Διεθνές συνέδριο - Έκθεση Διεθνείς Ολυμπιακοί Αγώνες, Αθήναι 1906
Βόλος, 26 Φεβρουαρίου - 2 Μαρτίου 2004

επιστροφή

America’s Team at the 1906 Olympics

By
Elli Bambakidis, Archivist
Dayton Metro Library, USA and Canada

The United States was well represented not only at the first Modern Olympics in Athens in 1896, but also at the 1906 Athens Games. In the track and field events in 1906, for example, America had 31 athletes participating a larger representation than any of the other 19 countries represented with the exception of Greece. In all, America had 38 athletes competing in five sports.

The title of my talk refers to “Americas’ Team” because, for the first time, the American athletes regarded themselves as members of a team. They wore team uniforms, had a team manager, and looked and traveled together like a team. Their traveling expenses had been paid in part through voluntary contributions totaling $15,000 to an Olympic Fund established by the American Committee for the Olympic Games, whose Honorary President was President Theodore Roosevelt.

The American athletes were awarded a total of 24 medals, including 11 gold medals in track and field and one in swimming. Winners of the gold included George Bonhag, Charles Daniels, Ray Ewry, Archie Hahn, Robert Leavitt, James Lightbody, Paul Pilgrim, Meyer Prinstein and Martin Sheridan. America had had an enthusiasm for the Modern Games from their very beginning. Many of America’s medal winners in 1906 also competed in the 1900, 1904 or 1908 Games and one, Paul Pilgrim, was not originally selected for the team but paid his own expenses to Athens anyway and was allowed to represent his country in the 400m and 800m runs.

Although American History goes back only about 300 years, Americans are proud of their brief history, and Daytonians especially so. A century before the first Modern Olympics in 1896, the land around what is now Dayton was an unmarked spot in the wilderness. It was subject to flooding, and explorers and traders had largely passed by the location in search of other sites.

But in the spring of 1796, a few families founded Dayton. From the collections that I have processed at the Dayton Metro Library, I’ve learned that Dayton became an industrious town, and people made a name for themselves, most often in invention and commerce. For example, the mechanical cash register was invented by James Ritty in 1879, a Dayton restaurant owner who thought his bartender was cheating him. John Patterson, a Dayton industrialist, who established the National Cash Register Company, purchased his invention in 1883. This company went on to become the world’s largest manufacturer of mechanical cash registers. Patterson perfected the concept of the modern factory as well as the techniques of modern sales training.

Dayton was also a center for a significant American social movement, represented by the Woman Suffrage Society. This was a national movement, which began in 1867 to give women political equality with men, that is, the right to vote. Although it did not originate in Dayton, the city had an active chapter early on, when larger cities in Ohio, such as Columbus and Cincinnati, had none. Some of the Dayton members were prominent at the state and national level. The organization was in existence until suffrage was granted to woman by the 19th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution in 1921.

For Dayton, the first decade of the twentieth century was marked by significant individual achievements. The city became a center of activity for the manufacture of motorcars. The first of these, the Dayton Motor Car Company was established by John and Frank Stoddard in 1904. But Dayton will be forever linked with two brothers who in 1903 succeeded in what had, to that time, been only a dream: sustained powered flight in a heavier-than-air craft. Although Dayton was their hometown, Wilbur and Orville Wrights’ first flight was at Kitty Hawk, North Carolina, where they had spent three years experimenting with manned gliders. After 1904 the brothers never returned to Kitty Hawk for manned flights. They used 68 acres of land known as Huffman Prairie, located just outside Dayton, to continue their flying experiments.

In 1906 the Wright brothers received a patent for their flying machine. Ironically, on January 6, 1906, an article appeared in a Dayton newspaper in which Wilbur is quoted as saying, “No one will ever fly to the North Pole or cross Europe in a plane.” History proved that he underestimated what could be achieved through manned flight.

Also in 1906 in Dayton, the well-known poet Paul Laurence Dunbar died at the age of 31. He was born and raised in Dayton, and in literary circles was considered to be America’s leading - if not only – black poet. He was a high school classmate and friend of Orville Wright.

Dayton and Daytonians had been supporting amateur athletics for several years before 1906. In 1904, John Patterson, owner of the National Cash Register Company, allowed his employees to use part of his estate for exercise and physical activities. A gymnasium was established at his company and made available to all employees (which at that time numbered nearly 6,000 individuals).

