McGrath, Matthew J.
Track and Field
b. Dec. 18, 1878, Nenagh, Ireland
d. Jan. 29, 1941
One of the "Irish whales," most of them New York policemen, who excelled as weight throwers in the early part of the twentieth century, McGrath came to the United States when he was twenty-one.
He didn't win his first national championship until he was thirty-seven, but he went on to win thirteen national titles and he competed in four Olympics, winning three medals.
McGrath was the AAU national hammer throw champion in 1908, 1912, 1918, 1922, 1925 and 1926. He won the 56-pound weight throw in 1913, 1916, 1918, and from 1922 through 1925. He won a silver medal in the hammer throw at the 1908 Olympics.
The 5-foot-11, 240-pound McGrath set a world record of 40 feet, 6 3/8 inches in 1911 and he also had a world record hammer throw of 187 feet, 4 inches that year.
At the 1912 Olympics, McGrath dominated the hammer throw. The shortest of his six throws was 173 feet, 4 inches. His best throw, 179-6, was an Olympic record until 1936. Duncan Gillis of Canada won the silver medal with a throw of only 158-9.
An injured knee forced McGrath to withdraw from the 1920 Olympics after only two attempts and he finished fifth in the hammer throw, but he won a silver medal in the event in 1924. He was so popular among New York Irish-Americans that they raised money for him to go to the Amsterdam Olympics in 1928 after he failed to qualify for the U. S. team. McGrath did sail to Amsterdam, but he wasn't allowed to compete.