non-American to medal in the day’s 5 finals. 2nd and 3rd were John Flanagan (33-4 [10.16]) and James Mitchel
(33-3 1/8 [10.135]).
An all-U.S. final in the 200m-Hurdles saw the medals go to Harry Hillman (24.6), Frank Castleman (24.8), and George Poage (nt). It was the third gold medal of the Games for Hillman, who had earlier won the 400m and the 400m-Hurdles.
Other medalists:
Men’s 800-Meters: 1.James Lightbody (1:56.0), 2.Howard Valentine (1:56.3-estimated), Emil Breitkreutz (1:56.4e)
Long Jump:1.Myer Prinstein (24-1 [7.34]), 2.Daniel Frank (22-7 ¼ [6.89]), 3.Robert Stangland (22-6 ¾ [6.88])
Triple Jump: A 2nd gold medal for Prinstein, who passed Fred Englehardt (45-7 ¼ [13.90]) in the last round with his
winning jump of 47-1 (14.35). Stangland won a 2nd bronze medal with a leap of 43-10 (13.36).
1960–One New York newspaper characterized this day as “Black Thursday” because of the disappointing performance of the U.S. team at the Rome Olympics.
19-year old John Thomas, who set a World Record of 7-3 ¾ (2.22m) at the U.S. Trials, was the heavy favorite to win the gold medal in the Men’s High Jump, but he had to settle for the bronze (7-1/4 [2.14]) behind Soviets Robert Shavlakadze and a young (18) Valeriy Brumel (both cleared 7-1 ½ [2.187]).
Germany’s Armin Hary edged American Dave Sime for the gold in the Men’s 100 (10.32-10.35), while favored Ray Norton finished dead last (6th). Great Britain’s Peter Radford won the bronze medal (10.3).
But the biggest shock of all, at least to the Murphy family, came in the Men’s 800-meters. It was a long time ago, but I remember this moment as if it happened yesterday. My senior year of high school was about to start, and I was returning home to my apartment building in Brooklyn after running an errand. My mother was talking to a neighbor and she was holding the afternoon edition of the NY World-Telegram and Sun, which had just been delivered.
Hoping there might be a late report from Rome, I grabbed the paper and turned quickly to the sports section. And there it was, breaking news in bold print at the bottom…
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