Charles Daniels, born in Dayton on March 25, 1885 and raised there, was one of America’s star athletes at the 1906 Olympic Games in Athens, winning a gold medal in swimming in the 100 meter freestyle. I will say more about him later.

It’s worth mentioning that Dayton has been home to 10 medal-winning Olympic athletes through the years. All told, Dayton athletes have won 10 gold medals, 5 silver medals and 3 bronze medals.

I would like to focus on a few of the American team members at the 1906 Games, including Daniels and marathon winner William J. Sherring of Canada.

Raymond Clarence Ewry, born October 14, 1873 in Lafayette, IN, died September 29, 1937 in New York City.

He was stricken with poliomyelitis as a child but recovered through strenuous leg exercises. He developed enormous strength in his legs, relative to his bodyweight, and became the greatest standing jumper in the history of the sport. In the 1900, 1904, 1906 and 1908 Games, he won every standing jump event. His total of ten gold medals is an Olympic record, which will probably never be broken.

Mr. Ewry attended Purdue University from 1890 to 1897, obtaining a graduate degree in mechanical engineering while being captain of the track team and also playing football. After graduation he competed briefly for the Chicago Athletic Association before moving to New York, where he worked for the city as a hydraulic engineer and joined the New York Athletic Club.

Martin Joseph Sheridan, born March 28, 1881 in Mayo County, Ireland, died March 27, 1918 in New York City.

He came to America from Ireland at the age of seventeen and became the best all around athlete of his era. He participated in the 1904, 1906 and 1908 Games, and won a total of five gold medals (four in the discus and one in the shot put), three silver medals (standing high jump, standing long jump, and the stone throw), and one bronze medal (standing long jump). An injury forced him to withdraw from the pentathlon in 1906, and in 1908 he competed in the triple jump. His record of nine Olympic medals has been exceeded by only three other Americans. Mr. Sheridan, like many New York Irish-American athletes, was a New York City policeman and was assigned as bodyguard for the governor whenever the latter visited the city. He retired from competition in 1911 and died at a young age during the worldwide influenza epidemic of 1918.

Paul Harry Pilgrim, born in 1883 in New York City, died January 8, 1958 in White Plains, NY.

He competed for the New York Athletic Club. In the 1904 and 1906 Olympics he won three gold medals (4 mile team race, 400m run, 800m run). He is best remembered for his 1906 double victory in the 400m and 800m races, a feat not equaled until 1976. He had not originally been selected as a member of the American team, but made the trip to Athens at his own expense and was allowed to join the team at the insistence of the team manager. His inclusion was well justified by his two victories. In the 800m run he defeated the favored James Lightbody, his teammate, with a last second surge in a very close race. After retirement from active competition he served as Athletic Director of the New York Athletic Club from 1914 to 1953.

James Davies Lightbody, born March 15, 1882 in Pittsburgh, PA, died March 2, 1953 in Charleston, SC.

He attended the University of Chicago and later represented the Chicago Athletic Association. At the 1904 and 1906 Olympics he won four gold medals (800m run, 1,500m run twice), 2,590m steeplechase) and two silver medals (4 mile team race, 800m run). Lightbody’s second place finish in the 800m run in Athens came about at the last second when he was overtaken by Paul Pilgrim on the outside while he was looking around for his competition on the inside.

Charles Meldrum Daniels, born March 21, 1885 in Dayton, OH, died August 9, 1973 in Carmel Valley, CA.

In the 1904, 1906 and 1908 Olympics, Charles Daniels won five gold medals [(220 yard freestyle, 440 yard freestyle, 4 x 50 yard freestyle relay, 100m freestyle (twice)], one silver medal (100 yard freestyle), and two bronze medals (50 yard freestyle, 4 x 200m freestyle relay). His totals of eight Olympic medals and five gold medals have been exceeded by only Mark Spitz among American swimmers. His victory in the final of the 100m freestyle in 1906, on the fourth day of competition, was the first of the twelve gold medals won by America’s team that year.

Charles Daniels was the first great American swimmer and was a major influence on the development of that sport in the U.S. He perfected the Australian crawl and developed what is now called the freestyle breaststroke. He won a record 31 Amateur Athletic Union individual championships, and set world freestyle records at every distance from 25 yards to one mile. Daniels was actually a versatile athlete. At the turn of the century he was a national junior small-bore rifle champion and also the squash champion of the New York Athletic Club. In later life he was a top-ranked amateur golfer.

