Osborn, Harold M.
Track and Field
b. April 13, 1899, Butler, IL
d. April 5, 1975
In 1924, Osborn became the only athlete to win a gold medal in the decathlon and an individual event at the same Olympics. He won the high jump with an Olympic record of 6 feet, 6 inches, and set a world decathlon record with 7,710.775 points. Earlier in the year, he had set a world high jump record of 6 feet, 8 1/4 inches.
Competing for the University of Illinois, Osborn tied for the NCAA and AAU outdoor high jump championships in 1922. He won the AAU outdoor title in 1925 and 1926, the indoor title four years in a row, 1923-36, and he was the AAU decathlon champion in 1923, 1925, and 1926. He also won the AAU indoor 70-yard hurdles in 1925.
Osborn also competed in the standing jumps, which are no longer contested. He won the AAU indoor standing high jump from 1929 through 1931 and was second in the standing broad jump in 1930. At the age of thirty-seven, Osborn set a world record of 5 feet, 6 inches in the standing high jump. That record has never been broken.