Dick Button (1929- )
Figure Skating—U.S. Figure Skating Champion 1946-52, World Figure Skating Champion 1948-52, 1948 Olympic Games—Gold Medal [James E. Sullivan Memorial Award 1949, U.S. Olympic Hall of Fame, World Figure Skating Hall of Fame 1976]
Watch a video clip of Button in the 1952 Winter Olympics. Watch a video clip of Button in the 1948 Winter Olympics in the freeskate.
Gloria Callen (1924-2016)
Swimming—Olympic Games 1940 [AP Athlete of the Year 1942, held over 30 national records; International Swimming Hall of Fame 1984]
The single factor that has helped me most is practice . . . . It’s hard to combine social activities with swimming, because swimming comes first. What makes it worse is that our meets are held on Sundays, and the best dances are on Saturday nights when I have to rest.
Gloria Callen
Gloria Callen
"Glorious Gloria" Callen was voted the USA's Outstanding Woman Athlete of 1942. As a junior in high school, she set six American records in one day in March at the Madison Square Boy's Club, breaking one of Eleanor Holm's records among others. She went on to win the Indoor Nationals in Detroit (April) and the Outdoor Nationals for the third successive year, this time at Neenah, Wisconsin. That June she became the first woman to be elected president of the senior class at Nyack (N.Y.) High School. She also won New York's Fashion Academy Award as one of America's 13 best-dressed women. Gloria Callen captured the hearts of American sportsmen while setting 35 American swimming records. She won 13 national Titles and set one World Record. Her first championship was in the National Long Distance Three Mile Swim in 1938 at Clemonton Lake, N.Y. shortly after this, she changed from freestyle to backstroke where she was undefeated until she retired for lack of goals and competition. She wanted to get a crack at World Record holder Cor Kint of Holland and she, like Kint, and other great young swimmers of the war years, never got a shot at world travel or at the Olympics. She made the 1940 U.S. Olympics team with stopwatch time to spare, but the team was a mythical honor with no place to go. Gloria's swimming career was over when she enrolled at Barnard College and joined the American Women's Voluntary Services.
Carin Cone (1940- )
1956 Olympic Games: Silver Medal 100 meter backstroke; 1959 Pan American Games: Gold Medal 100 meter backstroke, Gold Medal 400 meter medley relay [International Swimming Hall of Fame 1984]
Eleanor Holm (1913-2004)
1928 Olympic Games: 5th Place 100 meter backstroke; 1932 Olympic Games: Gold Medal 100 meter backstroke; 1936 Olympic Games: removed from team on charge of alcoholism and gambling [actress, International Women’s Sports Hall of Fame 1980, International Swimming Hall of Fame 1966]
With all the hoopla around me in those years, when I see all the athletes I knew, I almost wish I had not been the glamour girl, that I had not been in the movies and in the nightclubs, that I had never had all those headlines. They were the true athletes, not me. I 've never thought of it that way before, but I wish I could have just been an athlete like they were. And yet I guess it was all that tinsel and Brundage that makes me still known. But don't ask me to give the money back. See, a wise guy again. I wanted to prove that the girl singing in the nightclubs with Art's band could win another gold medal. My custom was to have a glass of wine now and then. Anybody with any sense would know I wouldn't get loaded or drunk. On the S.S. Manhattan going over, all the athletes were in steerage, but I went up to first class every chance I got. One night, I had some champagne with my buddies the sportswriters - Alan Gould, Paul Gallico and Joe Williams. The next day, the Olympic officials decided I had broken training, and they decided whatever the blah- blah words were in announcing I was off the team. One theory is that Brundage had a little sneaker for me, but that I had ignored him I don't remember him ever giving me the eye. But what really bothered him was that when we got to Berlin that year, I was bigger than he was. Whenever we were together at a function, all the photographers were around me instead of him. Hitler was fascinated by what happened to me. He told me the Americans were not very bright to dismiss me, a sure gold- medal winner. Especially for something like drinking champagne. He told me that wine was on the German Olympic team's training table. Through his interpreter, he kept asking me, “But what else did you do?” When I kept telling him all I did was drink some champagne, he couldn't believe it. Hitler also told me that if I had been a German, any punishment like that would have come after the Olympics, not before. I was sitting right there when Jesse Owens won his fourth gold medal and Hitler walked out. I think he just got tired of Jesse winning so many gold medals. It was time to shake hands and Hitler just didn't want to shake hands. I had a contract to play all the theaters if I won a gold medal. Being off the team, I couldn't win. So that contract didn't hold. But because of all that happened, I got a new contract for more money. And later on, I swam in Billy Rose's Aquacade in 1939 and 1940 at the New York World's Fair. After my divorce from Art, I married Billy. I had been on the 1928 team at Amsterdam when I was 14, a little girl from Brooklyn who had learned to swim in the surf at Long Beach where my mother put water wings on me. General Douglas MacArthur headed that 1928 team. I had a picture of me sitting on his lap. But after I divorced Billy Rose, his home burned down and there went my picture. I was hardly dry at those Olympics when I was whisked from one studio to another - Warner Brothers, MGM, Paramount - to take movie tests. In the years before the next Olympics, I took diction lessons and drama lessons but as it turned out, I was only in one movie. I was Jane in a Tarzan movie. Glen Morris was Tarzan.