Daniels’ father, Thomas Porter Daniels, was an attorney whose own father was at one time a member of the New York State Supreme Court. His mother, the former Alice Meldrum, was the daughter of a dry goods store owner who had controlling interest in a company called Dayton Dry Goods. Thomas Daniels worked for this company, which was located in downtown Dayton. He married Alice Medlrum on June 19, 1884 in a lavish wedding in Buffalo, NY. Their return to Dayton on July 14, 1884, after their honeymoon, was heralded by an article on the society page of a Dayton newspaper. Charles was one of two children; the second child, also a boy, died in infancy.

It is not known how long the Daniels family lived in Dayton, but the business eventually vacated the city and the family moved to New York, where Charles enrolled in the Dwight Preparatory School. There he was a miler and high jumper and captained the basketball team. He also began to frequent the New York Athletic Club, where he became interested in swimming.

In a story Charles repeated several times to his grand-daughters, he told how he got into competitive swimming. He had read of the winning times in some 100 yard races held in New York City, and wondered if he could match those times. He measured off what he thought was a 100 yard course at Stony Creek Ponds in the Adirondack Mountains in eastern New York State and had himself timed. His times were comparable to the reported winning times, so he went back to New York City and entered a race at the New York Athletic Club. He was soundly beaten by the captain of the Yale University swimming team. Discouraged, he went back to his homemade course in the Adirondacks. He soon discovered it was only 90 yards long! He corrected the course and resumed practice, determined to get his time down to the competition. That was the “hook” that got him started.

When Daniels retired from swimming competition in 1911 at the age of 26, he held 53 national championships and had won 314 swimming medals and cups. In an interview sixty years later, he commented that while the current time records were considerably lower than the marks he set, one had to realize that training conditions were much different in his day. Swimmers competed wearing full-length suits with shoulder straps and with pants down to the knees. Also, meets were often held outdoors in bays and rivers, where conditions were much affected by the weather.

In 1909 Daniels was named Athlete of the Year by the Amateur Athletic Union. He was inducted into the Olympic Hall of Fame, the Swimming Hall of Fame, and the Helms Foundation Hall of Fame.

William John Sherring, born September 18, 1878 in Hamilton, Ontario (Can.), died September 5, 1964 in Hamilton, Ontario (Can.).

He won the gold medal in the marathon at the 1906 Games, the only Olympic Games in which he participated. Fifty three runners representing fourteen nations began the race. His victory provided perhaps the most memorable moment of the Games. He entered the Olympic Stadium on the last leg of the race wearing a battered hat and carrying his shoes. Prince George of Greece left the stands and ran with him for the final fifty meters to the applause of the crowd, as he had done ten years ago for Spyridon Louis. As with many of the athletes, the Canadians represented their country as a team for the first time in 1906. Although only three individuals participated for Canada, Sherring’s marathon victory made him an instant hero in his country and did much to promote amateur athletics there.

William “Billy” Sherring, a life-long resident of Hamilton, Canada, had been running competitively for eleven years, since the age of sixteen, before he won the Olympic marathon. He had been a leading long-distance runner with the Hamilton YMCA for seven years, had finished second in the 1900 Boston Marathon to Jack Caffery, also from Hamilton, and held the Canadian record for the 10-mile run. At the time of the Olympics he was running for the St. Patrick’s Athletic Club of Hamilton.

Sherring was a brakeman with Grand Trunk Railway and of limited financial means. The issue for him was raising enough money for the trip to Athens. The Canadians wanted to send two marathoners to Athens, Sherring and Jack Caffery. A proposal to raise money by a civic fund in Hamilton was vetoed by the City Council and a benefit concert raised only $75, not nearly enough for either man. Sherring was given the money. On a tip from a bartender friend, Sherring bet the $75 on a racehorse at six-to-one. The racehorse won, giving Sherring a stake of nearly $500. He quit his job and in February of 1906 was traveling third class on a cattle boat for Athens.

