Track & field
b. Sept. 28, 1887, Detroit, MI
d. May 8, 1975
A long-time spokesman for pure amateurism in the Olympics, Brundage graduated in 1909 from the University of Illinois, where he was on the track team. He continued his athletic career after graduation, finishing sixth in the 1912 Olympic decathlon and winning the national AAU championship in the all-around, an event similar to the decathlon, in 1914, 1916, 1918.
One of the original members of the American Olympic Association (AOA) in 1921, he became president of the organization in 1928 and he also served as president of the AAU from 1928 through 1932.
An idealist who believed that the Olympics should be above politics, Brundage had his first taste of major controversy in 1935, when there was a move to boycott the 1936 Berlin Olympics because of Nazi anti-Semitism. In a widely publicized statement, he blamed the move on "radicals and Communists," and the AAU decided to accept the Olympic invitation by a narrow vote.
In 1937, Brundage became a member of the International Olympic Committee's executive board. He came up with the idea for the Pan-American Games the same year. After a number of meetings with Latin-American leaders, the games were scheduled for 1942, but World War II forced their cancellation. Brundage revived the idea when the war was over and the first Pan-American Games were held in 1951 in Buenos Aires.
Brundage became president of the IOC in 1952. During the next twenty years, he fought to keep the Olympics free of any taint of professionalism. His stance was at first popular but, as time went on, it became less popular; by the time he resigned from the IOC after the 1972 Olympics, he was perceived as something of a dinosaur even by others in the Olympic movement.
In his last major act as IOC president, Brundage decreed that the 1972 Munich Games should go on after a day of mourning for eleven Israeli athletes who were murdered by Arab terrorists.
National Track and Field Hall of Fame
Olympic Hall of Fame
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