Eleanor Holm Jarrett
Eleanor Holm Jarrett
Watch a video clip of Eleanor Holm parading with a group of hopeful Hollywood starlets. Watch a video clip of Holm in scenes from a 1938 Tarzan movie.
Chet Jastremski (1941- )
Swimming Breaststroke—Olympic Games 1964: Bronze Medal 200m breaststroke [International Swimming Hall of Fame 1977]
Carol Heiss Jenkins (1940- )
Figure Skater—1956 Olympic Games—Silver Medal; 1960 Olympic Games—Gold Medal; World Figure Skating Championships 1956-60; U.S. Figure Skating Championships 1957-60; North American Figure Skating Championships 1957, 1959
Watch a video clip of Carol Heiss in the 1960 Winter Olympics freeskate. Watch a video clip of Carol Heiss skating beautifully. Watch a video clip of Carol Heiss at the 1959 U.S. Nationals. Watch a video clip of Carol Heiss skating at the 1957 U.S. Nationals.
David Jenkins (1936- )
Figure Skater—1956 Olympic Games—Bronze Medal; 1960 Olympic Games—Gold Medal [World Figure Skating Hall of Fame 1976]
Hayes Alan Jenkins (1933- )
Figure Skater—1956 Olympic Games—Gold Medal; 3 time world champion 1957-59 [World Figure Skating Hall of Fame 1976]
Bill Kerslake (1929-2015)
Freestyle/Greco-Roman Wrestler—Olympic Games: 1952 – Freestyle 5th Place, 1956 – did not compete, 1960 – 8th Place [National Wrestling Hall of Fame 1982]
While wrestling my senior year [at Case Institute of Technology] I saw that I was just about equal with everyone in the nation at the time, so I tried out for the Olympic team and I won a spot in 1952. I was undefeated in this country from 1952 through 1960.
Bill Kerslake
Bill Kerslake
He became the dominant figure of the 1950s, winning 15 national championships in a row in Freestyle and Greco-Roman. Over an eight-year span starting in 1953, he won 76 consecutive bouts in national tournament competition, and the national championship in both styles, until his streak was broken in the Greco-Roman finals of 1960. One of his tournament bouts in 1956 ended in just four seconds, still a record for the fastest fall in national competition. He won a gold medal in the Pan American Games of 1955 and three times represented the United States in the Olympic Games, placing fifth, eighth and seventh from 1952 through 1960.
Adolph Kiefer (1918-2017)
Swimming Backstroke—Olympic Games 1936: Gold Medal 100m backstroke [International Swimming Hall of Fame 1965]
I can't say that I'm a better athlete than anyone else. I can say that I've probably always been more determined.
Adolph Kiefer
Adolph Kiefer
Watch a video clip of Adolf Kiefer discussing his career, swimming equipment company, and benefits of swimming to health.
Lenore Kight Wingard (1911-2000)
Swimming Freestyle—Olympic Games 1932: 400 Meter Freestyle Silver Medal; 1936: 400 Meter Freestyle Bronze Medal [International Swimming Hall of Fame 1981]
I was a late starter. But in those days, there weren't many people who really knew how to swim. I just liked what I was doing . . . and kept on going.