Sherring’s decision to go to Athens early was a wise one. He arrived at the end of February, a month before his Canadian teammates, while the American team did not arrive until April 19, three days before the start of the Games. The marathon was run on May 1st, giving Sherring two months to train in Athens. He was able to get acclimated to the food, the weather, and the course between Marathon and Athens, which he ran several times in practice. During his long stay he ran short of money and had to take a job at the railway station, carrying luggage for tips from the passengers. He wrote home complaining about having to pay $2.40 a day for board and extra for baths and light. A slightly built man, Sherring’s Spartan regimen caused him to lose over 20 lbs during his stay in Athens. The night before the race Sherring slept in a barn in Marathon. In the morning he awakened from his bed of straw among bleating animals and consumed a few eggs before his run.

The residents of Athens expected the winner to be a Greek, as in 1896, and local merchants promised a variety of gifts: a five-foot statue of Hermes (the messenger of the gods), free bread and coffee for a year, free shaves for life, and free dinners for the next ten Sundays. After the initial disappointment that one of their local heroes did not win, the Greek crowd quickly embraced Sherring’s victory and greeted him warmly everywhere he went. Although he didn’t receive the gifts originally promised the winner, he did receive his gold medal and a sprig cut from an olive tree in the sacred grove at Olympia, a marble statue of the goddess Athena, four silver cups, a young goat (the history books differ on this), and honorary Greek citizenship. He kept everything but the goat, which he gave to a local resident, who had befriended him during his stay. Of his accomplishment he said, “The reception I received enroute will never pass from my memory. There was a living wall on both sides of the road for every yard of the twenty miles. The Greek spectators, seeing their champion’s hopeless plight, cheered me every step of the way.”

Sherring received a hero’s welcome everywhere he went during his return to Canada, including stops in London, New York, Montreal and Toronto. The Montreal Amateur Athletic Association said Sherring had done more for athletics in Canada than anyone in the past ten years. The Hamilton City Council voted him a prize of $5,000. Interestingly, shortly thereafter, on May 30, 1906, Baron Pierre de Coubertin wrote a letter to the Governor General of Canada deploring the Canadian celebrations and gifts for William Sherring.

Sherring retired from competitive running after the 1906 Olympics, and worked in Hamilton as a customs officer until his retirement in 1942. After his death in 1964, the Around the Bay Road Race, the oldest long-distance road race in North America, was renamed the Billy Sherring Memorial Road Race.

The interest and enthusiasm for the Games shown by the athletes discussed here has continued to be a part of the American sports scene and of the Dayton-area in particular.

In addition to Charles Daniels, four other Dayton area individuals have won gold medals:

• Lucinda Adams (400m relay), 1960
• Bob Shul (5,000m run), 1964
• Bill Hosket (basketball), 1968
• Edwin Moses (400m hurdles), 1976

My online exhibit will provide additional information about these athletes.

Bibliography

Associated Press, and Grolier. Pursuit of Excellence: The Olympic Story. Dunbury, CT : Grolier, 1983.

Greenberg, Stan. The Guiness Book of Olympic Facts and Figures. Middlesex, UK : Guiness Superstatives Ltd., 1983.

Hugman, Barry J., and Peter Arnold. The Olympic Games: Complete Track and Field Results 1896-1988. New York, NY : Facts on File, 1988.

Mallon, Bill and Ian Buchanan. Quest for Gold: The Encyclopedia of American Olympians. New York, NY : Leisure, 1984.

Mallon, Bill. The 1906 Olympic Games: Results for All Competitors in All Events, With Commentary. Jefferson, NC : McFarland and Company, 1999.

Montgomery Picture File Collection, Local History Room, Dayton Metro Library.

Olympic Games Collection, Newspapers and Newspaper Clippings, Local History Room, Dayton Metro Library.

Ronald, Bruce W. and Virginia Ronald. Dayton: The Gem City. Dayton, OH : Larry P. Silvey and Douglas S. Drown, 1981.

Young, David. A Brief History of the Olympic Games. Malden, MA : Blackwell : 2004.

Young, David. Imagine that! Olympic Games in Greece!: Speech given at Columbia University. New York : Embassy of Greece, 2003.

Roxnorough, Henry. Canada at the Olympics. Toronto, Montreal, New York : The Ryerson Press, 1963.

Photos : The National Archives of Canada, Ottawa, Ontario at:

http://www.archives.ca/

The National Library of Canada, Reference and Information Services, Ottawa, Ontario. Martin Rubby, Archivist.