1928 Amsterdam Summer Games
3,014 Athletes, 46 Countries, 109 Events
With double the number of women that had competed at the 1924
Paris Games, an increase in nations, and the introduction of the
Olympic flame, the Amsterdam Games were poised to be successful.
Australian rower Henry Pearce epitomized this
success, when he stopped his boat in the middle of a quarterfinal
race to allow a family of ducks to cross his path. Pearce went on
to win the race, and eventually the gold medal.
Swimmer Albina Osipowich (Brown '33) won two
gold medals in Amsterdam. She set an Olympic record of 1:11.0 en
route to the gold in the 100-meter freestyle and helped set a world
record in the 4x100meter freestyle relay. It should be noted that
Osipowich is the League's first woman to participate in the
Olympics, though she was in high school at the time. Osipowich
continued to swim as a hobby at Brown. She later married Brown
hoopster Harrison Van Aken '36.
John S. Collier (Brown '29) won the bronze
medal in the 110-meter hurdles. Henry Russell
(Cornell '26) helped the United States equal a world record and win
the gold medal in the 4x100-meter relay. Frederick Morgan
Taylor (Dartmouth '25) followed up his 1924 gold medal in
the 400-meter hurdles with a bronze medal in 1928.
Sabin Carr (Yale) set an Olympic record of 139
1/4 in the pole vault to win the gold medal. In 1927, Carr had
become the first pole vaulter to clear 14 feet. B.V.D.
Hedges (Princeton '30) won the silver medal in the high
jump. The next track and field medal coming from a Princetonian
would come 64 years later, at the 1992 Barcelona Games.
The Amsterdam Games featured the Olympic debut of fencer
Norman Armitage (Columbia '30). Armitage didn't
learn to fence until the beginning of his undergraduate days. He
took this limited knowledge and extended it to its fullest
capacity, competing in six Olympics (1928, 1932, 1936, 1948, 1952,
and 1956). Were the 1940 and 1944 Games held and not cancelled due
to World War II, Armitage probably would have ended his career as
an eight-time Olympian. The current record for most Olympics
competed in is nine.
| Name |
School |
Sport |
| John S. Collier |
Brown University |
Men's Athletics |
| Lloyd Hahn |
Brown University |
Men's Athletics |
| Albina Osipowich |
Brown University |
Women's Swimming |
| Norman Armitage |
Columbia University |
Men's Fencing |
| John Anderson |
Cornell University |
Men's Athletics |
| Kenneth Caskey |
Cornell University |
Men's Athletics |
| Henry Russell |
Cornell University |
Men's Athletics |
| Frederick Morgan Taylor |
Dartmouth College |
Men's Athletics |
| Eugene Belisle |
Harvard University |
Men's Rowing |
| Forrester H. Clark |
Harvard University |
Men's Rowing |
| Allerton Cushman |
Harvard University |
Men's Rowing |
| James DeWolfe Hubbard |
Harvard University |
Men's Rowing |
| James Lawrence, Jr. |
Harvard University |
Men's Rowing |
| Charles E. Mason |
Harvard University |
Men's Rowing |
| Bernard E. Berlinger, Sr. |
University of Pennsylvania |
Men's Athletics |
| Jesse L. Montgomery |
University of Pennsylvania |
Men's Athletics |
| Harold A.R. Van Buskirk |
University of Pennsylvania |
Men's Fencing |
| Henry Breckenridge |
Princeton University |
Men's Fencing |
| B.V.D. Hedges |
Princeton University |
Men's Athletics |
| Sabin Carr |
Yale University |
Men's Athletics |
| Frank Connor |
Yale University |
Men's Athletics |
| Dernell Every |
Yale University |
Men's Fencing |
| John Huffman |
Yale University |
Men's Fencing |
| Fred Weicher |
Yale University |
Men's Athletics |
| Herman Whiton |
Princeton University |
Men's Sailing |