1932 Lake Placid Winter Games
307 Athletes, 17 Countries, 14 Events
This northern New York town beat Montreal and seven other U.S.
cities to host the 1932 Winter Games. With the stock market crash
that presumably caused the Great Depression taking place three
years prior, the organizing committee faced many fundraising
obstacles. The Games went on nonetheless, but with only 17 nations
and 252 athletes, a drop from the 25 countries that brought
competitors to the 1928 St. Moritz Games. Lake Placid would also be
the site of the Winter Olympiad in 1980.
Ten Ivy Leaguers on the silver medal-winning U.S. men's ice
hockey team for the first Lake Placid Games staged their own
mini-miracle, they were not pummeled by Canada. Captained by
John P. Chase (Harvard, 1928), the team made it to
the finals versus the Canadians, where they tied 2-2 in the first
game only to lose 2-1 in the second. Chase would go on to coach at
Harvard for several years. His Ivy League teammates on that squad
included Douglas N. Everett (Dartmouth, 1926),
John B. Garrison (Harvard, 1931), and
Winthrop H. 'Ding' Palmer (Yale, 1930), all three
of whom, as well as Chase, are enshrined in the U.S. Hockey Hall of
Fame.
The hockey team, however, was not the only pertinent Ivy League
story from the 1932 Games. The League saw some success in
bobsledding, with Robert Minton (Dartmouth, 1926)
teaming with John Heaton to win the bronze in the
two-man bobsled for the United States. Edward
Eagan (Yale, 1921) was a lightweight boxer for the United
States at the 1920 (Antwerp) and 1924 (Paris) Summer Games. He won
the gold medal in 1920. Twelve years later, Eagan was part of the
fourman bobsled team that won the gold medal at the 1932 Lake
Placid Games, making him the only man to win a gold medal in summer
and winter competition.
On the figure skating front, Crimson Sherwin C.
Badger (Harvard 1923) and James L. Madden
(Harvard 1933) skated for the U.S. with Badger winning silver for
the pairs competition with his partner, Beatrix
Loughran. Maribel Vinson (Harvard, 1933),
like Badger, returned to the Olympics and won a medal. She was
awarded the bronze for women's figure skating singles. The figure
skating and ice hockey competitions were in an indoorrink for the
first time in Winter Olympic history.
Finally, Dartmouth alum John A. Shea '34, would
prove to be the biggest story out of Lake Placid. A Lake Placid
native, Shea won gold medals in the 500-meter and 1,500-meter
speedskating events. He also read the Olympic oath at the opening
ceremonies. Shea had the chance to compete in the 1936
GarmischPartenkirchen Games, however he declined in protest of
Adolf Hitler's anti-Semitic policies. Despite that, Shea's name
still lingered. His son Jim competed in skiing events at the 1964
Innsbruck Games and his grandson Jim, Jr. won gold in dramatic
fashion in the skeleton race at the 2002 Salt Lake City Games,
making them the only three-generation Olympic family.
The U.S. won the medal tally at Lake Placid, 12 to Norway's
10.
| Name |
School |
Sport |
| Douglas N. Everett |
Dartmouth College |
Men's Ice Hockey |
| Robert H. Minton |
Dartmouth College |
Men's Bobsled |
| John A. Shea |
Dartmouth College |
Men's Speed Skating |
| Sherwin C. Badger |
Harvard University |
Men's Figure Skating |
| John P. Chase |
Harvard University |
Men's Ice Hockey |
| John B. Garrison |
Harvard University |
Men's Ice Hockey |
| George E.D. Hill |
Harvard University |
Men's Figure Skating |
| James L. Madden |
Harvard University |
Men's Figure Skating |
| Maribel Y. Vinson |
Harvard University |
Women's Figure Skating |
| Gerald Hallock, III |
Princeton University |
Men's Ice Hockey |
| Robert C. Livingston |
Princeton University |
Men's Ice Hockey |
| John Bent |
Yale University |
Men's Ice Hockey |
| John Cookman |
Yale University |
Men's Ice Hockey |
| Edward Eagan |
Yale University |
Men's Bobsled |
| Franklin Farrell |
Yale University |
Men's Ice Hockey |
| Francis Nelson |
Yale University |
Men's Ice Hockey |
| W. Hale Palmer |
Yale University |
Men's Ice Hockey |