Lenore Kight Wingard
Lenore Kight Wingard
George Kojac (1910-1996)
Swimming Freestyle—1928 Olympic Games: 4th place 100 meter freestyle, Gold Medal 100 meter backstroke, Gold Medal 4x200 meter freestyle relay [International Swimming Hall of Fame 1968]
Kathy Kusner (1940- )
Equestrian Team Jumping—1964 Olympic Games—finals, 1968 Olympic Games—finals, 1972 Olympic Games: Silver Medal [Show Jumping Hall of Fame 1989, World Sports Humanitarian Hall of Fame 2005]
Watch a video clip of Kusner participating in the equestrian class in three different Olympics. Watch a video clip of Kusner working with the jumper Bird.
A world-class dressage rider, Kusner was also the first woman ever given a jockey license. She began riding when she was ten years old. A member of the gold medal three-day event teams at the 1963 Pan-American Games and the 1964 Olympics, Kusner won the 1966 International Grand Prix aboard Untouchable. The following year, she became the first rider ever to win the event two years in a row on the same horse. In November of 1967, Kusner applied for a jockey license in Maryland and was turned down. She told reporters, "Horse riding is more a game of technique and skill than strength. It's the same as playing chess with men, so I don't intend to give up the fight." A year later, a judge ruled that she'd been denied a license because of sex discrimination and ordered the Maryland Racing Commission to license her. A broken leg delayed her debut as a jockey, but she began racing in 1969 and rode her first winner at Pocono Downs that September. Her career as a jockey was rather brief because she began to have problems making the weight. However, Kusner continued riding as an amateur equestrian and was a member of the U. S. team that won a silver medal in the 1972 Olympics. She is a member of the Show Jumping Hall of Fame. Kusner's accomplishment have gone well beyond riding. She was the first woman to work as a Lear Jet pilot, and she holds commercial, multi-engine, instrument, seaplane, and aerobatics ratings. She has been scuba diving all over the world, including the Red Sea, Great Barrier Reef, and South China Sea. Kusner has also been division champion as a 10,000-meter and marathon runner.
Jay Lambert (1926-2012)
Boxing Heavyweight—Olympic Games 1948—quarterfinals; NAAU champion 1948 [career: pro 8 wins, 3 losses, 1 draw; Utah Sports Hall of Fame 1977]
He never hurt me . . . but I probably never hurt him either.
Jay Lambert, speaking about Johnny Arthur, South African boxer who beat him in quarterfinal bout of 1948 Olympics
Jay Lambert, speaking about Johnny Arthur, South African boxer who beat him in quarterfinal bout of 1948 Olympics
Craig Lincoln (1950- )
Diving — 1971 Pan American Games: Silver Medal, 1972 Olympic Games: Bronze Medal Spring Board
Pat McCormick (1930- )
Diving — 1952 Olympic Games: Gold Medal Spring Board, Gold Medal Platform; 1956 Olympic Games: Gold Medal Spring Board, Gold Medal Platform [James E. Sullivan Memorial Award 1956, International Women’s Sports Hall of Fame 1984, International Swimming Hall of Fame 1965]
I don't know why, but I just loved to swim. My mother used to read tea leaves so she could get me a dollar to take the old Red Line trolley car to meets and downtown to the athletic club. I remember riding that trolley and being so hungry I could cry, but not having any money for food. I remember, when I was in little meets, my brother used to go along and give pennies to some of the kids in the stands to clap for me. That first Olympics, just going, is like your first kiss. I was so young. I remember Sammy Lee sitting around the deck with me, and guys like Bob Mathias and even Jesse Owens would come by and sit around. I really didn't understand what was going on, but it was right after the Russians Soviet Union got good, and we were neck and neck with them in the medals race. So Sammy and the guys would talk to me and calm me down and tell me, “Don't worry, Patsy, you'll do fine.” I was so naive, I had no idea what was going on. If the first time [getting a gold medal] was like your first kiss the fourth time was a sign that I could proceed with my life. I could finish school, be a wife.
Pat McCormick
Pat McCormick
John Mayasich (1933- )
Ice Hockey Center—Olympic Games: Silver Medal 1956, Gold Medal 1960 [Hockey Hall of Fame 1976]
Floyd Patterson (1935-2006)
Boxing Heavyweight—World Champion, Olympic Games—middleweight Gold Medal [career: 55 wins, 8 losses, 1 draw, 1952-72]
They said I was the fighter who got knocked down the most, but I also got up the most.
