1920s
Everette Bradley, 1920
Everette Bradley is the first KU athlete to compete in an Olympic games while still a student. Upon winning the silver medal in the pentathlon in Antwerp at the 1920 games, Bradley became known as “America’s premier athlete.” This was a surprise as he finished ahead of his fellow American teammates. Bradley was unable to compete in the decathlon due to a bad cold.
After the Antwerp Olympics, Everette Bradley returned to KU and served as the captain of the varsity track team in 1921 and 1922, having much success both years. Bradley was more than just an athlete. He elected Senior Class president on the Olympiad ticket in 1922 and also served on the football Stadium Reconstruction team in 1921.
_______________________________________________________________________
Paris 1924: The "Chariots of Fire Olympics"
Three of KU’s track stars represented the United States at the 1924 London Olympics, Merwin Graham, Emerson Norton, and Thomas “Tom” Poor. Overall, the US was the most successful nation in track and field, or athletic, events, winning 32 medals. The 1924 Paris Olympics is now mostly associated with the 1981 British film Chariots of Fire, which won the Oscar for Best Picture. The film chronicles experience of track athletes Eric Liddell and Harold Abrahams of Great Britin during the Olympics.
_______________________________________________________________________
Merwin Graham, 1924
Merwin Graham, two-time captain of the KU track team, competed in multiple track events, including the broad jump, hurdles, mile relay, and the hop, step, jump (triple jump) a couple of times. He was the leading US qualifier for the triple jump at the Olympic trials. Graham placed 9th in the triple jump finals in Paris. He returned to KU and had another successful track season in 1925. After college, Merwin Graham worked for Mobil Oil for 36 years.
_______________________________________________________________________
Emerson Norton, 1924
Emerson Norton, KU Class of 1923, continued to compete in Armature Athletic Union (AAU) track events during and after obtaining a law degree from Georgetown University. In the 1924 Paris Olympics, Norton won the silver medal in the decathlon. Emerson Norton worked as lawyer for the Air Defense Command and the Department of Defense.
_______________________________________________________________________
Tom Poor, 1924
Earing the nickname “the Kansas grasshopper” during his time at the University of Kansas, Thomas Woodson Poor competed as a high jumper at KU from 1921 to 1925. During his time at Kansas, he won the Missouri Valley Conference championship three times and won the 1923 NCAA Championship with a jump of 6 feet and 1 inch. Poor also competed in the first ever Kansas Relays, where he won the inaugural high jump event with a jump of 6 ¼ feet. Poor’s college success and hard work eventually led him to the Olympics. He competed at the Olympic trials in Boston and took first place in the high jump.
Armed with a camera and a University of Kansas sweater that was gifted to him by former (and future) basketball coach Phog Allen, to “spread the gospel (of) the University of Kansas”, Poor eventually boarded a ship in New York and crossed the Atlantic to compete in the 1924 Paris Olympics. In a postcard sent to his brother George, said he was having a “whale of a good time” on the voyage. Though he was a favorite to win, Poor placed fourth in the high jump event, beaten out of the top three by two fellow Americans and a French athlete, although he still received a medal.
