Curtis, William B.
Track and field
b. Jan. 17 1837, Salisbury, VT
d. July 1, 1900
A founder of the New York Athletic Club in 1868, Curtis won the national hammer throw in 1876, 1878, and 1880, and he was the 56-pound weight throw champion in 1878.
Curtis has sometimes been called the "father of American amateurism" because he co-wrote the first formal definition of professionalism. In 1872, the so-called "Schuylkill Navy," an organization of rowing clubs from the Philadelphia area, banned many rowers from its regatta on the grounds that they were professionals because they made bets on their races, a common practice at the time.
A major controversy resulted and Curtis was asked to study the problem with James Watson, a Philadelphia newspaperman. They agreed that a professional is anyone who competes in the hope of winning any kind of cash prize. That definition was essentially accepted later by the Amateur Athletic Union and most other sports governing bodies.
Curtis died in a blizzard while climbing Mount Washington in New Hampshire with a friend.