Floyd Patterson
Floyd Patterson
Watch a video clip of Patterson in a bout against George Chuvalo in 1965. Watch a video clip showing career highlights of Patterson with his commentary.
Dorothy Poynton Hill Teuber (1915-1995)
Diving—Olympic Games: (1928) Spring Board—Silver Medal; (1932) 33' Tower—Gold Medal; (1936) 33' Tower—Gold Medal, Spring Board—Bronze Medal [International Swimming Hall of Fame 1968]
Pete Rademacher (1928-2020)
Boxing Heavyweight--Olympic Games—1956 Gold Medal [career: 15 wins, 7 losses, 1 draw]
I knew that Rocky Marciano was retiring as the undefeated Heavyweight Champ. I knew that Cus D’ Amato, Doc Kearns and Archie Moore were going to get together with Floyd Patterson and fight for the vacant title. I thought that if I could win that Olympic Gold that I would have a shot to fight for the title. When I came home I called two friends who had some money. We called Cus and proposed the idea. He said it would take $250,000 guaranteed. We called back in two days, signed the contract, and went into serious training. I made one mistake in that fight; I knocked him down and made him mad. I was excited at first and then I thought STAY DOWN. But he got up and my amateur conditioning began to show and he KO’D me in the 6th. I think that had I been ten rounds once or twice in my life that I could have beat Patterson. Mechanically I was solid; I just didn’t have the stamina and endurance.
Pete Rademacher, on being the only man in boxing history to fight for the heavyweight title in his first pro bout
Pete Rademacher, on being the only man in boxing history to fight for the heavyweight title in his first pro bout
Billy Smith (1924-2013)
Swimming Freestyle—Olympic Games 1948: 400-meter freestyle—gold medal and 800-meter freestyle relay—gold medal [All-American 1941-49, International Swimming Hall of Fame 1966]
I went back to America to go to university in Boston and there I was coached by Billy Smith. If I said I was feeling tired on Tuesday he'd say, “See you on Thursday, then,” Billy had no mercy. He worked on the physical side of my performance . . . . Billy was incredibly insightful in picking the right workout for the day that would fit in with my progression and suit my body's capabilities. He could read me on the track, and if I seemed bright-eyed and bushy-tailed he'd suggest a tougher workout than if it was the morning after I'd written a paper through the night.
Pamela Coleman
Pamela Coleman
Bill Steinkraus (1925-2017)
Equestrian [1952 Olympic Games: Team Jumping Bronze Medal; 1960 Olympic Games: Team Jumping Silver Medal; 1964 Olympic Games: horse injured; 1968 Olympic Games: Individual Jumping Gold Medal; 1972 Olympic Games: Team Jumping Silver Medal]
Gary Tobian (1935- )
Diving—Olympic Games: (1956) Platform—Silver Medal; (1960) Spring Board—Gold Medal; (1964) Platform—Silver Medal [International Swimming Hall of Fame 1978]
Jeanne Wilson Vaughan (1926-2018)
Swimming Breaststroke— Olympic Games 1948: 200 Meter Breaststroke DNF
A four-time All-American, Wilson participated in the 1948 London Olympics, competing in the 100-meter breaststroke and on the U.S. medley relay team that won the event. Wilson was a holder of 10 American AAU records.
Henry Wittenberg (1918-2010)
Freestyle Wrestler—Olympic Games: 1948 – Freestyle Light Heavyweight: Gold Medal; 1952 – Freestyle Light Heavyweight: Silver Medal [National AAU champion 1941, 1943, 1944, 1946, 1947, 1948 and 1952, undefeated in over 300 consecutive matches between 1939 and 1951, National Wrestling Hall of Fame 1977, Jewish Sports Hall of Fame 1993]
Chris von Saltza (1944- )
Swimming Freestyle—Olympic Games 1960: 400 Meter Freestyle Gold Medal, 4x100 Meter Freestyle Relay Gold Medal, 4x100 Meter Medley Relay, 100 Meter Freestyle Silver Medal [International Swimming Hall of Fame 1966]