Sports History
Precious Medals
By Anne Madarasz

For over 100 years, athletes from around the world have come together to compete in the modern Olympics. This region has an over 80-year tradition of producing Olympic champions and attracting world-class athletes to train and compete on that world stage. On the track, in the pool, on the hardwood courts and grassy fields, Pittsburghers have earned the gold, silver, and bronze talismans of international sport.

The 1920s were a golden age for Olympic athletes and coaches. By 1920, track coach Hunter Johnson was training Olympic athletes Charles F. West, DeHart Hubbard, and Earl Johnson and the University of Pittsburgh had their first in a string of Olympians, Frank Shea.

Shea, an Irwin native, and Earl Johnson, who had raced for the Edgar Thomson Steel Co. team, both competed at the Antwerp Olympic games with Shea finishing fourth in the 400 meter race and also fourth in the 4x400 meter relay. Johnson became the first man with a local connection to medal in track and field, winning bronze in the 10,000-meter cross-country race at the 1924 Paris Olympics. The U.S. swimming coach in 1924, John Taylor, also hailed from this region. Son of an international champion oarsman, he had trained local swimmers and boxers. One of his notable champions was Johnny Weissmuller, who led the field in Paris winning three gold medals in the 100m and 400m freestyle, and the 4 x 200m freestyle relay (where the Americans set a world record.)

The 1920s and 30s would also be an era of dominance for the women swimmers who hailed from the Carnegie Library of Homestead Athletic Club. Trained by coach Jack Scarry, four women from the club, Jo McKim, Susan Laird, Anna Mae Gorman, and Lenore Kight Wingard, would make the Olympic teams of 1928, '32, and '36. McKim was the first to medal, taking bronze in the 400m freestyle in 1928, but Kight became the best known, competing in both 1932, where she lost gold in the 400m free by a fingertip to teammate Helene Madison and '36 where she captured bronze in the same race.

Connellsville's John Woodruff, a Pitt freshman, also competed in 1936 and stunned the world, winning gold in the 800-meter race in Berlin. Woodruff continued to run, adding consecutive NCAA titles each year at Pitt. The university also claims Olympic medalist Herb Douglas, who won bronze in 1948. Douglas, who attended Pitt on a football scholarship, won three national AAU championships and four IC4A titles in the long jump. At the London Olympics, Douglas's medal winning jump of 24'8 ¾", made him the first city resident to win an Olympic track and field medal.

A 1953 graduate of Schenley High School, Arnie Sowell finished fifth in the 800 meters at the 1956 Melbourne Olympics, but won gold as part of the 1,600-meter relay team. Pitt tasted Olympic gold again in 1980 when Roger Kingdom set an Olympic record with the time of 13.20 in the 110-meter hurdles. Four years later in Seoul, he again won gold, breaking his Olympic record at 12.98. In 1989, Kingdom set a new world record with the time of 12.92.

The region's track and field Olympians includes two women. Beaver Falls native Candy Young qualified for the 1980 Olympic team, but never competed as the United States boycotted the Moscow Games. Rochester's Lauryn Williams became the youngest woman to win 100-meter medal in 32 years when she captured silver at the 2004 Athens Olympics with a personal best time of 10.96 seconds. Pittsburgh women Suzie McConnell Serio and Swin Cash have also brought home gold, representing the U.S. in basketball. McConnell played in both the 1984 and '88 games, winning gold in the first and bronze on her return visit. Cash captured gold in the 2004 games.

Pittsburghers have also made their mark in other sports. Bud Fowkes, who took up archery in 1947, coached the U.S. team in the 1972 Munich games. Marred by terrorism, Fowkes had to lead his team onto the field just days after 11 Israeli athletes perished. In the first archery contest since the 1920 games, two Americans, John Williams and Doreen Wilbur won gold. Like those who came before him and since, Fowkes burnished championship sports legacy of the region.

Anne Madarasz is the Director of the Western Pennsylvania Sports Museum, which features the Olympians.