Part III: Ivies in the Olympics
- mcmoore27
- Aug 4, 2016
- 3 min read
The Third and final installment of some of the greatest Olympic moments in league history. They are presented in no certain order.
Few conferences or leagues can match the rich Olympic history of the Ivy League. For more than a century, its students, student-athletes and coaches have represented their countries on the world's biggest stage, collecting an amazing total of 467 medals. This count would rank in the top 15 on the all-time medal table if the Ivy League's eight institutions collectively were a country.
Moore Effective Hurdling
At the 1952 Helsinki Games, Charlie Moore earned a gold medal in the 400-meter hurdles, setting an Olympic record of 50.8 on a rain-soaked track. Moore also won a silver medal with the U.S. 4x400-meter relay team.
While at Cornell, the mechanical engineering student figured that 13 strides between hurdles, rather than the customary 15, offered more power and fluidity. The result: he never lost a race, winning four straight Amateur Athletic Union intermediate hurdle titles and two NCAA titles in the 440-yard dash and the 220-yard hurdles.
Moore, a 1951 graduate of Cornell, served as the university’s athletic director for five years. In 1996, he was selected as one of “100 Golden Olympians,” by the U.S. Olympic Committee.
Shorter Goes the Distance
At the 1972 Munich Games, Frank Shorter became the first American to win the marathon since John Hayes in 1908, finishing more than two minutes ahead of the second-place finisher. He received the James E. Sullivan Award as the top amateur athlete in the United States. Four years later, he won the silver medal in the marathon at the 1976 Montreal Olympics, finishing second behind Waldemar Cierpinski of East Germany. Shorter is the only American athlete to win two medals in the Olympic marathon event.
Shorter, who won the 1969 NCAA title in the 10,000-meter title during his senior year at Yale, was inducted into the Olympic Hall of Fame in 1984 and the USA National Track and Field Hall of Fame in 1989.
Bill Bradley
Bill Bradley became the first Ivy League hoopster to play in the Olympics, when he captained the 1964 U.S. Olympic Team. Bradley was the team’s lone college undergrad and the youngest player at age 21. Team USA went 9-0 at the Tokyo Games, defeating the Soviet Union in the gold-medal game. Bradley ranked second on the team, averaging 10.1 points per game. After the Olympics, Bradley returned to Princeton, where he led the Tigers to a 1965 NCAA Final Four appearance.
After graduating from Princeton in 1965, Bradley attended Oxford as a Rhodes Scholar despite being drafted by the New York Knicks. Bradley returned from England and proceeded to spend 10 seasons in the NBA, after which he was a three-term U.S. Senator from New Jersey and a presidential candidate in 2000.
Four Gold Medals
At the 1900 Paris Games, Alvin C. Kraenzlein won four gold medals, a feat that was not repeated until Jesse Owens famously won four gold medals at the 1936 Berlin Games. In Paris, Kraenzlein finished first in the 60-meter dash, the 110-meter hurdles, the 200-meter hurdles and the long jump. The track star is credited with inventing the legextended style of hurdling used today.
After receiving his dental degree in 1900 from Penn, Kraenzlein coached the track team at the University of Michigan and then internationally.
Billy Carr Earns a Pair of Gold Medals
At the 1932 Los Angeles Games, Billy Carr solidified his place as one of the greatest sprinters of all time. In record-setting fashion, Carr brought home a pair of gold medals in the 400-meter and the 4x400-meter relay. In the 400-meter race, Carr beat his nemesis Ben Eastman of Stanford, clocking a time of 46.2. In the mile relay, Carr and his team posted a time of 3:08.2. Both records stood until the 1952 Helsinki Games. Carr never lost a race throughout his entire Olympic and intercollegiate career.
Tragically, Carr’s running career ended in March 1933 after an automobile accident. The runner graduated from Penn’s Wharton School in 1933 with a degree in Economics.
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